You can agree or disagree with the reasons why tax revenue is down in Sioux Falls;
Turbak says there are two main reasons the sales tax collections are down: First, because of continued growth of online sales where the City can’t collect sales taxes and because farmer spending is down.
While I agree they are TWO factors, I truly believe the number one factor is just spending in general, people have cut back. You also have to take into account that much of the city population growth last year occurred in woman’s wombs – we had a lot of new borns. They don’t work and they don’t spend money and more then likely, they are born to lower income families who get food on assistance and don’t pay for it. We can blame farmers and online sales all we want, but we also have to look at reality. If farmers are not spending money, maybe the rest of us are not either.
The next mayor is going to have to be very stingy, not only because of Mayor Play Palaces bonding spree which ties us to millions in mortgage and maintenance costs each year but because the revenue stream is low.
There are QUICK policy changes the next mayor can implement in the first 90 days;
• Cut most of the mid-managers. We pay most of the directors and sub-directors 6-figures a year, there is no reason they need managers below them doing their jobs for $70-80K a year. I would probably cut them from most of the departments saving the city millions in our 1st penny for operations.
• Focus the 2nd penny on infrastructure (mostly roads) and parks land maintenance and cut any unneeded programs for at least two-years.
• As for our enterprise funds, which support sewer and water, any new corporations coming into Sioux Falls should help share at least 50% of the cost of infrastructure costs and upgrades.
Like I said, the next mayor, whether they are socially liberal or conservative will have no choice but to be a fiscal conservative when it comes to city finances. We have to fix the last mayor racking up the parents credit card.