South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2009

Citizens for Reponsible Sales Tax

It's NOT about WHO filed the petition, it's about the PETITION itself, stupid

l3wis 2Comments

Tales of the Riverbank download

salestax

Shocked! The Argus Leader Editorial board figured it out;

This isn’t about the merits of Citizens for a Responsible Sales Tax’s argument that Sioux Falls should lower its sales tax from 6 percent to 5.9 percent.

Government’s responsiveness to the many constituencies it serves should not be tied to whether those in the seat of power agree or disagree with a particular philosophy.

No matter how distasteful or inexpedient our public officials might find the citizens group’s anti-City Hall stance, the group has the same rights to clear and concise answers that those with a lot more money and political clout have.

Uh, we are not anti-city hall, we are against politicians that don’t represent us and put special interests first. It is blatantly obvious that the tax increase was about paying back special interest campaign contributers. Pay to play is perfectly legal in South Dakota, it’s unethical, but legal. So as citizens petitioning their government, we should be afforded the same rights.

It’s clear that signatures older than six months can’t be counted, so that seems to indicate some implied six-month deadline.

However, City Attorney Robert Amundson says he hasn’t studied the issue and indicates that he doesn’t plan to until the group files its petitions.

“I don’t represent her (Stehly). As soon as I get it done, I am ready to discuss it,” he said, referring the group’s co-chairwoman Theresa Stehly.

That’s appalling.

This is not a chess match. City officials should formulate an answer to the group’s question about the deadline and tell them that answer.

You are right BOB, you don’t represent Theresa, but you do represent citizens that support this, or at least democracy for that matter. You are trying to personalize this when you know it is simply about the law and answering an election question. You couldn’t make it more clear you are gearing up for a legal challenge.

I find it almost ridiculously comical that the Secretary of State can answer a simple question to the media and the citizens without himming and hawing, but a lowly city attorney appointed by his best friend can’t answer a simple question. Makes you wonder if BOB is playing games, or just doesn’t really know the answer – would seem kind of strange (and scary) for an ex-judge.

obama South Dakotans

Do we really care what the SD GOP has to say anymore?

l3wis 4Comments

David Kranz from the Argus Leader wrote an article today about Obama’s approval ratings in South Dakota. As you will see the SD GOP is still bitter about the loss, and even go so far to make stuff up;

Lora Hubbel, a Sioux Falls Republican, says the best indicator she has on how Obama is doing is the national debt, which has dramatically increased under Obama’s short tenure.

“Now it has like quadrupled the debt Bush had … and I was upset, too, with the debt in the Bush administration,” Hubbel said.

Really? Bush racked up $10 trillion, Obama has racked up about $1 trillion. Please explain your fuzzy math. There must me some mind controlling isotopes in the tea you are drinking.

And King Rounds adds his 2 cents worth of cynicism;

“The question is will the effort bring short-term relief but permanent pain to generations of Americans who will wind up paying the bill?

Nope. He will raise taxes on the rich and have this thing paid off in 5-10 years. That has been the plan all along. And that’s probably why many of Dave Knudson’s rich buddies at the lastest soiree he attended wer concerned;

“I think there is a lot of concern from people I talk to, particularly at Republicans’ Lincoln Day Dinners, a concern about the size of the deficit, a big concern that inflation is going to be coming back with a vengeance because of deficit spending,” Knudson said.

“Yeah Dave, I have been skirting my fair share taxes this past 8 years and now Obama wants to raise them. I’ll help you mislead the average Joe anyway we can. That’s what us Republicans are good at.”

Because Gawd knows they don’t want to face the reality that their BOY handed Obama a big shit sandwich;

As the administration moves forward, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., says it’s important to remember that Obama inherited two wars, a massive debt and an economy facing the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

And then Ironic Johnny chimes in with more of his bullshit;

“President Obama is facing a number of challenges across the board and an economic crisis of escalating proportions. I am very concerned with the amount of taxpayer dollars that have been spent since the first of this year to address these problems,” Thune said.

“This record spending is all being borrowed from countries like China, and this debt, with its record levels of interest, will need to be repaid by our children and grandchildren.”

Yeah, John, didn’t see you on KELO TV every other day crying about all the borrowing Bush was doing. Oh, that’s right, it was okay to borrow money as long as your rich buddies were getting tax cuts, but now that they have to pony up, it’s a travesty.

SD Republicans prove once again, their opinions don’t matter. The party of no.

Redistricting Sioux Falls

Fair redistricting or political games? Not sure.

l3wis 2Comments

Okay, I know this week I said it didn’t matter, but I am starting to get more suspicious after reading a letter against the proposal in the Gargoyle Leader today and even more suspicious after seeing who makes up the committee members.

The bounderies have never concerned me until Mary Glenski pointed this out in her letter;

It did seem strange that the original option L would take away precincts from the Northeast District (4-2 and 4-3) and then add another (3-4) instead when the Northwest District was already low in numbers.

Keeping precincts 4-2 and 4-3 where they now are in the Northeast District enables Precinct 3-4 to be moved to the Central District, which also needs to increase its numbers.

Mary points out early in her letter that the option they rejected and she was for would basically keep the population in each district close to equal. But the options they are proposing would make the populations uneven. So some council members would have to serve more people than others. There are advantages and disadvantages to that I guess, but is it fair? Not sure. And what are the members motives for doing it this way?

