I talked to a Republican businessman last night about what might be happening in Pierre next year, and two things stuck out;
– A law may be passed to allow 19 yr. olds to drink in beer joints
– Rounds would probably veto any legislation that would allow cities to increase the sales tax
He told me that many legislators are for lowering the drinking age (Dems and Repubs). Eleven other states have done it. But it has to be specific. 19-20 yr. olds would only be allowed to drink beer AND they could not purchase beer off-sale. I guess it is a loophole with Federal highway funding.
And as I mentioned before, the state will probably not give cities the power to raise retail taxes, unless they come to some agreement like letting the state to raise taxes at an equal amount, which we could see our taxes as high as 8%. We’ll see what happens. My prediction is that there would be a citizen uprising and the increase proposal won’t even make it out of committee. Which leaves us at square one, once again with the Event Center.
I still think the council and mayor should just raise the bed and booze tax and start building the damn thing already.