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l3wis I took this screenshot, I really need to stop watching Glenn Beck.
2010
The biggest flaw with the Events Center Task Force recommendation? No Plan ‘B’
Another Events Center Task Force member, hard at work
This is where the task force really screwed up big time. They just automatically assumed that they could shove their plan down taxpayer’s throats, well thank gawd at least 10 legislators in Pierre had the common sense to tell them NO!
Mayor Dave Munson said he has no backup plan.
“There really isn’t,” he said on the way back to Sioux Falls after testifying for the bill. “There’s no way I could see how you could do the project (without a sales tax).”
BULLSHIT! You could easily do what they do in other communities. Pay for at least 30% through private donations, bond the rest out and pay for it through a BB & B tax. Will it take longer to pay off? Sure, but you keep popping off that this is a facility that will be used for 50 years, so who cares if it takes 50 years to pay for. Do people take out 4 year mortgages on their homes or 30 year mortgages?
I think this is the part of the EC Task Force and some of our city government people (mainly Munson, Brown and Costello) that really chaps my hide. Zero leadership. Any big plan, especially you have spent 16 months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on, should have a plan ‘B’ in place just in case the original idea fails. REAL LEADERS UNDERSTAND THIS. REAL PROGRESSIVES ARE ALWAYS LOOKING AROUND THE NEXT CORNER and REAL FORWARD THINKERS ANTICIPATE SNAGS AND COMPENSATE FOR THEM. None of this was done, and as I predicted at the Council meeting when they approved this failed plan, “You’ll be right back at the beginning because you keep chasing your tails with flawed plans.” Guess what, this ‘HOT HEAD’ was right, again and you were wrong AGAIN! But what do I know, I’m just a blogger.
South DaCola music club w/ The Bottlerockets
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpqTuJOnTw&feature=related[/youtube]
Hos and I spent a many fun nights at the Pomp Room watching these guys. Gawd I miss the days when great bands visited our city on a regular basis.
Here is a great cover of one my favorite Bottlerockets songs, we’ve all been there;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3H-1YQxiXU&feature=related[/youtube]
If you didn’t see this coming…
Ghost of Dude …you must be blind, deaf, and incomprehensibly stupid. Time to find a new source of rainbows and unicorn farts.
While most of the arguments against the bill came from people saying they didn’t want to tax the poor to pay for something they’ll never use (a good argument), the main problem I have with funding a new EC with a sales tax is that it’s a crappy way to fund an entertainment building. Tax Bed, Board, and Booze instead. This will still give us enough revenue to build an EC without putting an undue burdon on people buying groceries or yet another set of clothing for a daughter who grows faster than our national debt.
The most unfortunate (and telling) part of the linked article is the paragraph quoting Jane Page of the State Department of Revenue. She’d like to keep the option open for the state to raise sales taxes in the future without having to pile on top of increased local taxes. I wonder how many legislators “can’t wait” to raise the sales tax to build all kinds of wonderful stuff.
Now that the city has to go back to the drawing board to come up with a workable idea, maybe they’ll be a little more open-minded about better locations and funding sources. If not, we’ll still be talking about building a new EC 20 years from now.