Let’s stick with ‘trickle down’ economics Sioux Falls

I did not attend the 1st Annual Sioux Falls Economic Forum dreamed up by the City Council’s official Drama Queen, Greg Jamison, but did find some interesting details in the news blip about it;

The two-hour discussion was united on the principle that even in a national economic recession, Sioux Falls needs to press forward with infrastructure improvements, an event center, river corridor development, affordable housing and strategic planning for economic development.

They just can’t talk about Sioux Falls and growth without getting a plug in about the Event Center. Tell you what, the discussion should have centered around how all these city business ‘leaders’ intend to raise money for it – because you ain’t bilking the regular joe this time for your playground.

“Part of the reason for doing it like this is there is no place to hide. Accountability is here,” he said. “I’ve got my marching orders.”

I guess Greg’s father, General Jamison is back! Hey, Bob, stay retired, your old skool trash talk hasn’t been missed at the council meetings. I was puzzled by the ‘accountability’ statement though. Were you voting on something Greg that the public didn’t know about? Shooting the shit with a bunch of community business leaders is hardly ‘accountability’. Stepping out of votes when you have clear conflicts of interest is.

City Councilor Bob Litz said he was intrigued by a proposal to encourage real estate projects by incrementally stepping in real estate taxes on new buildings over five years, instead of imposing the full tax rate at once.

That’s a great idea Bob, make young families with new homes pay a majority of property taxes! They can afford it! And let the developers trickle down their savings to the rest of us! If I have to pay the full tax rate as a new homeowner, so do developers. I don’t get this giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people in our city in hopes they will trickle down low wages to us. I suppose that was discussed at the meeting to . . .

Curt Everson, president of the South Dakota Bankers Association, said that one way to increase capital for local investment is for government entities in the state to deposit their money in South Dakota banks.

I see at least someone with a brain showed up to the event.

Stormland TV also put in their 2 cents;

“We need to continue to grow in the city, we need to be visionary, and we have to have the leadership at the city level,” Jim Entenman, J&L Harley, said.

I couldn’t agree more Jim, I’m waiting for leadership that centers around citizens, not just businesses that sell overpriced American motorcycles. When the average Joe’s paycheck in Sioux Falls isn’t growing it’s kinda hard to milk him for more money to continue to grow the city. There has to be an alternative plan besides just raising retail taxes and user fees everytime we WANT something. It’s time Sioux Falls implements a corporate tax.

By the end of the session, everyone added ideas and voted on the top priorities for the City Council to consider. Those are:
1. Improving infrastructure
2. Working on the Greenway project and other events
3. Working on Economic Development
4. Creating Affordable Housing,
5. Easing regulatory restrictions
6. Creating a discretionary formula for the Real Estate Tax

As you can see, #6 is now a priority. I guess developers want to continue to see Sioux Falls grow, they just don’t want to pay their fair share of that growth. Go figure. The ironic part about the rest of the list is that those goals are the same as any other city our size that is growing. Once again, nothing original or progressive – just business as usual.

And the best idea from the session didn’t even make the list;

Some specific suggestions included having some private businesses take over some of the public works projects,

This is what other cities do instead of asking citizens to pay for ‘extras’ they get the business community to pony up – great idea.