March 2024

Property taxes are high in Sioux Falls. Duh.

l3wis March 19, 2024 3Comments

I guess if you report stuff 3 or 4 years after the fact, it doesn’t hurt as much?

A sampling of Sioux Falls-area residents responding to property tax valuation and resulting property taxes drew a consistent theme:

“Horrified,” one said.

“Severely risen,” another said.

“Absolutely robbery,” said another.

And finally: “At least I don’t feel all alone.”

You’re likely far from alone if your home’s assessed value has risen by double-digit percentages in recent years.

In Minnehaha County, the average increase in 2024 assessed valuations went up 9.1 percent compared with 2023. From 2022 to 2023, it went up 14.4 percent on average. The year before that, the increase was 18.4 percent.

Lincoln County recently saw a 8.7 percent average increase in valuation for 2024 versus 2023, following a 16 percent increase the prior year and a 14 percent increase from 2021 to 2022.

They F’ing railed me for 3 years, and I fought it, but no luck. I have owned my home 22 years this year, and in the first 17 my tax increases were either 0% or 1-2% and that changed because of this;

“We were playing catchup for many years, starting in 2016 to 2021, for sure,” said Karla Goossen, Lincoln County director of equalization. “So some folks saw a larger increase than the average and still this year as well.”

Government should NEVER play catchup! You work with the yearly coffers and budgets and everything starts anew next year. If you screwed up in the past, that’s on you, and you need to move forward with normal increases until you catchup. That may take 3-5 years, it may take 20, who cares?! If you think you were underfunded in years past, that is NOT the fault of the taxpayer, that is leadership issues, and why should WE pay for past mistakes?

Not to mention our city has over DOUBLE of what they need comfortably in reserves and fund play things to over $40-50 million dollars a year.

I am often amazed that our county, school district and city can even get out of bed in the morning let alone make decisions that affect not only our personal lives, but finances.

Catchup? WTF?! Maybe you should try to make my dead grandparents pay taxes on land they don’t own anymore? Yeah, sounds stupid, because it is.

UPDATE: Mayor TenHaken is good at one thing: LYING!

l3wis March 18, 2024 7Comments

The Mayor’s Main Minion, the Count, decided he needed to back up Paul’s lies with more lies at the city council presser today. No minutes from the Brockhouse meeting, no legal documents, nothing, and it was illegally noticed. Alex tried to pass it off as an honest mistake. Maybe if PTH was just installed, but he has been at this for 6 years, he knows how to hide ‘excessive transparency’ from the public and it was INTENTIONAL. Why else would Alex have to show up and defend this, because they knew exactly what they were doing. Heck, Alex even admitted it in the presser. “I knew about the meeting . . . I suppose I could have informed people . . .” Yah think? This is why we all know it was intentional and all Alex is doing is covering up more of the mayor’s lies. You are lying Alex and so is the Mayor and his staff.

Thank God we are not talking about LIVING animals, because they would be dead by now with all the horsing around.

There was also some other interesting tidbits in the presser. When the councilors were asked why no one is interested in running, Selberg, at first said that we are a ‘strong mayor’ form of government and that policy should come from the mayor’s office.

WRONG!

If that is the case, why even have a council? This is why people are NOT running, they have no power to make effective change, and even if the dictator at 9th and Main let them form policy, there is NO transparency to effectively form that policy in the open.

Oh, and Alex blamed bloggers for why no one is running, which I find completely hilarious considering I am always actively recruiting candidates to the council and have helped 5 of them get elected. And that I am the only citizen who has a blog about the city. It is pretty obvious who you are talking about. So next time, why don’t you just say my name?

But towards the beginning, Marshall Selberg decided to brag about the League of Cities meeting he went to recently. Why on earth are taxpayers paying an outgoing councilor (June) to go to these meetings? What value is in that? ZERO! I have said for a long time that ALL councilor travel should be banned unless they are paying for it out of their own pocket. In the age of ZOOM there is absolutely NO reason to travel to talk about bus stops and bridge building.

Screenshot Keloland

While answering questions about being a closed government shlep, the mayor throws an evil smile when saying this;

“It’s not something that minutes are posted online, because it’s not an official city board or commission. So we’re trying to be as aboveboard as possible and all this including making the meetings open… We’re doing it out of excessive transparency and letting people know, what’s going on with the Delbridge. So we’re already going above and beyond what’s legally required.” said Mayor Paul TenHaken.

