What’s the best way to pay for playgrounds for the rich? Tax the shit out of the peasants of course.
Word on the street in Pierre is that it has a very good chance of making it out of committee. This does not surprise me. I guess the committee members have been lobbied pretty hard on the issue. Even if it makes it out of committee I don’t think it will pass the houses, and if it does for some miraculous reason, voters will certainly turn it down in November;
The sales tax bill that could produce a funding source for a new Sioux Falls events center is scheduled for its first hearing today.
House Bill 1198 is scheduled to be heard at 10 a.m. by the House committee on Local Government.
The bill would enable cities to impose a temporary one-cent sales tax for a specific capital project, pending local voter approval.
And it seems Mr. Tax and spend himself will be in Pierre to promote higher taxes, go figure.
A hearing in the House Local Government committee will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. and Mayor Dave Munson plans to testify about the bill. But it’s only the first step in the five-step process of passing the third penny sales tax bill through the legislature.
Score one for the little guys of the world.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100211/UPDATES/100211022
There you have it Events Center Task Force, you picked the wrong funding mechanism to fund the flawed plan you have presented. Looks like it’s time to scrap that plan and start over.
Here’s what we should do:
A. Exercise the option on the Cherapa site & design a nice, modern 12K seat EC that can be expanded to 16K down the road. Budget $110 million.
B. Push the Convention Center SW to Western Ave. Make half of the addition floor space & half parking ramp. Take out the wall next to the Arena & add the modular seating. This would get the CC over it’s requested 100K sf of contiguous space. Budget $30 million
C. Match the School Board’s $5 million to renovate/update HWF. Budget $5 million.
D. Invest $5 million in improving access & parking at the Cherapa site.
$150 million total, $19 million less than the TF had budgeted. Two facilities (which the TF has basically endorsed), with 2 sets of naming rights & phase the project so you can use one while the other is being built. Fund it by floating Muni bonds and pay for it with B&B taxes.
Do that and we’re one up on Sioux City & Fargo. The two places are close enough where they can draw on each other’s capacities, yet far enough away that you don’t have everyone crammed into one area when you have a couple games, a concert and a convention or trade show over the same weekend.