“In Mayor TenHaken’s letter, when he talks about the integrity of the election, I have to question his integrity,” Barth said during the Minnehaha County Commission meeting.
This appears to be what I have said it was from the beginning, blatant partisan voter suppression by Mayor Stoneless, and Jeff reiterated that at the meeting. Just look at how he has moved the goal posts in just a few days, first it was about ‘Security’ and when he couldn’t get any traction on that he said it was about ‘State Law’ than when that didn’t stick he said it was about what they do in Iowa.
I will have to agree with Barth, it’s not about any of those things, it’s just plain Bullsh*t coming from a very weak individual who continues to fail at leadership. If Paul had any stones at all, he would come in front of the County Commission and explain to them in person why he won’t do it, or at least send the person who is really running the city, COS Beck, to explain it.
When Paul was elected he had a long history of making a living at being a partisan hack, so I had no question in my mind he would continue that tradition as mayor, and he hasn’t disappointed in that respect. Just like the last guy who made a living from being a salesman, he continued that tradition as mayor.
Folks, in Sioux Falls, Covid is not what ails us, it’s our government.
This is pretty nasty. One of the few offices with the county that actually is still open and risking their health and well being is the treasurer’s office and decide to pick on them. Nelson told me after the meeting she has asked for the plexi-glass for years and didn’t give it to her until now. (FF 1:12)
To bad they didn’t have this concern with the AG’s office. Oh, that’s right, that office costs us money while the treasurer’s office is essential for maintaining the budget and the bloated salaries of our county commissioners. They are nervous, because if that office closes all Hell breaks loose. The only concern our commissioners seem to have right now is if they can collect taxes from us, pathetic.
UPDATE II: I went and talked to the equalization department today. After reviewing the increase, they explained to me that 90% of the increase is land value, in which is formulated different now. We also calculated that my taxes will probably go up $250 dollars next year, which is NOT $2 a month, just for the record.
UPDATE: I decided to go back and look at the records I could find
From 2008-2009 the value of my home went up 1.8%
From 2009-2012 the value of my home went up 0%
From 2012-2016 the value of my home went up 10% (aprox 2.5% per year)
From 2016-2017 the value of my home went up 1.8%
From 2017-2018 the value of my home went up 1.8%
From 2018-2019 the value of my home went up 2.3%
From 2019-2020 the value of my home went up 21.9%
As I predicted and warned people, the school bond, the new county jail and the multiple TIFs we hand out are going to catch up with us. The $2 a month boloney they pitched us was a farce, because I knew they were going to make hay with the assessments. And sure enough they did.
My increased assessments year after year have been steady, but reasonable. I have owned my home for 17+ years and my property taxes have doubled in that time.
I have done little upgrades to my home, except replacing windows, doors, adding new rain gutters a privacy fence and re-shingling after storm damage. I have done NO upgrades to the interior of my house.
So imagine my surprise when I got this in the mail yesterday;
Well, I was NOT surprised, I saw this coming like a freight train. We can’t keep borrowing money in Sioux Falls and not have a way to pay those bonds, so they bleed it out of us through back door tricks like assessments. Can I afford a 21.9% increase in my assessed value? I suppose, but it also means a lot less money in my pocket.
It was interesting listening to the State Legislators talk yesterday at the legislative coffee about state funding of education. Two Republicans made great points;
• The state gives the districts money and the districts decide how that money is spent (salaries, etc.).
• Administrator pay in SD ranks at 15th while teacher pay is at 49th. I haven’t checked that stat, but I know at one time in was around 22nd. There is a obvious disparity.
• Low voter turnout at school elections. The past school bond and school board elections both had around a 4% turnout. Basically the legislator was saying, if you want to have a say on how your local district is being funded, maybe you should show up and vote in these elections. AMEN Brother! But I also have to add their is voter suppression when you use super precincts, no precincts in the northern part of our city and have district finance department employees ‘hand count’ votes, while the business director puts those counts into the system without oversight.
Who knew that owning a house that was built in 1889 could increase in value by almost 22% in one year? Not bad for a home that is 131 years old. What a joke.
For a long time, the MCC has never limited public input time, I don’t even know if they have a rule for it. Obviously with Roberts Rules, they can make up a rule before a special meeting, like they did on Tuesday before the refugee approval meeting.
While I understand telling people they should try to limit themselves to 3 minutes is a ‘nice’ suggestion, being a dictator about it, was a little annoying. MCC Chair Jean Bender was cutting people off left and right. At one point, the former director of the Multi-Cultural Center, Quadir Aware was told to end his testimony, and he went into a rant about the corruption of the MCC. Oh, the irony . . . .
I have seen public input that has lasted for over 20 minutes for one individual, and one time former Mayor Bucktooth and Bowlcut talked for well over 9 minutes during public input about drainage for his swamp lake home.
Like I said, the suggestion of 3 minutes was well within Roberts Rules, etc., but when it comes to a topic as important as refugee resettlement and our foolish president who implemented these rules, if someone went over 3 minutes, so what?! Besides, your meetings start at 9 AM, you really have all day to listen and hash it out, we all know none of you have ‘real jobs’ to get to, especially Jeff and Dean 🙂
When this was first proposed to the Minnehaha County Commission, it sounded like a great idea. But, as we all know, great ideas die really fast when you don’t get buy-in from the residents. I was actually pretty surprised when I watched the MCC meeting on Tuesday that the group proposing this trail never got buy-in from the residents of Wall Lake.
Huge Fail!
Let this be a lesson that when you have a good idea (I still think it is) that you do your research and get everyone on board, or at least a majority on board.
Let’s face it, most people don’t like change, but I think this has more to do with privacy. People live on Wall Lake for a reason, they like the solitude, that’s a given. I wish this would have been more thought out and planned so the residents could still get their privacy while having a great quality of life project around the lake.
