SF City Councilors now have to Read the Business Journal in order to get the financial report from the city

“As long as people keep eating out, we will skate thru this recession, no problem.”

Like I said in a previous post, this week has been rather odd at city hall, to say the least. As you know on Monday at the informational meeting, city finance director, Eugene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst forgone his financial report, because ‘He just did not have time to get it prepared’ because he was too busy trying to scare our petition drive. He said the council and public MAY get the report Wednesday or next Monday. So it was a little surprising when I opened the SF Business Journal (Argus Leader) and saw the city’s financial report.

So our local newspaper has dibs on the report before the City Council, City Clerk’s office and the public?! Obvious the story could not have been written later than Tuesday.

On Monday, Eugene said the report is rather good and everyone will be pleaseantly surprised when it is released;

Sioux Falls’ sales tax revenue grew at about one-fourth its normal pace last year.

The revenue increased 1.7 percent for the general fund and 1.6 percent for the capital improvement fund, City Finance Director Gene Rowenhorst said. For nearly 20 years, Sioux Falls averaged between 6.5 percent and 7 percent growth in sales tax revenue from one year to the next.

That’s good news?! Is Munson requiring everyone to wear his rose-colored glasses now?!

Eugene justifies his ‘Good News’ because everyone is still ‘Dining out.’

Rowenhorst said one interesting fact is that revenue from the city’s 1 percent entertainment tax on food and beverages increased 7.3 percent in 2008 – above the city’s anticipated growth rate.

“People must still be going out to the restaurants, enjoying a meal out,” he said. “It’s kind of a phenomenon we find interesting.”

Holy Mackeral! I can’t believe people would be eating out in a town of over 400 restaurants! Must be all those people who are going to the food pantry and asking that their kids eat for free at school! “Yeah, we gots money to eat out, because we pay nothing for food at home! Now if we can just get the Pantry to carry beer and cigs!”

The Argus also had another interesting tidbit to share with us;

Economists expected the state’s unemployment rate to rise to 3.9 percent by late this year, Rounds told lawmakers last week. But a new report shows it hit 3.9 percent in December, at least a half-year earlier than anticipated, he said. That’s well above the 2.9 percent recorded in the same month a year earlier.

But as long as people are still eating out, WHO CARES!!!!