The mayor is set to give his CIP presentation next Tuesday, yet, we really don’t have any context where the money is coming from, or what it is projected to be.
In fact, there hasn’t been a financial report (publicly) since April of the March numbers, and the April report was quietly released on the city website on April 30 (not at a public informational meeting).
The returns are the lowest in years, in fact, even the entertainment tax is down. Could it be the boomtown has tapped as much as it can? Are revenues leveling out?
Might be because SF is full of retarted lib-clowns and dummer hipster bloggers.
Margin of error 40%
Do you think Turbak and Huether over stated, lied or overspent so much they are in hiding?
There’s been growth. It’s continuing (so it seems) from constuction scale and population influx. Problem is tax revenue growth. Sales are from outside via delivery and Internet transactions. Sales tax isn’t collected locally. Transactions via barter (i.e. PayPal) are nontaxable. Incomes are low. We’ve got jobs but live on beans. There’s no extra for entertainment and luxuries. The Ag economy is record crops but low prices. Healthcare has become competitive and expensive with Obamacare. Credit cards are not so lucrative. It’s a no fee debit card time. There’s lots of mall traffic but they’re lookers only. Perhaps it’s time for a state income tax. The state would do a better distribution. There’d be a better focus on social services. It’s become a time when the city barely gets by from sales tax revenue at the first of the month when we get our welfare checks.
Huether and finance must work in pesos. Divide by 18. Then it’s dollars. It’s gotta be pesos. No way a city this size has this much expenditure and debt.
I have my own theory on why sales taxes are not meeting expectations. It all starts and ends at the t denny tin can. Sure, we are attracting big acts. But those big acts come at a huge price. Take Sir Paul McCartney. He, and acts like him will come here…if the price is right. You can bet those acts jet out of here with millions more in their pockets. Millions more that is never again recirculated here in SF. Everyone has just so much money they can allot to entertainment. If a couple from the SF MSA spends $600 for tickets and a couple of t denny beers, that is at least $300 that jets out with the entertainer, never to be recirculated again locally. That is also $600 that Joe Sixpack can no longer spend here on local entertainment venues, that would have otherwise been circulated locally several times over. And don’t kid yourself. A huge percentage of the t denny attendees come from Joe’s and Jane’s who spend their entertainment dollars right here.
Warren, you nailed it! Cameraman Bruce was saying the same thing to me this morning.
The sad part is we are subsidizing the place for operations, maintenance and mortgage for millions a year, then they turn around and rape us to walk thru the front doors. And as you mentioned, the money goes to artists, promoters and SMG right out of city limits.
At least the bike trail is free . . . for now.
Yes, Warren closes in on actuality. For some reason, we’re lumped in with one percenters. The elite with more money than most. Realistically, they’ll travel to Chicago to see Sir Paul because it’s below them to attend with us. We go because it’s a last minute discount or we’re hot chicks with no brain for up front and back stage. I didn’t go because there’s no transgender bathrooms.
Well Dan, you would be the first transgender male I have met that wants to look more like Archie Bunker then an actual woman 🙂
Splendid outline for Nobel Prize-winning work in Economics by Warren.
That giant sucking sound you hear is “the reverse multiplication impact of dollars removed from a local economy”.
Also yesterday, the WSJ reported that on a nationwide basis consumer expenditures for Fast Casual and Fast Food categories have been mired since March. Expenditures for Fast Food actually declined in May. According to those who follow these data, this later observation is unusual and notable. Associated with eroding confidence by consumers in their economic standing – record credit card debt and resurgent new auto loan volumes notwithstanding.
Apparently even “Boomtown” is not immune from these national economic trends.
I kept my powder dry on this one, waiting for May figures. Although May collections into city coffers have not yet been officially reported, local media are reporting signals that collections were soft.
Let us not forget that this timeframe (March thru May) included a series of sports events (SDHSAA Class AA basketball tournaments; multiple collegiate conference tournaments; NCAA Regional tournament competitions and NCAA National Championships). Holy Grail-type of events for local planners and which had promise to add to tax collections.
Indeed as Warren has inferred, Joe and Jane Sixpack aren’t spending as much money in Sioux Falls.
The financials are in, and it is not pretty.
http://goo.gl/unh4jQ
Only validates what the previous months were indicating.
http://goo.gl/BDRzZ4
After reading these two links, it is easy to start connecting the dots. But not our local radio guy, who lets this sales tax info go without even a whisper. But then, I guess thats the job of a good PR front man. All belfrage has to do is lob a couple of softballs at the mayor once a month, and whala, his job as PR frontman is complete.
http://goo.gl/vZIwab
I did learn one thing from listening to this BS. The mayor does pay attention to blogs. He let that cat out of the bag, in a not so friendly snipe at blogs. And since Dacola is the only blog covering our city government, I will assume mmm reads it. One question mayor. How do you sleep at night knowing you are responsible for fleecing millions from the poor, the old, the high school grads? You preyed on societies most vulnerable as marketing director of a fee harvesting credit card scam, and now you run our city with a credit card future generations will have to pay for. Sweet dreams mr mayor.