I didn’t know about back taxes, honestly!
There is a lot of words I have used to describe city government (oh boy) but I think the most pertinent word is ‘predictable’.
Some prominent Sioux Falls developers and businesses owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in back property taxes, and county officials are at odds over how to collect millions in missing revenue.
Why? Because several of them have political ties (we’ll get to that in a bit).
John Pekas says the County Commission should consider a policy allowing the county to sell tax certificates. Those certificates are bought by third parties – typically investors – who then are in line to take possession of a property if its tax bills remain in arrears.
But that position puts Pekas at odds with other Minnehaha County officials. In the long run, they argue, the local governments that rely on property taxes make more money when the county deals with the issue in-house.
Of course it does. If you follow city, county or state government even minimally you will know that business rules the roost, and even more when those same businesses either fund campaigns or have partners of their companies sitting on elected commissions. (the irony of all this is, not only is John’s idea a good one, he was one of the few Republicans I have voted for in the past election – go figure).
But the story gets hotter than a steaming dog turd from a Great Dane;
In Lincoln County, three development companies called Arctic Land Investment, Site 2 Inc. and Site 12 Inc. had outstanding property tax bills of more than $104,000 at the end of last year. Investors in the development companies include Sioux Falls City Councilor Greg Jamison and his father, former City Councilor Bob Jamison.
Greg Jamison said last week he has a 4 percent share in the family businesses and he has no managerial responsibilities. He said he was unaware of the back taxes.
Sure . . . .
First off, Greg, you cheerleed for developers on the council every chance you get, secondly, the only f’ing reason you have your seat is because of dear old dad and name recognition and thirdly your wife works for the very company that owes these taxes. Either you know about the back taxes or you are dumber then I originally thought.
This goes back to my whole ‘conflict of interest’ issue with city councilors. They should have none, period. What is the solution? Well you can pass campaign finance laws like they are going out of style, won’t change shit (Munson got elected to a second term by skirting the law and playing(?) dumb). The best way to eliminate these conflicts? Publicly fund elections so people with the best interest of the people get elected and not cheerleaders and drama queens.