South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

February 2020

County Commission Minnehaha County Property Taxes SF City Council SF School District State Funding State Legislature Taxes

UPDATE II: The FIX is in on property taxes

l3wis 18Comments

UPDATE II: I went and talked to the equalization department today. After reviewing the increase, they explained to me that 90% of the increase is land value, in which is formulated different now. We also calculated that my taxes will probably go up $250 dollars next year, which is NOT $2 a month, just for the record.

UPDATE: I decided to go back and look at the records I could find

From 2008-2009 the value of my home went up 1.8%

From 2009-2012  the value of my home went up 0%

From 2012-2016  the value of my home went up 10% (aprox 2.5% per year)

From 2016-2017  the value of my home went up 1.8%

From 2017-2018  the value of my home went up 1.8%

From 2018-2019  the value of my home went up 2.3%

From 2019-2020  the value of my home went up 21.9%

As I predicted and warned people, the school bond, the new county jail and the multiple TIFs we hand out are going to catch up with us. The $2 a month boloney they pitched us was a farce, because I knew they were going to make hay with the assessments. And sure enough they did.

My increased assessments year after year have been steady, but reasonable. I have owned my home for 17+ years and my property taxes have doubled in that time.

I have done little upgrades to my home, except replacing windows, doors, adding new rain gutters a privacy fence and re-shingling after storm damage. I have done NO upgrades to the interior of my house.

So imagine my surprise when I got this in the mail yesterday;

Well, I was NOT surprised, I saw this coming like a freight train. We can’t keep borrowing money in Sioux Falls and not have a way to pay those bonds, so they bleed it out of us through back door tricks like assessments. Can I afford a 21.9% increase in my assessed value? I suppose, but it also means a lot less money in my pocket.

It was interesting listening to the State Legislators talk yesterday at the legislative coffee about state funding of education. Two Republicans made great points;

• The state gives the districts money and the districts decide how that money is spent (salaries, etc.).

• Administrator pay in SD ranks at 15th while teacher pay is at 49th. I haven’t checked that stat, but I know at one time in was around 22nd. There is a obvious disparity.

• Low voter turnout at school elections. The past school bond and school board elections both had around a 4% turnout. Basically the legislator was saying, if you want to have a say on how your local district is being funded, maybe you should show up and vote in these elections. AMEN Brother! But I also have to add their is voter suppression when you use super precincts, no precincts in the northern part of our city and have district finance department employees ‘hand count’ votes, while the business director puts those counts into the system without oversight.

Who knew that owning a house that was built in 1889 could increase in value by almost 22% in one year? Not bad for a home that is 131 years old. What a joke.

Bernie Sanders

Why Bernie Sanders’ strategy is important

l3wis 20Comments

Do I think for a moment that if Sanders becomes president that he will get Medicare for all? Free higher education? Universal childcare?

Not for a second.

A couple of hurdles first. I don’t think Sanders gets the nomination until he can secure Super Tuesday, which I think he will.

He also has to beat Trump, which I think is possible.

But the Senate and Congress both have to have big wins with the Democrats in November to secure Sanders’ agenda.

Okay, so let’s pretend Sanders is sworn is as president #46 and the Dems control both houses. What than?

What has been frustrating me the most is that we ‘need a moderate’ for the Democratic Presidential Nominee. If there is one thing we don’t need, is a moderate. We tried that strategy last time, progressives were not energized and they didn’t vote in key states. Many polls showed after the election in 2016 if Sanders would have been the nominee he would have beat Trump. Sanders is just as progressive today as he was back then. Little has changed with Bernie, and that is why so many people support him.

Moderate candidates want to continue to sell you the ‘status quo’ like expanding the ACA and making college education ‘more affordable’. Whatever that looks like.

What Sanders is proposing is we ask for the most and negotiate down from there. Isn’t that what you do when buying or selling a house? A car? You don’t ask for the least and expect to get what you really want. When I see the moderate candidates argue their agenda in this way, I just shake my head.

Sanders knows he won’t get all he is asking for, but if you don’t ask, you will never know.

What I think will happen is a deal where people can sign up for Medicare if they don’t want their private insurance. Personally, I think it will be so wildly popular that within 5 years you will see very few people keeping private insurance unless they are super wealthy. The best and most efficient way to solve our healthcare crisis in this country is by covering everyone, 100%. This would achieve this goal. This is what is mandated in Germany.

As for free college education, keep dreaming Bernie. But what I do see is free technical education, and maybe half of college tuition covered with maybe government loans at 0 or 1% interest. I could see a scenario that if you are at a certain income level, college would be more affordable or partially free.

