When talking about Gov. Krazy Kristi Khrome some may wonder if down is up and up is down. Just look at her insistence that AG Jason ‘Might have hit a Jewish Wild Fire Laser Beam’ Ravnsborg’s investigation is going to slow and is too secretive. C’mon Korn Kob Kristi, ever heard of black kettles? While I agree Jason should have been charged or not charged like a long time ago, why are you so concerned about the transparency in that case and not telling the public how you spent our money traveling the country campaigning for a sociopathic liar?
We will get to that in a moment.
I also scratch my head about her Down Syndrome abortion bill (which isn’t as Krazy as the robotic child-like sex doll bill). Do you know that in South Dakota an abortion must be performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy? Did you also know that you cannot test a fetus for D.S. until after 13 weeks? So is this a talking point for Klueless Kristi claiming she is saving these kids? Or a parlor trick to prevent all abortions in South Dakota (even though South Dakota voters have voted Pro-Choice twice). Or a taxpayer funded challenge to Roe v Wade? Could be all three (I know I shouldn’t give her any ideas.)
Which brings us to her resistance to telling us about her security detail expenditures. I think Kristi knows that giving South Dakotans that figure would be much more damaging than just resisting, a trick she learned from her mentor Big Don and his tax returns.
My estimate when you take the number of officers times the number of campaign trips times food, lodging and travel that it is well over $100-200K.
Kristi has made a good argument that she already has a security detail, but most likely they wouldn’t have to travel as much if she wasn’t campaigning. Heck Wild Bill had one to, it was a bullet proof vest under a pale yellow Members Only jacket.
Kristi knows if farmer Joe who supports her finds out how much we spent, Joe wouldn’t be to happy about it.
I’ve complained in the past about the ludicrous nature of city employees in the planning department recommending approval of projects. But a $94 million dollar TIF? Get Out!
Notice that on the actual agenda page there is NO recommendation from staff, but if you look at the attached documents you get this, approval;
Situational factors are also evaluated in any TIF request with flexibility and discretion, and may include any factor important to elected and appointed officials. Staff recommends approval.
I’m not sure who wrote the sentence above, but in my circles we call that poppycock, horse pucky or in Europe, Bullocks!
While I understand they have to evaluate re-zones and permits, what gives them any authority to simply recommend approval of a $94 million dollar tax rebate?
I have encouraged the city council in the past to either change the charter/ordinance or write a new one that doesn’t allow NON-ELECTED city employees in the Planning Department recommending approval. They should give the PROS and CONS of every agenda item and let the Commission and Council decide.
Oh, and another City Hall mole tells me that the City Attorney even dipped his toes in the water sending city councilors a recommendation of approval. The City Attorney! If this is true, WOW! Not sure what a JAG officer with little knowledge of 1st Amendment rights can contribute to a TIF argument . . . oh that’s right, he has the Mayor’s boot polish on his tongue, my bad, I forgot. He did learn one thing in the military, a good spit shine.
What makes it even more egregious in this case is that they have NO basis that this is a good plan, in fact all they do is quote state law;
Tax Increment Financing is an economic development financing tool established by Chapter 11-9 of South Dakota Codified Law. TIF’s allow property tax dollars from a specific geographic area to be applied towards eligible public and private capital improvements and to stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state by utilizing the anticipated increase in property tax— known as positive increment— generated from a project to reimburse for improvements determined as eligible by the municipal governing body. Improvements are typically financed and paid off in future years through the tax increment proceeds.
They also make this assumption without backing it up with data;
Project Details The property included in the district boundaries are part of Foundation Park, which is a development park owned by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. In an effort to promote development of the property, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation has requested Tax Increment Financing to offset the costs associated with preparing the property for development and to stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state. The request is substantiated by economic development that will be generated through growth in taxes by a development site of this scale.
As I have mentioned in the past they have never done a comprehensive study about TIFs to prove that they ‘stimulate and develop the general economic welfare and prosperity of the state’ and they never will because it will only prove what TIFs really are; corporate welfare and little else.
UPDATE: The simple video below from our friends up North explains quite simply how TIFs raise taxes on the rest of us while the receiver of the TIF gets a nice little treasure chest (It gets juicy at about 5:10) H/T MLZ.