So how many lies were in this paragraph?

1. LIE #1, the meeting is made up of public officials, in a public building, open to the public, it would make it ‘official’. The Public Works quilt club that meets at Marge’s house on Wednesday nights, would be considered ‘non-official’ and would not have to post the meeting online. It is an official board of the city and should follow the proper rules of posting. LIE #1.
2. LIE #2, An open meeting exists once being properly noticed to the public. It was NOT properly noticed. LIE #2.
3. LIE #3, ‘We’re doing it out of excessive transparency’. DOG WHISTLE! I wondered why he made a snide face when he said this, because it is total BS and rhetoric; ‘Excessive sharing of information creates problems of information overload and can legitimize endless debate and second-guessing of senior executive decisions.’ Basically he is making fun of transparency because as the dictator of the city he feels his decisions should NOT be questioned. LIE #3.
4. LIE #4, ‘So we’re already going above and beyond what’s legally required.’ He is doing the exact opposite and pretending he is not. How can you say you are following the rules as a government entity, but then say you are not an official government entity? So which is it Poops? LIE #4.

I used to think that awful smell every night was coming from the Communist Packing Plant, but apparently it is coming from city hall and white church lane.

Happy Lent!

l3wis March 17, 2024 5Comments

So I have been trying to craft this toon about I.V.F. and King Cakes, as you can read, King Cakes have a baby plastic Jesus inside the cake. This is the first year I have not had a piece of King Cake in a long time, and I always find the baby. So I was trying to make a joke about King Cakes and IVF, and had no luck, so I pitched it to a friend, who is actually pro-life, because I wanted a different perspective on it, he gave me this which I think is better than my macabre idea;

Sioux Falls City Council Candidate forum moderated by Mayor’s minion

l3wis March 17, 2024 9Comments

As I was watching the Forum Thursday night, something seemed odd, why was this guy I have never seen before who works for a local ad agency and somehow is associated with the Chamber moderating this event?

Than they introduced him, Ryan Budmayr. So who is Mr. Budmayr? Not only was he TenHaken’s campaign manager, he has ran many of the Mayor’s rubberstamper campaigns, including, currently, Richard Thomason’s and is the Mayor’s Facebook page moderator.

So how does the mayor’s minion get installed as the moderator and were the questions pre-sent to the chosen four?

You guys (voters) still haven’t figured out how this works? Have you?

d

Sioux Falls Election Voting Records of Council and School Board Candidates

l3wis March 17, 2024 1Comments

Some of them did better than most, but some decided it may be a good idea to register right before deciding to run.

The winner of public service hypocrisy? Jennifer Sigette, who decided to register to vote right before she announced she was running for the seat that is now uncontested. As someone who bragged during the candidate forums she has made Sioux Falls her home for the last 25 years and worked in various non-profit settings never voted in a city election.

Or Mr. Burn down the government, Stuart Willett who literally registered to vote one day, and wrote his name down as a candidate the next day?

Whenever these clowns say they want to serve the public and ‘give back’ I ask what they have contributed so far. And it seems having NO experience or knowledge in local government is the secret sauce to getting elected.

Guess whose voting record beats them all?

Ehrisman, Scott –   12  local election voter since at least 02/13/2003

2024 Candidates

Murren, Marc –    8  local election voter since at least 09/27/1993

Starr, Patrick –   11  local election voter since at least 10/28/1992

Tibbetts, Bobbie –    4  local election voter since at least 10/23/2007

Swenson, Gail –   10  local election voter since at least 05/02/2001

Willett, Stuart –    0  local election voter since at least 02/05/2024

Sigette, Jennifer –    1  local election voter since at least 11/13/2023

Basye, Miranda –    2  local election voter since at least 04/18/2013

Jeske, Neil –    0  local election voter since at least 10/04/2022

Zokaites, David –    9  local election voter since at least 03/19/2012

Spellerberg, Ryan –    5  local election voter since at least 09/25/2009

Deffenbaugh, Jordan –    4  local election voter since at least 01/11/2017

Thomason, Richard –    5  local election voter since at least 01/25/2012

RENVILLE, ALLISON –    0  local election voter since at least 09/22/2004