While this is certainly a good thing;
Cities that want to support business and job growth can look to Sioux Falls as a model, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Sioux Falls is one of seven cities featured in a new report on “enterprising cities,†which shows how municipalities can provide the infrastructure and policies businesses need to grow.
This is great news if you are moving a business to Sioux Falls or if you are looking to expand business in Sioux Falls. No doubt, as a business owner you have many benefits of doing business in Sioux Falls. SBA loans have very low interest rates, there is NO corporate income tax, wages are low and productivity is high. So YES, as a business owner, this is wonderful news;
In calling attention to the report Thursday, Mayor Mike Huether reiterated his strategy to run the city like a business.
“This is an environment where businesses thrive, and we’ve been going at it for years,†he said.
Well Yahoo! But what does this good news mean for employees and citizens? While it seems Sioux Falls ‘Get’s it’ when it comes to business and economic growth where are we lacking?
– Food. Many people in our community depend on SNAP and food banks to just feed their families and with cuts to SNAP this will only get worse. One has to question wages in Sioux Falls when a working man can’t even afford to feed his family on the wages he makes.
– Median income in SD has gone up. While this is great news, it only happened because the rest of the nation is doing so crappy and losing, not making gains on median income. This tells me that while the SF economy is strong, our median income only went up because everyone else’s went down. This shows me that Sioux Falls residents have been some of the most underpaid in the nation for a very long time.
– Living wages & underemployment. While our unemployment rate sits at 3%, it still doesn’t tell the bigger picture of underemployment and many SF residents holding several jobs to make it. If the city really wants to support business growth in Sioux Falls, they must also require these businesses to pay living wages and solid healthcare benefits. Obamacare’s biggest failure was not providing single-payer healthcare, which would have alleviated many businesses with the exploding healthcare costs. But business should provide healthcare to their employees, a healthy workforce saves businesses money and a living wage makes happy employees, which makes happy customers.
– Affordable housing. I am often amazed when I hear what some of my friends pay for renting an apartment in Sioux Falls. In some cases I could pay two mortgages on my house for what they pay in rent. The biggest problem is that apartment units are controlled by just a few companies, they have almost a monopoly on rental property. When rent is 75% of the wages you are making, how can you expect someone to live off the remaining 25%? The city needs to get more involved with getting developers to build affordable apartments, especially with all the grants and TIF’s they receive already. providing TIF’s to build luxury hotels and condos just doesn’t cut it.
– Public Transit. Let’s admit it, public transit in SF is a joke, and it is too expensive. The city really needs to take the bull by the horns on this, and a public/private partnership may be the solution.
– Record development and Annexation. It seems the city has learned nothing from the last time they were full steam ahead on development, the bottom fricking dropped out, not just here but across the country. The other problem with increased annexation is keeping up with infrastructure. Have we learned nothing from the exploding sewer mains, flooding and pot hole ridden city of just a few years ago? The more infrastructure we build new, the more we have to maintain, it comes to a point where it is unsustainable or unaffordable or both. The city needs to concentrate on developing and redeveloping within city limits. Just drive around this town sometime and look at all the empty lots and property’s for lease. Do we really need to continue to expand? Or do we need to just put a new coat of paint on Sioux Falls?
While I applaud the business sector for making themselves lots of cashola, it’s time the work force in this city shares in the glory, and it all starts at city hall.