Notice the mention of a ‘TIF Account’ this of course will be held in a private bank. I’m not sure which bank would be used, but it is highly likely that the city and development foundation will use the one the city uses for it’s accounts now, you can guess which one that is.
Also notice the mention of ‘Bonds’. The city and state almost exclusively use one bonding company. You see where this money trail is going . . .
She also does a fine job of explaining how the original intent of TIFs was to clean up slums but now has been changed. She doesn’t flat out call it a scam, but the half-way sarcastic grin and partial eye-roll gives it away.
The best part is when she essentially explains how the rest of us will have to make up for this $94 million dollar TIF by increasing our taxes on over a billion dollars in valuation. OUCH!
She also talks about the ‘buddy system’ that is alive and well in Sioux Falls between the developers, the planning department, the mayor’s office and the city council which why I have argued for years is ripe with corruption. Remember the city holding onto land for a certain developer, tax free for over a decade at Phillips to the Falls then giving a TIF to boot for luxury apartments?
The video shockingly ends with my argument about using mini-TIFs for everyone in the city.
Oh, and I love the ending where she pretty much blows a hole in ‘urban renewal’ stating what it really is, higher taxes for the rest of us.
I know a lot of people think I blow a lot of smoke about TIF’s but this video is from a leading policy agency in a neighboring state.
I haven’t heard anything concrete, but the rumor is since Swanson took over it is pure chaos. I guess she has been admitting to employees that she in over her head. This is what happens when you elect someone based on the letter behind their name instead of qualifications. Just look at our State Legislature who continues to write bills to enrich themselves and friends while taking freedoms from us.
Swanson had ZERO management experience and from what I am hearing, doesn’t really know what goes on in the treasurer’s office. I could have guessed this after reading her Facebook posts that were incomprehensible.
I guess the Auditor’s office isn’t much better, he isn’t fairing well either.
Folks, this is why one-party rule hasn’t worked for us.
With all the madness this past year with elections we may have forgotten that there is another local one just a couple of months away.
The school board election will be stand alone with 13 vote centers and a strong emphasis on early voting at the IPC. The school board approved the date at the January 11, 2021 meeting in the consent agenda, so there was probably little fanfare. While I don’t take issue much anymore with vote centers, I think they need to make sure that they are fairly spread out in the city unlike during the bond election where I believe there was either only 1-2 precincts North of Russell Ave. I still think this is a form of voter suppression and I asked the ACLU to look into during the school bond election with NO response. They are too busy in Pierre chasing wing-nuts during the annual gathering of paranoid bigots we call our state legislative session (not all of them, just 90%).
School board members Todd Thoelke and Kate Parker terms are up, not sure if they are going to run for re-election, but it sounds like Kate is leaning yes and Todd is leaning maybe. Would like to see someone with a little clout challenge them, especially since Kate has been there since 1953.
Has anybody heard of any names? Maybe we need to recruit Pam Nelson back to the board she got her political start in.
Speaking of ‘Tifilicious’ while our city council is drooling over another ridiculous $94 million dollar tax rebate slush fund to dangle carrots at Asian investors, while we have gotten the shaft on the Midco Aquatic Center windows (still waiting to hear the final on that) and the failed HVAC at the City Center (haven’t heard a peep about that either) or the $26 million dollar bunker ramp to nowhere with a foundation that could hold an aircraft carrier (still no clue how that lawsuit is going either) we have another ‘Tifilicious’ project kind of just flopping in the wind; Sioux Steel project.
As we learned last year due to Covid, the project was delayed and had to be revamped. Understandable. My suspicion is if this project ever does get going again, it will be mostly apartments since Covid has kind of made office space and hotels not a very good investment. But I am wondering 1) why the original TIF hasn’t been rescinded (especially with the South Korean Egg Roll factory TIF on the horizon) and what’s going on with it?
Usually if construction projects are going to break ground in late spring or early summer, the deal is done by February, but we have not heard a peep. I think if the city council doesn’t hear the revamped plans by Feb 1st they need to rescind the original TIF immediately. I have a feeling we won’t see any groundbreaking in 2021 for this project. Maybe they should look into building a Canadian frozen burrito factory on the land, that’s a sure fire way to get a TIF!
l3wis 
