May 2018

TenHaken’s Deputy COS is running for a Republican Committeeman

Deputy COS T.J. Nelson is running in Precinct 309 and City Councilor Greg Neitzert is running in Precinct 317 for Committee people in the Republican Party.

While the waters have already been tested by Erickson and Staggers for councilors as committee people (the ethics commission said it was OK because they are volunteer positions) that question has never been asked about appointed city employees who work for a non-partisan mayor.

While I don’t take issue with T.J. being a proud Republican party member, I wonder if he is testing the waters on this?

If I sat on the Ethics Commission I would probably OK it, but the optics of it don’t look good when your boss has promised to be a non-partisan mayor in the campaign. I’m wondering if T.J. asked an opinion of the Ethics Commission or the city attorney?

What do you think?

It seems T.J.’s name is coming up a lot as a partisan, I think this will hurt Paul in the long run.

Primary Predictions

Since I could only vote for Amendment Y, not sure if my opinion really matters since I can’t put myself into the mind of a SD Republican. With Trump having a 74% approval rating, I think Republicans statewide will lean more conservative, but since most people are conservative, not sure what that means anyway.

I voted against Amendment Y. First off, I think the whole thing should be repealed and secondly I’m not happy with the measure being on the primary ballot instead of the general. Many independents will just not choose to vote so this will be decided mostly by party members.

For Governor, I’m giving it to Noem, but not by much, this one is close and I think with Jackboots gaining a lot in these last few weeks he still has a good chance of pulling this off. While I’m not a fan of either, I think Noem would be a better governor, even though I am supporting Sutton and feel like he has a better chance of beating Noem than Jackboots.

In Congress it seems pretty clear Dusty will pull this one off, and I prefer him as a candidate. I also think the Bjorkman has a much better chance of beating Dusty than Krebs.

State Senator District 14 I’m going with Tyler Swanger. I think Soholt has had a habit of saying one thing in public and doing another when she votes. Tyler is a young enthusiastic fellar with a great passion for people.

State Rep District 13 Peterson and Rolfing will probably pull this off even though I know there is large underground support for Muricio to upset Rolfing. Let’s hope so. We need to send Rolfing to a golf course in Florida.

State Rep District 14 I’m going to give it to Holmes and Zikmund. They are both incumbents and Tornow doesn’t belong anywhere near Pierre.

State Rep District 15 (Dems) I’m going to give to Smith and Kirschman even though I have heard there is a lot of support for Duba from the wine & cheese Dems.

The big one of the primary is of course Noem vs. Jackley. While I detest both of their policies, Jackley would be a disaster as a governor. He is wrapped up in so many scandals that I think it would just continue moving forward. I’ve nicknamed him lately, Janklow Jr.

 

Lloyd Co. may have the highest tax valuation but are they paying a fair percentage?

I had learned a few months ago when Lloyd came crying for their TIF for the Cascade that Lloyd paid the most property taxes and had the highest property tax valuation;

Lloyd Property Management (Lloyd Cos.) adds $186.8 million of tax value to the city, according to the annual Comprehensive Annual Finance Report released last by the city earlier this month.

While Mr. Snevaliscious does a great story, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. (I’m hoping you have some follow up stories). So how much does Lloyd actually pay? My rough estimates would be between $2-3 million a year. But is Lloyd actually paying the same percentage as you and me or other property owners in town? The reason I ask this question is because Lloyd has received millions in TIFs (tax rebates) from the city and not just Sioux Falls, but other communities across the region.

I would be curious just what tax rate they are paying after averaging their entire payment. My guess is they are getting significant breaks. And if you think this will end after TenHaken just appointed a former Lloyd Executive as his COS, you my friend are sadly mistaken.

Should the City of Sioux Falls Rebrand?

There’s a rumor swirling around that our new mayor’s administration is fiddling with the idea of ‘Re-Branding’ Sioux Falls. I can understand why there may be a push to do this. There are way too many different silly logos (Publisher Clipart) for all the departments, some old, some new, some don’t have one and others like Water Reclamation could probably care less.

If this attempt is made, let me suggest something I learned a long time ago in design, the KISS theory, Keep it Simple Stupid.

While I think the city seal could use a little polishing up to make it more clean, I don’t think we need to re-invent the wheel here, and we should probably keep it classic and historical and not go to modern. My suggestion above would work nicely. Each department would have the same logo with a byline defining the department. That’s it.

The government itself shouldn’t be in the business of marketing itself. People know it exists, that’s why we have reminders like elections and taxes. If the CVB and Chamber want to have some fancy logo for bringing in Tourism, have at it, but the city itself as a functioning government doesn’t need to go there.