Well if you blinked your eyes yesterday you may have missed the Minnehaha CC/Sioux Falls CC joint meeting. The whopping 12 minutes of it.
Like the Sioux Falls City Council Informational meeting at 4 PM, the meeting wasn’t playing correctly on SIRE. They still don’t have it fixed and it seems they don’t really care. I guess the city is ran by a lot of Hi-Tech losers, who talk a big game but cannot deliver. Kind of reminds you of what that guy tells you on Sundays about your path to paradise.
Besides the fact that you could not watch the meeting online, it started right at 5 PM right when people are getting off of work.
They deferred the airport item due to a delayed FAA study, then asked for general public input at the end and that was it. I arrived at Carnegie right after it was done. I wanted to address both bodies about the excessive panhandling that has been going on all year long, what they were planning on doing about it, and some of my ideas to fix the problem (like fining people who give from their car windows and signage about ordinances and laws). But when you don’t live stream a meeting and start it as everyone is getting off of work, it doesn’t give you much time to attend.  I’m not sure who the rocket scientist is that thinks scheduling a meeting at 5 PM on Tuesday is a good idea, but . . . oh that’s right, the same authoritarian fascists who have a war on transparency in our city.
Speaking of the Informational Meeting (that was cutting out) what I could catch of it, and from the propaganda piece they sent to SF Bizzo it seems they are trying to sugarcoat how they are spending the money;
Of that, $4 million would be added to the pool of funding for arterial street expansion.
One of the things that has frustrated me is that the city continues to spend millions on new parks, new roads, and expansion while ignoring our core infrastructure. I have always preferred the mantra, take care of what you have first & if you can’t feed em’ don’t breed em’. So while they are spending our tax dollars on subsidizing corporations that pay little to no taxes & crappy wages they are sticking it to us on the back side;
The assessed value of the Platinum Point 52-unit town home complex in south Sioux Falls jumped 35 percent last year — and the developer said it’s just one example of a troubling trend.
For 17 years of owning my home the biggest increases I saw were 2% but most years it was 0%. Last year they nailed me for a 22% increase, which got reduced a bit, and this year they hit me with a 14% increase. As I have been warning people, this is what happens when we have an out of control TIF and tax rebate program to the developers, also we have an affordable housing crisis in Sioux Falls with an inflated housing market and straddle that with criminal justice costs in the County increasing (drug crimes) and a School District on a $300 million dollar spending spree and what you get is a greedy tax collection system. I have argued for a long time this is unsustainable and it’s bound to get even worse.
You can’t keep raping the little guy for more in property taxes & fees while blowing the money on more NEW infrastructure while you can’t maintain the current crumbling infrastructure in our core.
Recently a local government official told me after having a conversation with someone who studies affordable housing and poverty in Sioux Falls they said the problem is hard to fix but easily explained (paraphrasing);
“The gap between the rich and poor in Sioux Falls has widened greatly over the past 10 years, and widening even faster now. There isn’t a middle to upper middle class in Sioux Falls anymore. You are either living in poverty or close to it, in debt up to your ears, or extremely rich.”
There is also the problem with transparency that is not only affecting the citizens and our tax increases but information is being withheld from the city council by the administration. According to charter, the council is the body that is supposed to be making decisions on policy, budget, taxation and fees, not the mayor’s office.
Of course, none of this will end unless people start speaking up. While we will blab at the podium for 2 hours about masks and kids crying about it, we say nothing while our government is literally taking us to the cleaners and telling us nothing about how they are doing it.
Greed is destroying our community and it is being done by ‘supposed’ Christian leaders.
Maybe they need to listen a little bit harder to that guy on Sunday.
The city is spending the COVID “excess” like a drunken sailor on a Saturday night. They haven’t even attempted to scratch the surface on putting that money into the hands of people who truly need it. That is its intended purpose.
You are absolutely correct about the poverty gap in this city. A few million dollars would go A LONG WAY to combating hunger and homelessness while properly funding education and job training programs. You can even take it a step further and earmark a few million more to a property tax rebate program to keep homes affordable. But those immediate needs aren’t bright, shiny objects like lion cages and ice skating circles.
And let’s talk about all of the new potholes after last Monday’s rain. They want to build new streets to undeveloped properties, thus giving those developers a windfall. How about properly maintaining the streets we have so they’re still drivable after every change in the weather? That should be a basic city service.
You mean like cleaning up branches after a tornado. I’m waiting for the Mega Church pothole crew to start filling holes soon. I’m sure that is in the mayor’s toolbox.
