No surprises here, the AL ED Board wants us to get behind the task force;
The task force that’s preparing recommendations for a proposed events center is doing several things right.
Is being ‘vague’ doing things right? I have always thought when people are short on details they are trying to pull a fast one.
But perhaps the most significant steps the task force is taking are its efforts to build a coalition to lobby the Legislature for a much-needed financing tool.
The task force seems to recognize that its hard labor in researching specs for an entertainment venue that best fits Sioux Falls’ needs is practically useless unless the city can pay for construction.
To make that happen, Sioux Falls leaders need to partner with other municipalities that also need the flexibility to raise taxes to build various projects.
This has always been my biggest beef with the Events Center, I really don’t care where they build it or how big it is (well I do, but those are minor deets) How are we gonna pay for it? As councilor Staggers has said, the legislature will never let SF raise retail taxes to pay for this place, and I can guarantee the voters will not approve it either. The economy is shit, and the last thing people want is to pay more taxes on food and essential services to build an entertainment facility we do not need. This is a money maker for the city, not for the citizens, and it could not be more freaking obvious.
Eventually, Sioux Falls-area legislators – or even the next governor – will need to become intricately involved in getting taxing authority approved during the next legislative session.
Still, the task force’s lead effort is a welcomed boost
Where can I pick up my Argus Leader official barf bag?
Agreed. It will make a lot of money for a few citizens, though. Namely, the ones running the development companies that also have links to the city council.
But yeah, I mean, the Washington Pavilion has been super profitable. I can’t believe how much money they’re bringing in with that cash cow! Oh wait… That was Bizarro Sioux Falls.
This is what happens when the tail wags the dog, I guess.
Fondly Yours,
Hey, that particular Shit sandwich you speak of is the EggBert Family’s favorite meal (next to the footlong weiner and Turkey Turd Onion Blossom) – so lay off the wise and industrious events center task force. They are just trying to find the shit sandwich a new home. We sheepish good citizens of Sioux Falls will gladly cough up our rainy-day, life-long savings to attend our favorite BIG singer Sensations in concert in our soon-to-be new maximum-sized more expensive than Sewer City Iowa’s arena – we don’t want to drive there to see our beloved John Q. Tush & Hanna PrePubes Banana conerts anymore!!!
EggBert & Rockin’ Granny “Peter Crampton” Gumption & Neighbors Jed/Ned “Alice Pooper” Nugent
If you read the interview with Baloun and Woster, it kind of sounds like they wanted to ditch the B & B tax because it wouldn’t pay off the place fast enough, which I don’t understand. If the place is going to be around for 50 years, who cares how long it will take to pay it off? That and they claim the convention center will have 3 times the business, sounds like plenty of revenue to pay off bonds to me. Their idea that the retail tax will pay it off faster may be true, but it is extremely flawed. They claim that after the place is paid for the tax will go away (1 cent). Hogwash. Taxes never ‘go away’ The city will just find something else ‘they need’ to spend that money on. I will fight this place tooth and nail if they don’t pay for it with a B & B tax.
The way they’re trying to do it, I don’t really care if they get their way or not.
They already screwed the pooch with the location, and now they’re coming back for sloppy seconds with funding.
This thing will go down in flames.
At one of the meetings, they pissed on the Downtown location because they didn’t want to operate two different facilities. Now, they are proposing what? Two fucking facilities!
I also like how they don’t want to put a number on it anymore, as they learned that folks tend to notice when you make a $10 to $70 million jump in budget.
You’ve got a cool billion dollars of new development looking to go in downtown, and it needs a shot to jump start it. Sure the usual suspects are there, but so are some other folks who are looking to do it right.
What exactly will go in next to the new concrete box? A new hotel and with a restaraunt. Yaaaay. And in the end we will have the same problem, all our entertainment & sporting eggs in one basket that will still be nothing our competing cities can’t easily deal with and sell against.
And 4 new restaurants will open downtown by the end of the month.
And a barber shop that offers shaves and shoe shines too.
Their idea that the retail tax will pay it off faster may be true, but it is extremely flawed. They claim that after the place is paid for the tax will go away (1 cent). Hogwash. Taxes never ‘go away’ The city will just find something else ‘they need’ to spend that money on. I will fight this place tooth and nail if they don’t pay for it with a B & B tax.
~l3wis
You got that right. It’s simply not going to fly in it’s present form.
BTW. It was a good to finally put a couple of faces to the posters here.
Lucky for you Warren, Hos and I are the best looking contributors 🙂
Yeah, not sure what freaking dream world the task force members are living in. Doesn’t surprise me when it comes to Baloun and Entenmann, but I taught Woster was more practical then that.
I heard on a newscast last week that there is talk about having an event center with the big casino being planned across the border in Iowa. If that happens and Sioux Falls has one, wouldn’t the two be kind of close together?
Red-
I think what they meant was a convention center like place. When you are talking $110 million for a casino/golf course/hotel/parking and event space for that price ticket it can’t be much.
I can’t wait to apply to work at the place, I also have an art collector friend who has been trying to get me to buy his house in Larchwood, I might become an Iowegian after all.