Are Sioux Falls taxpayers being hoodwinked by the Mayor’s office with an advisory vote on the Events Center?
l3wis 
There has been a lot of talk about this on the internets over the past few days. But what does an advisory vote mean?
When the public approves bonds it requires 60 percent to pass. Â Advisory votes only require 50 percent plus one.
In other words when the public votes on the events center, they are NOT approving a spending resolution, or for that matter locking into a certain dollar amount. They are simply being asked if they want a new events center. That’s it. There will be no set pricetag. There may be a really nice, ornate, well orchestrated guessitmate, but that is all we will be getting. Once voters say they want this thing, the city can borrow and spend whatever they want to. The council would be wise to nail the Mayor’s office down on a pricetag, and make this a non-advisory vote (bonding approval).
I think if voters really want the Events Center, the most responsible thing to do is lock in a price tag and have this a bonding vote. We quickly forget the Pavilion costing us twice as much as what was quoted. I think it is time citizens started controlling the purse strings and not a few elected officials. Just look at Lewis & Clark. We have spent $80 million so far and have yet to get a drop of water from it, and when we finally do turn on the tap, it might drip a little, at best, over the next decade. If citizens would have known the details of this project, there would be no Lewis & Clark pipeline, unless L & C wanted to kiss our asses and sell it to us down the road. We basically propped up this sorry second string water source at the advice of a few public officials. The Feds knew it was a waste of money, that is why they didn’t pony up. The same goes for the EC. Are we going to let a former marketing exec from the worst CC in the nation and an in the dark council make a decision on the cost of this project? Gawd help us. Have we not learned from our past spending mistakes?
This is an important decision by tax payers. It shouldn’t be taken lightly, and we should have a say in the economics of it. Afterall, we are the ones paying back the debt.
Think about it in these terms. If you have ever bought a home, isn’t the price agreed upon before the paperwork is signed and the bank gives you the loan? Taxpayers deserve to know the final price tag, up front, before approving this project. And if this mayor and council are not willing to supply that information to us, it’s time we remove them all from office and start from scratch.
