Out with lumber – in with what?
So what do you think is moving in on the soon to be vacant five acres?
Plans for a new downtown development at the present site of the Schoeneman Building Materials Center will be unveiled this month when Downtown Sioux Falls holds its annual meeting Feb. 12.
Whoever guess correctly (my guess does not count) wins a cartoon print of choice from South Dacola
Noah had a plan, does Sioux Falls?
As I mentioned in a post on January 8th, Newark, New Jersey’s very popular mayor asks his department heads to cut 10%-15% this year to prepare for the economic downturn. This wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order.
The city is making contingency plans to deal with slowing revenues. Before 2008, the city’s sales tax revenues grew at about 7 percent a year, excluding slower growth in the post 9-11 recession. But last year the revenue grew by just 1.7 percent.
Well, I hate to break you the news, Eugene, but we have already been splattered. The time to act is now. But the city doesn’t seem to be too worried about it, heck, they are even going on a hiring spree;
But things are not bad enough to consider layoffs. In fact, this year’s budget, which started Jan. 1, includes funding for about 25 new positions in city government.
“We’ve got those in the plan, and right now the plan is those 25 will come on board,” Rowenhorst said.
So your constingency plan is just smoke and mirrors? No real action?
But Mark Weber, a Sioux Falls resident with an advanced degree in economics, warns that city officials would be wise to plan for a scenario where tax revenues actually decrease from the previous year. Rising unemployment levels will impact sales tax collections and lead to greater delinquencies in property taxes.
“Nowhere in this contingency plan is a plan for a more drastic alternative,” Weber said. “I believe their department is in a world that doesn’t reflect the reality that’s coming.”
Mark, are you just realizing today that most of the council, mayor and department heads don’t have a grasp on reality. LMFAO! Than I cried.
My suggestion would be to do what Mayor Booker told his department heads, make cuts ahead of the storm and NO new hires. This will help pad budget shortfalls in the future and hopefully prevent layoffs of city employees. Of course those decisions would take common sense – something lacking in the chambers of Carnegie Hall.
Why do I think the city doesn’t want to move ahead now with cuts – because citizens would realize something I have known for a long time, the city spends too much money. If a 10-15% cut proves useful and the city gets by just fine, it proves that point. It’s hard to rehab an addict, and our city leaders have been addicted to spending for a very long time.
Get ready for the DT’s at City Hall.
If only Plato had the internets
As it currently stands, governmental bodies must turn over the notices to be printed to an independent party – namely the daily or weekly newspaper – in a timely fashion. That assures an integrity and trustworthiness to the process. Taxpayers can trust that the information has not been delayed, altered or edited by a public official.
For that reason and others, it’s important to maintain this system.
I do partially agree, but I find it ironic that no where in the editorial did they mention the city paid aproximately $75,000 to the Argus for that service last year.
But this is a worthwhile investment. Newspapers have not changed the rates for publishing the notices in at least two years – longer in some cases – and they are much lower than traditional advertising rates.
But you still didn’t mention the figure – go figure. When the council voted this last year on the official paper, which they had little choice, Councilor Litz suggested the Shopping News instead. I partially agree with him on that suggestion. Why? First, it’s cheaper, it has a wider distribution, and it is FREE to the public (like the internet) the only downside is that it comes out once a week. I recommend the city looks into rates at the Shopping News, and continue printing the legal notices – but not in their newspaper.
BTW, I read this story online.
Once again, KELO-TV just let’s Mike say whatever he wants without questioning his sources;
Governor Mike Rounds says many South Dakotans have told him they support his proposed cuts to the state budget.
The second-term governor says he has gotten many phone calls and e-mails from people who understand that cuts are needed to balance the budget.
Many? How many and from whom? Once again KELO proves to be apologists for Governor Rounds. We can trust him on his word, he has such a good track record.
Barney Frank slams Jim DeMint and Republicans on This Week
FRANK: The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq. And one of the things, if we’re going to talk about spending, I don’t — I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinarily expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good, in my judgment.
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And I don’t understand why, from some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping somebody get health care, that’s — that’s wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is going to cost us over $1 trillion before we’re through — yes, I wish we hadn’t have done that. We’d have been in a lot better shape fiscally.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole another show, so I’m going to…
(CROSSTALK)
FRANK: That’s the problem. The problem is that we look at spending and say, “Oh, don’t spend on highways. Don’t spend on health care. But let’s build Cold War weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don’t need them. Let’s have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check.” Unless everything’s on the table, then you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.
l3wis