Citizens should protest non competitive bid exorbitant inappropriate city hall spending. City budget gets diverted to private parties via devious tactics. Ideally, democratic principles must replace Home Rule Charter. My form of revolt is to buy in Minnesota where there’s no tax on food or clothing and pay for internet purchases with Bitcoin. There’s no sales tax for crypto barter. If enough citizens find methods to defund the city, there will be a bankruptcy and new charter.
“I believe there is a ‘Red Line’ responsibility when it comes to potholes in our town”…. “If they are deep enough, China must offer backfill first”……
I crack up every time you complain about SIRE not working. I root for it to not work. Don’t you think the City is just f***ing with you? I bet it works just fine when they want it to. That’s what makes this so dang funny.
Lol, yes I do think they do it on purpose because the have engaged in a war on transparency and open government, that’s what authoritarians do.
Be nice to your enemies. It drives them nuts and disarms them. And it also causes them to further drink from the cup of paranoia.
SIRE
1. A form of address for someone of high social status, especially a mayor.
2. The male part of a breeding line, especially a mayor.
I often wonder how many of you actually know how many ‘taxes’ the City of Sioux Falls does collect as compared to its over all budget. For a City that prides itself on being fiscally responsible with tax dollars, it’s total “REVENUE” outweighs the taxes collected.
City Taxes which are made up among Sales Tax dollars worth $130,000,000; Property Tax dollars worth $65,000,000; followed by an abundance of Misc-Excises, Duties, and Impost Fees worth $195,000,000 dollars. That comes to no more than $400,000,000 annual tax base.
The CITY spends between $500 to $600,000,000 million a year;
Where does that additional ‘revenue’ come from?
Federal and State Grants, Loans, Bond Holders, Federal Monetary Funds such as the “Care Act Funds”, Interest Income, Employee Contributions to the Retirement System, the Healthcare System, etc.
Scott continues to mislead you into how the “Care Act Funds” are suppose to be used for; the $41 million we got from FEDS for COVID RELIEF given to the City was never intended to given to individuals; they were 100% given to “WE THE PEOPLE” often called the CITY – to use on ‘expenses’ most effected by the so called pandemic due to a so called virus –
The CITY requested the funds in the NAME of the People in order to cover a loss of ‘revenue’ to ensure the city can sustain itself, maintain and pay its contractual obligations, and to provide the basic services to the people.
Keep in mind, the Mayor and City Council did work hard to help create a program to provide ‘relief funds’ to those whom needed it to help pay rent;
And the City Council behind Marshal Selberg is brining forth a plan to provide more economic relief to the people.
Those dollars were used by “local tax dollars” which then the CARE ACT FUNDS” now will replace those tax dollars in order to help pay for continued expenses of the city.
WE DID NOT NEED THE “CARE ACT FUNDS” – I do not believe we were in a pandemic, nor were we in an Emergency, our “TAX DOLLARS” did not go down, the Sales and Property Tax Dollars are still on record pace.
Why pay people NOT to work?
Why allow the Democrats to continue to hijack our economy by paying out large amounts of ‘stimulus’ monies where “WE your greatest stimulus for people like myself is to AVOID the Federal Income Tax completely?
Folks – I made more money since I discovered that I can avoid the Federal Income Tax all thanks to investing in “property”. Used Car Inventory, Land, Houses, Stocks, Bonds, My Labor, etc-etc.
Who needs Social Security, when one can live the rest of his life on the “CAPITAL GAINS” created by that previous INVESTMENT in properties?
The Greatest Stimulus is the one where you “AVOID” those Taxes…
As I travel to Minnesota, and buy goods and services, food, and clothing, I “Exempt” myself from their Sales Taxes which can be as high as 8%; cause its cheaper for me to pay the S.D Sales Tax as much as 6.5%.
How about ‘we’ give the South Dakotans a stimulus rewarding those people who SHOP LOCALY – cut the State Sales Tax from 4.5% to 3.5% allowing them to keep more of their income thanks to shopping inside our borders; while those who shop outside our borders continue to pay the 4.5% rate thus reporting their “Foreign Transactions” and paying the USE TAX RATE.
IF, you do not like how the government spends your tax dollars, then stop paying the tax you choose NOT to pay, period.
The LAND OWNERS are the ‘real’ title owners of the City, they hire the Developers to shape the city in their their image; while giving the “residents” permission to reside within their City.
Keep in mind, even if the Residency dwindles down to less than 250 people, the LAND OWNERS still own the land, which dissolving the city, they receive the royalties from the gains.