“You mean we will have to talk about the budget next year to? This job sucks!” (Image: KELO-TV screenshot);
And $4 million sets the limit of how much the county can collect, but that does not mean the Commission will need that much. Commissioner Cindy Heiberger thought it was better to aim high.
“This is a beginning. If we opt-out for $1 million this year, are we going to be back in the same room next year doing the exact same thing?” Heiberger said. “I just feel like if we opt-out for a lower amount, we’re going to turn around and be back here in a few years saying we’re just squeaking by.”
Cindy, I have news for you, you are an elected official – it is your job 1) to look out for the best interest of the taxpayers and 2) to work for us. You act like revisiting the budget next year would just be ‘too pesky’ for you. Please tell us why you wanted to be a public servant?
We experienced the same crap with the city and water rates, let’s just overcharge, then if we realize it is too much, we can simmer it down a bit.
Huh!?
Oh, and then there is this nice little tidbit;
During the 1.5 hour discussion, they opened up the meeting for public comment from taxpayers. However no one voiced any concerns about paying higher property taxes.
Gee, McFly, I wonder why? Because most of those taxpayers are working during the time of your meeting.
Property taxes in SF are horrible, everyone and their dog would or should complain.
Mine have have gone up about 75% in the 9 years I have owned my home.
In addition, let’s not forget, that almost each year the City Council very quietly “signs off” on increasing our property taxes 2-3% (maximum allowed by State law). I believe that this happens during the month of July each year.
Every year that Councilor Staggers has served he has raised the same questions….
Why is this property tax increase in the fine print?
And, Why is it then quietly slipped through with no discussion by the Council?
They always make a point of saying something to the effect of “It’s only $33 more dollars” like it is no big deal. You just won’t notice it since it is only $33 per $100,000 of value. How many people actually calculate this on top of what they have already jammed own out throats.
This would be additional $66 if you have a basic $200,000 house. Fine for them but what about us?
The Board does not want to face angry citizens again next year and hash it out again. Leave the board if you can’t stand the job you have chosen to run for. Make the hard choices.
We could give the Commissioners suggestions such as go back to paper ballots without computer terminals, saving the county boatloads of money and we would have better elections. Have the commission meetings in the evenings or on Saturdays so citizens could attend. Give the supporting county staff comp time so they would not have overtime to attend for work purposes.
Right now my property taxes are out of sight for my house and now these lazy, elected employees of the people don’t want to do the job they were hired to do.
Remember also, this isn’t a volunteer position, they get paid nicely to be a county commissioner and never pass an opportunity to give themselves a raise.
As for the crime increase. No surprise. When the economy goes sour, people get desperate. Some say it has turned around, I guess it has, for bank and casino robbers.
The county needs more of the tax take but not like this. The city lights cigars with bills while the county pinches pennies. The county collects property taxes. The state collects sales taxes. They can withhold the city portion until they return to democracy. The city can’t even sue because ordinance 2-66 denies them access to the courts.
Well you can blame our idiot Governor who slashed the state education budget while greasing Keystone XL and who knows who from the secret fund. That’s why we increased our local share.
I don’t even have kids, let’s make the property tax correlate to the people that benefit from it.
In the long run is it really sustainable for SD to not have an income tax? Every other state that doesn’t have an income tax is rich.
Also, is this site the official shill for Kermit “gay agenda” Staggers?
Thirdly, why are we increasing our taxes while the State continues to build a slush fund in their budget?
That gives us two levels of inefficiency.
Gay agenda? I have never heard Kermit talk about gays, ever. I even told him once that Obama wasn’t a true liberal because he turned his back on the gay community when it came to marriages. And Kermit didn’t say a peep.
Like I have told people in the past, if you have a problem with something you ‘think’ Kermit may or may not be against, take it up with him;
http://www.siouxfalls.org/council/members/k-staggers.aspx
As I have said in the past, I supported Kermit because we agree on a lot of things concerning ‘city government’ and open and transparent government. There is a whole host of state and national issues we do not agree on.
The reference is to the desperate phone campaign that called voters the day of the election to tell them Huether had a “gay agenda”.
The fact that it is already forgotten and he holds office after that sad.
I heard about that phone call, but did that have to do with one of his volunteers ‘saying this’ or did it come from the campaign? Remember, Kermit runs grassroots campaigns and uses volunteers to call voters, he did in his last council seat run. He can’t really control what they say.
