Seems things are heating up in the mayoral race. Bout time.
“While every person, business and organization in the community knew we were in the middle of a serious economic slowdown, City Hall chose to ignore reality,” said Bill Peterson, who voiced his criticism Tuesday.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t Bill one of the advocates of the tax increase for the arterial streets and the 3rd penny for the EC? At both council meetings I warned of a economic downturn. Where were your concerns then, Bill?
“This is just another example on how city government is becoming more out of touch on what the citizens of Sioux Falls want,” Huether said.
Yah think? I’m glad to see Mike is out there talking to citizens. I think he is coming to the realization that people are hurting, I can tell you that 2009 wasn’t the greatest year for Detroit Lewis, but I don’t have four kids to feed. I can’t imagine what some of these people are going thru.
Mayor Dave Munson, who is term-limited, said Peterson’s criticism almost sounds like he is running against him. “I hope that he’s not trying to create a crisis for one that doesn’t exist,” Munson said.
Well, Dave, if you think a $330 million dollar city debt and a sagging economy are not a crisis, I have a bridge to sell you in the Sahara.
“They should have seen this coming and they didn’t, and that’s a failure of leadership, period,” Peterson said.
Well, well, well, seems Mr. Peterson doesn’t even know the ‘failure of leadership’ he created himself. He wrote the unconstitutional home rule charter for the city which pretty much ties the hands of councilors to make budget decisions. Kinda hard to lead when you are handcuffed Bill. You pretty much eliminated the checks and balances the city council would have had over the mayor.
Five months ago, some council members and the mayor sparred over the 2010 budget, which is 4 percent larger than last year’s. Staggers introduced 30 amendments to cut spending. Only one passed. It pushed a capital project to a later date.
Yes, and only a couple of those amendments were seconded for debate. That is the rubberstamp council at their best. What I can’t understand is even if you do not agree with Kermit’s amendments, why wouldn’t you at least be willing to debate them?
The current plan for potential holdbacks is to put the city, and the next mayor in a good position, Munson said.
“I really do want to leave it solid,” he said. “We have to make assumptions ahead of time.”
Yes. A solid debt. $100 million for ‘Quality of Life’ projects like monkey crappers, wood thingies and football fields for kids living in Montrose. $70 million for a water pipeline that we won’t have for another 2-6 years (maybe) and over $10 million for levees that the Feds should be paying for out of our income taxes.
Staggers said his opponents who supported the local sales tax funding option for the events center are contradicting themselves.
“It’s interesting that they are concerned about the budget, but at the same time they are out there advocating tax increases,” he said.