South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2009

Socialized Healthcare

Here comes the healthcare debate crazies

l3wis 10Comments

star_of_life

Of course only in South Dakota would we have people against saving Americans, hospitals and employers billions on healthcare;

As Dean spoke, Melvin VandenTop, 53, of Sioux Falls stood to protest the hearing as a tool to squeeze certain Americans out of needed care.

“This is genocide!” he shouted.

The only thing that is genocide is the millions of Americans each year who die or suffer from the lack of having proper healthcare.

Barry Zachariahs, 55, listened to speakers at the Terrace Park rally.

 

“Overall we have a system that has worked well,” he said. “Why do we have to go and have a virtual government takeover of it?”

Hey, Barry, can I have some of that Medical Mary Jane you are smoking? Of course, the BS gets deeper, when you have a doctor who is in private practice and owns his own clinic opposed to it. Dr. Curd who would probably lose millions in profits each year due to a National Healthcare System had this lie to spread at a kook rally yesterday;

“Do we change the entire system for 7 percent of the population?” He asked.

BAHAHAHAHA! Nice figure, “DR.” I found this story about poverty basically proving Curd is full of shit;

Sioux Falls-based Voices for Children says 33,000 people younger than 18 – or 17 percent of all children in South Dakota – live below the federal poverty line of $21,027 for a family of four.

Yeah, I suppose all of them are receiving world-class healthcare? The only thing that is leading these rallies against National Healthcare is greed.

Governor Moose Drool

Governor Moose Drool continues to entertain

l3wis 7Comments

sarah-palin-0908-01

Sarhoid, please go away. PLEASE! – Illustration by Risko.

The Vanity Fair story is probably gonna be bigger then the Letterman thingy, I’m guessing. I liked this part (H/T-Mudflats):

But the part that really surprised me, and the thing that Alaska bloggers and others routinely discuss that hasn’t been discussed much out in the open is Meghan Stapleton, the spokesperson for SarahPAC.

But just months into its existence the pac‘s chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin’s political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser.

I like to think of Stapleton, (who has earned the monikers “Stapletongue,” “Staplegun,” and “Meg the Mouth”) as a guest at a picnic who sees an insect on the food table, and without hesitating, lets off a Banshee scream and pounds the thing into oblivion with an overhead swing of a sledgehammer.  Guests may or may not realize later, as they all pitch in to clean up the mess,  that it was a butterfly. 

Event Center

The Event Center Task Force; Three Strikes, you are out!

l3wis 2Comments

dykhouse

Just one of the several “If we build it, they will come” boneheads that sit on the EC Task Force. I think we will pass on the advice from a fee harvesting thief that will soon be looking for a new job.

It’s time to replace the Event Center Task Force. They have it wrong on three fronts and no one seems to be calling them out on it until now. Scotty Hudson found this quote;

My new hero is Stampede chief executive officer Gary Weckwerth. Sure, he differs with me in that he does want a new facility built. At least he’s realistic about the city’s draw, saying that a 15,000 seat building is “monstrous for this community…I don’t want to see them over-build and have this big animal that sits empty and doesn’t work for the teams that play there”, he told the Argus. “Over the last 50 years, have we really outgrown the Arena that we have? The amenities and quality of it…is gone. But from a simple seat perspective, we have not outgrown the Arena as it sits today. And we never will.” Please, Mr. Weckwerth, run for Mayor.

Gary is right.  Not only is the plan too big, but the location has no entertainment infrastructure and funding it thru charging people more taxes on essential goods like food and utilities is assinine. But the task force doesn’t seem to get it;

Dykhouse and Woster said the task force still prefers a facility that seats more.
“I can’t see us going over 15,000, but I can’t see us going below 12,000,” Woster said.
“This isn’t about five to 10 years from now. This is about 25 or 30 years. We want to look 40 years down the road.”

Originally when I was still against the new Event Center my argument always was, “We don’t book the 7,000 seat Arena at capacity now, what makes us think we can book one twice the size?” Since the recession, that I believe will take the country 5-10 years to truly recover from, people have been finding different ways to spend their entertainment dollars. And buying $120 concert tickets isn’t one of them.

It’s time we fire the task force and start from scratch, again. Maybe the 3rd time is a charm.

Citizens for Reponsible Sales Tax Sioux Falls

The Retail Tax increase ruse is finally revealed

l3wis 0Comments

salestax

Last year when the Sioux Falls city council voted to raise our retail taxes they said it was for new arterial roads. They argued the extra .08% would raise $5 million for new roads and platting fees paid by developers would pay the other $5 million. A 50/50 partnership, so to speak. In recent months, I assume to downplay our tax petition, the city started to say it was going to be a 40/60 partnership instead, with the developers paying the 60%.

Well the numbers are in, and they ain’t even close to what the city is claiming. Since the tax increase took effect January 1, 2009, the extra .08% in retail taxes has collected about $1 Million dollars. In five months. Obviously it will have to pick up a bit to reach the $4 million dollar goal by the end of the year. But the alarming number is how much the developers have put in the kitty since January 1st. Let’s just say I rewinded the audio three times when finance director Eugene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst mumbled the amount at yesterday’s informational meeting; $8,000 dollars! Nope, you heard right, not $800,000 dollars, $8,000 in five months!  I think the Boy Scouts could raise more than that in just one week selling popcorn.

I said this tax increase was a ruse from the beginning to max out our taxes, it had nothing to do with building those roads. And if the developers are going to chip in 60% to build arterial roads, they better turn it up a notch, because at that rate, they won’t have enough money to build one block let alone several streets.

As usual, Sioux Falls taxpayers will have to pony up 90% of the money for the roads. And as usual, Munson’s administration misled and lied to the public to raise our taxes.

Shameful.

ANOTHER THING THAT WAS BROUGHT UP, in the meeting by Rowenhorst was how much of our Capital Improvement fund goes toward debt service (paying interest and principal on bonds); 22%. Just imagine all the roads we could fix if we weren’t throwing those millions away on interest payments? By rough estimates I’m guessing we pay about $25 million in interest/principal payments a year, just on our CIP projects. Ironically, Eugene bragged that 22% was a good number, he said the city’s credit rating could allow us to be paying 44% out in debt service.

Where do they get these clowns anyway? Oh that’s right Rowenhorst and Munson worked for Citibank, that explains it all.

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