I also get more suspicious when I see who the commission members are;

  • Susan M. Sabers (Chair)
  • Roger Berggren
  • Vance Goldammer
  • Elaine Roberts
  • Joel Rosenthal

Mary points out in her letter;

The charter only requires that “no more than three members may belong to the same political party,” and the districting commission membership complied with this provision.

Yet there are three members who belong to the Republican party. Technically it doesn’t matter what political party the chair belongs to, so why couldn’t this person be a registered independent? She is Republican that is very active in the party.

The other thing that concerns me is that they are all very politically active and given a lot of time and money to their respective parties, that’s what makes this political.

They are all armchair politicians in one way or another even if they are not holding a political office currently.

I can’t understand why it is so hard to appoint members to commissions in Sioux Falls that don’t make everything ‘political’. I find it amusing that they would think this is a ‘fair’ and ‘balanced’ commission with absolutely NO independents on the commission. I also find it humorous that I get accused of ‘playing political games’ with my tax petition when I have been a strong advocate of keeping the drive nonpartisan with many liberals, conservatives and independents supporting the cause. I am an independent who is a strong advocate of keeping party politics out of politics, especially when it comes to serving citizens rights such as taxes and redistricting.

What color is the kettle of the redistricting committee? That answer concerns me.

Young Professionals

Dammit! How could I have missed this?!

l3wis 6Comments

Because there ain’t nuttin’ funner then hanging out with a bunch of wannabe young professionals. And when you are done drinking your glass of reisling you can go home watch Survivor and pretend that life is just ‘swell’ in Sioux Falls.

Mendelson, who works for Raven Industries, joined the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Network during a kickoff event Wednesday night at Cherapa Place.

 

“There aren’t a lot of opportunities for young professionals in Sioux Falls,” Mendelson, 22, says. “It’s nice to meet people with the same interests.”

That’s because there isn’t a lot of professional jobs for young people in Sioux Falls, unless you are willing to work your ass off.

“When you think about the Sioux Falls community, one of the major reasons that our community is successful is that people volunteer their time and are willing to get involved in what this community has to offer, whether it is the United Way or another nonprofit,” says David Fleck, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors.

Community Successful? I guess I do agree with one point of that, volunteerism is high in Sioux Falls, and for the most part, people are hardworking and proud people, so yes, I would consider that a success, but the low wages the business community pays only spells ‘success’ for the people who own those businesses not the people they employ.

The Christmas Toy video Amanda Taggart, 25, listed the benefits of attending as “seeing other opportunities, getting your name out there and meeting other people that want the same thing as you.”

I guess I would have agreed with Amanda about 8 years ago. I wanted to be a ‘young professional’ but I soon found out that unless you play the reindeer games, kiss ass and keep your individulism and political opinions to yourself you won’t make it in Sioux Falls as a ‘young professinal’ I even had a freelance client tell me if I kept my ‘liberal’ opinions to myself I would have many more oportunities and success. I told him I preferred being happy over being rich or successful.

So put on your D & G sunglasses and drink your Morgan Cokes while climbing the corporate ladder, I would rather be poking eyes then kissing asses. Though I do think it would be fun to attend one of these events wearing a Napolean hat – are we on Angry Guy?

Deliverance full

Washington Pavilion

BLAME THE ECONOMY! BLAME THE ECONOMY!

l3wis 2Comments

But according to Dave Munson, Eugene Rowenhorst and the LA Times the recession hasn’t hit Sioux Falls yet, so you can’t blame the economy.

Despite the effort, the Pavilion still might see a $216,000 deficit when numbers are finalized in June, said Gary Wood, the Pavilion’s president and chief executive officer, during a report to the City Council this week.

“If the downturn had occurred in June, it would have given us more time to adapt,” Wood said. “When it started occurring in September and October, we didn’t really have time, so we had to take more drastic action.”

No worries Gary, Vernon Brown has got your back (Quen Be De must have not been available for comment).

“He is not asking the city taxpayers to make up the deficit and is making adjustments within his own budget,” Brown said.

Because it’s not like we hand them over a cool $1.3 million of taxpayer dollars every year or do expensive maintenance to the city owned building (cough, cough, million dollar windows, cough cough) that is not in their budget but hidden in the city’s CIP budget.

For 2008, she (finance director) said the negative $216,000 in the operating fund is relative, based on how you look at the numbers.

 

“When you add up all of our funds, like the permanent collection fund, the endowment fund, special project fund and others, we had an increase in net assets last year of $27,000,” Hathaway said. “Everyone wants to focus on our operating fund instead of the big picture of everything we do.”

Because, unlike actual businesses we count toilet paper rolls as assets and substract that from our deficit (really they do).

While the Husby Performing Arts Center’s Great Hall shows usually make money, the Kirby Science and Discovery Center has run a deficit in past years.

‘In past years’? Try every year. I have often said they should close the Science Center, expand the gift shop, get more movies at the Cinedome and rent the space for special events. It has been bleeding since the place has opened – time to dress the wound.

It almost makes you wonder if they want it to lose money every year? Think about it. If the Pavilion started ‘making money’ they wouldn’t have an excuse to come to the city every year and ask for a subsidy.

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