[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yteMugRAc0[/youtube]
We are certainly in a Boom Town, if you are one of the ‘Specials’.
No mention of First Premier, marketing the worst, subprime CC in the nation;
A former executive who spent 15 years with Citibank
Oh, he gets around to it;
Then I went to Europe and then came back to South Dakota to work at Premier Bank with Denny Sanford. I quit in 2009 to pursue my dream to be in public service.
Bank? Nice little line, you worked for the card division, Pinnochio. Quit? More like you got caught pursuing public office . . . then . . . quit . . . ahem.
Looking at your unemployment numbers, with the exception of a brief spike in 2010 when the rate went up to 6 percent, it’s surprising that more people don’t move here.
They don’t move here, because of the low wages and under-employment. Most people have multiple jobs. I get so tired of Mike waving that 3.5% unemployment rate around like it is the only part of the story. We have low unemployment, because people have to work their asses off to make ends meet.
Oh and this is interesting;
This year, we will blow away the record for construction in a single year. We’re already 150 percent of where we were last year, and last year was the second-highest construction year in our city’s history.
WOW! Yet we are handing out TIF’s like candy and developers are contributing very little to platting fees to help pay for arterial roads. If we are in a ‘building boom’, which we are, why do we have to handout all these incentives? It seems the developers are having their cake and eating it too.
Fifty years ago, whoever the leaders were decided to put two private country clubs side by side in what is now the heart of our city. Now we have a challenge driving from the east side of town to the west side of town because of that decision.
Then fix it. I have said all along, you could put a road through there using ED, or even working with the Country Clubs. Either way, it is possible. If we took it, we could turn it into a wonderful state park with campsites available. How wonderful it would be to have campgrounds in the middle of our city? I have often said this project should have been pursued over an EC. It would definately have a greater economic impact on our city.
Here’s another thing: Our city council insists we have at least 25 percent of our operating expenses in a reserve fund every year. Right now we’re at about 36 percent. Name another town in America that is repairing streets, rebuilding infrastructure, tackling growth needs for a community, and adding to their city’s piggy bank. We have added to our city’s reserve every year for the last three years.
Nevermind most of that money in the reserves is BORROWED, and the city is $400 million in debt.
That was one of my dreams when I moved back here from San Antonio—I wanted to create a downtown where people would want to live.
I don’t give Munson much credit for anything, but the expansion of DT is because of him and Carol Pagones (sp?) not MMM. If Mike was so enthusiastic about growth DT, he would have finished the RR relocation project already and either built the EC downtown, or moved the CC downtown. He has done neither. He has successfully given TIF’s like candy to DT developers, and turned the $5 million River Greenway project into an over $15 million private landscaping project for private developers.
The spin in this article doesn’t surprise me. MMM only gives you the positive side of things, and I guess I am always the cynic. But folks, cynicism is reality. Bullshit is Bullshit.