Perhaps a fair point.
I just hate underhanded scumbags and when the likes of Ellis from the Argus reported it, I suspect he thought it was coordinated. I’m pretty sure he voted for Kermit.
I like his focus on transparency, but since I already have judged him, I suspect questionable motivations. I will say I like him more now than I did then.
Like I said, shoot him an email about it. He’s not a hateful person, so I find it hard to believe he was instructing people to judge gays.
Opted out 5 times in about a decade?! Where’s the faux Minnehaha County teaparty?! Those republicans must l o v e paying taxes – to say nothing of the spineless county commissioners.
Need to trim the budget? Begin by reducing bloated salaries and benefits – like the rest of us contend with over the past decade.
Dear John – county employees took a pay cut during a desperate time last year, and have been without cost of living increases for some years. It’s easy to call salaries “bloated,” but the market sets wages — and the county’s turnover — many of whom go into the private sector — is very significant. I’m grateful for my county job and benefits, and hope those who criticize us are doing so with full understanding of the underlying facts.
As long as we in South Dakota continue the false premise of our taxation system we will always be fighting this type of activity from our ‘leaders’.
When we have a property & sales tax combined with regressive sales tax based government revenue systems our wallets will remain thin. We have ‘leaders’ who encourage subsistence wage companies to settle here to continue to treat us as a third world country with 1st world expenses.
There is a gap in revenue versus expectations for service. Either we accept less or we fight for our rights.
Do not get into the pension fight being led by the more elites amongst us. There is a fight being led by national groups encouraging a fight between the ‘Have Littles’ and the ‘Have Less’ to distract us.
Pensions and Unions are the result of poor management and the decisions made the managers to get rid of ‘problems’. The pension abuses we have been discussing recently in Sioux Falls to pad retirement base is encouraged by bad management. Each of the the managers looking at retirement are doing the same thing, as if ‘who is going to stop me?’.
Gordy….
Many employees in the private sector have experienced pay cuts, wage freezes, trimming and elimination of benefits….often times over the course of multiple years!
In addition, how many companies do you know of that still over COLAs?!
NOTE: The opt-out will continue for 20 years.
Correction to previous comment: how many companies do you know of that still offer COLAs?
At least the county is on state retirement, where employees pay in the same as the county. As opposed to the city, where employees pay about 3% and city pays something like 15%. Ridiculous!
Gordy, my beef is always with bad management; management that too often pays and benefits itself beyond what the market, or an honest market would allow. Where the county (and city) pay and benefit scales exceed those for comparable state positions then the local pay is out of balance with the greater state-wide market.
Again, where are the teapartiers? Do they go to Canada for the summer?
John, they’re at a tea party…
Frankly I’m glad the Tea Party is nowhere to be seen. We don’t need any more out of state interests telling us how to legislate.
The Tea Party angle would be to cut taxes and ignore the impact on the budget. It’s refreshing to have at least one level of our government paying its bills without running a deficit or building a slush fund.
Gordy – My beef isn’t with the county employees, it is with the commissioners that don’t want to revisit this every year. With our ever changing economy and fluctuations, it’s best if the county looks at this year to year. Don’t get me wrong, the county, just like the city, should look ahead also and plan accordingly. But it is never a good idea to just approve overcharging on taxes and saddle taxpayers with it for the next 20 years. It was either apathy or pure laziness by the commission to do this.
As for crime, this also concerns me.
I wonder how much money is set aside in the county coffers for prevention and education. Maybe I am wrong, and you can correct me if I am, but asking for more money on prosecution without asking for more money on prevention seems like rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic.
@ anon; I know some city employees pay in 8% to their pensions. Maybe it’s different percentages for cops, fireman, etc… From the pension report it says they will pay in 9% next year and 10% the next. I’m not a city employee and I don’t begrudge them for getting a pension. Wish I had one.
One way to reduce the cost of prosecutions is for the commissioners to order the state’s attorney that it will not finance contested death sentence cases and their multimillion dollar 20+ years of appeals.
A second way to reduce the costs of prosecutions is to pass a regime, as have several cities in the US, to handle small, tiny drug cases via a citation, a ticket without custodial arrest.
Kermit might come across a little light but he’s a married beast.
I nominate the above for most bizarre comment of the thread.
Grud, I don’t think anyone was accusing Kermit of being gay . . . Justin, I would agree, strange indeed.
John, one more reason to eliminate the death penalty in SD.