As for universal childcare, this could be achievable, but there are a lot of moving parts. Personally I am opposed. Having children is essentially a choice, and when you make that decision, you should be prepared to make sacrifices financially. What I could see happening is longer paid leave for mothers and fathers and universal pre-k education. This would narrow the gap of time you would need a child care provider.

Like I said, Bernie may not get everything he is asking for, but it is a great strategy, because you never get anything unless you ask first.

Education funding Elections SF School District State Funding State Legislature

Fuzzy Math on Education?

l3wis 3Comments

FF this video to 30:00

After watching this presentation on school funding, I came away even more confused. The comparison to funding on what is spent per student, and showing the average salaries of teachers while avoiding what we pay administrators actually muddies the waters even more. I’m not sure who is showing us the actual numbers – maybe both are wrong.

Maybe some of my readers can make sense of it, because it was all Greek to me.

In a quick search today I found that school principal pay in South Dakota ranks 25th in the nation. Administrators as a whole we rank around 39th (this is support and office staff). They danced around these numbers in the above presentation. I’m not sure why it is so difficult to just show what the SFSD is paying administrators, compare it to statewide statistics and national statistics. It’s similar to when I have tried to find the total SFSD debt. I ran in circles for about an hour and eventually gave up.

On a more positive note, this bill is currently going through the state legislature;

House Bill 1177 moves to the House floor of the South Dakota Legislature today.  

The bill would move school board elections to the November general election ballot.

Finally some common sense in Pierre. I fully support this, and I think municipal elections should also be held at the same time. The biggest beef I have had with school elections is that they seem to be organized around voter suppression. Often held by themselves with questionable super precinct locations and hand counted by district employees. I hope this bill passes.

While funding of education, my ever rising property taxes, the disparity in teacher pay to administrator pay and voter suppression are concerns I have, my biggest concern when it comes to the SFSD is the lack of openness and transparency, it is the core rot that leads to my mistrust of the district.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kiley thinks people care about parapets (that they probably don’t even know exist)

l3wis 5Comments

I attended the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting and testified at the end during public input.

The council had a presentation on the replacement of the cornice and parapet on the roof of the Pavilion. I won’t revisit that.

Several councilors, including councilor Erickson leading the charge pretty much said that the parapet probably doesn’t need to be replaced, and the architects admitted that it really doesn’t harm the historical designation.

I appreciate the honesty.

Then Rick Kiley opened his mouth. He said that he thinks people do care about the parapet replacement. Not sure if he took that poll from his butt, but I’m sure it wasn’t scientific.

During public input I reminded the council;

• The Washington Pavilion has taken the lion’s share of the entertainment tax for over 20 years.

• That tax should have sun-setted after the bonds were paid off, taking $10 million a year out of our private entertainment economy.

• The Pavilion’s attendance numbers haven’t really increased that much over the past 21 years.

• Why doesn’t the Pavilion raise money for capital improvements privately? The Zoo has raised millions for capital projects privately (taxpayers own the Zoo – just like we own the Pavilion).

• The roof and parapet should have been fixed when remodeling the facility, not 21 years later.

But what I said at the end was that Rick Kiley thinks people care about the project. I told him that most people don’t even know this discussion is going on, and most people don’t even know what the parapet is or that it is even exists, I stressed that while people are dodging pot holes in this city, they ‘don’t give a rip’ about parapets.

Developers Development Planning Commission Sioux Falls TIFs

Not so TIFilicious?

l3wis 5Comments

Imagine my surprise when I read this article;

Questions about the ownership of a strip of land within the Sioux Steel Co. site in downtown Sioux Falls has created a new, unexpected hurdle for the proposed $185 million redevelopment of the property.

The land in question was once a channel of the Big Sioux River and has ownership origins that stretch back beyond South Dakota statehood all the way to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

Archived press clippings appear to indicate that the channel that separated Seney Island from the western bank of the Big Sioux River was filled in and, along with the former island, was turned into usable land in the early 1900s. Sioux Steel Co. has owned and operated on the site since 1918.

Officials in the state School and Public Lands and Attorney General’s offices are reviewing maps, historic documents and other information to determine whether the state may have a claim of ownership to the strip of land.

I’m not naive, I’m sure the State will probably come back and say they don’t have rights to it, or if they do, sell it for very little coin. I know how palms are greased in Pierre.

But what makes this story frustrating is with all of the people from the Sioux Steel Company, Lloyd Company and the city’s planning office, NO one came across this possible conflict? It took a hobbyist in history to find it?

Not to mention that around $3.5 million has already been spent on planning this project and NONE of these questions were asked before passing a $20 million dollar TIF.

Sometimes I think developers in this town just fly by the seat of their pants, cross their fingers and hope things turn out.

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