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Denny Sanford Premier Center

Denny Sanford Premier Center Downtown Sioux Falls Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls

What is the difference between an Advisory Election and a Bond Election?

l3wis 2Comments

First the definitions;

An advisory question is a type of ballot measure that is non-binding, meaning the outcome of the ballot measure has no legal effect on a state’s laws. This type of ballot measure is also known as an advisory referendum, advisory vote, or non-binding ballot measure.

A Bond Election is a type of ballot measure in which voters decide whether to authorize a local government to issue bonds to pay for specific projects or services. It is typically used to fund public works projects such as roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. The money raised by the bond issue is usually repaid by raising taxes or other revenue sources. Bond elections are often held in conjunction with other elections, such as municipal or county elections.

We had an advisory election with the Events Center. After citizens voted 54% in favor of building the Denty the city council had to take LEGAL action to take out the bonds, in which they did.

If the election was an actual ‘bond election’ it would have taken a 60% passage to pull the bonds, and since this is a LEGAL election, there would be very little action from the city council to initiate those bonds because the citizens LEGALLY approved the bonds in a LEGAL election.

I am often saying that an advisory vote is actually ILLEGAL because NO LEGAL action is being taken by the public in an election. I have encouraged councilors to have a LEGAL bond election with the Rec bonds and CC bonds. First it makes their job that much easier and secondly you are giving citizens the ability to tax themselves if they choose to (we will need an extra penny sales tax in order for the bonds on the CC to work).

If the city pulls an advisory election on the CC, I encourage any local attorney to sue the city for their ILLEGAL election.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

The SF Storm gets the boot, Stampede is likely next

l3wis 4Comments

I have been hearing about this for a few years, but since nothing was canceled until now, I really didn’t know how to blog about it, not to mention, I really don’t like sports, yawn, so I really don’t care. It takes a ton of needling from my friends to just watch a quarter of an NFL game.

Before we get to the Storm, let’s talk about the Stampede. I had not been to the Denty since the Foo Fighters played there until this past Sunday. I attended an afternoon Stampede game with some friends who had box seats. The one thing I noticed is that the Denty hasn’t aged well, and while it is only 10 years old, it looks extremely outdated and the random wall wrap ads on the walls look tacky, surprised there wasn’t Dale Earnhardt flags on the wall to. So we know not only the inside of the Denty needs a good remodel, the outside needs a ton of maintenance and the siding will have to be repaired. Normally those expenditures would come from the entertainment tax, but since the Pavilion eats it up like candy and Mayor Poops plans to use the tax to buy the Riverline District land, it seems the Denty will be hobbling along like it’s big sister, the Arena and middle sister the Convention Center. It almost seems intentional to drive interest away from that area to promote a shiny new Convention Center. RATS!!! Oh, the Stampede, I have heard rumors that they are facing the same result. I hand counted the crowd at Sunday’s game in 5 minutes. I have heard they are in negotiations with Augie’s ice slab, and that would be great, better setup. I’m guessing we will hear that announcement after a deal is possibly inked.

As for the Storm, they have always struggled with attendance, so this wasn’t surprising. The argument the Denty has had over the past year is that they wanted to free up those sporting event dates for concerts, which makes business sense. But this wasn’t the makings of the management of the Denty, several moles inside of city hall have told me the Mayor has had a personal pressure campaign on management for almost two years to eliminate the leases. While my moles have only gotten a few minor details switched around I find it believable since the mayor has monthly meetings with Denty management.

While I feel bad for Storm fans (I really don’t 🙁 don’t blame management for this one, the Jumping Jacks coach was likely behind this.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Property Taxes Riverline District SF City Council Taxes

Update: Is the city planning on borrowing for NEEDED infrastructure?

l3wis 5Comments

Update: I guess I am not the only one that sees the scam taking place;

Sioux Falls, like most cities in the United States, is running a growth Ponzi scheme. A classic Ponzi scheme involves someone who promises investors a high return on their investment. But, if the investment is not generating revenue, they turn to signing up new investors and using that money to pay the original investors. This may work for awhile but eventually the scheme collapses and investors lose their money.

First off, you DO NOT want to go down that path as a city, once you get behind the 8-Ball there ain’t no coming back. Many cities across the country who have done this have bankrupt themselves.

On Tuesday at the informational meeting the finance director (even though lately he seems to be working for the Riverline investors and NO on Grocery Tax campaign) said the city achieved a new bond rating. After I talked to a few folks I found out they have been pursuing this rating for years so they can BORROW and BOND for NEEDED infrastructure, like ROADS.

Why would the city want to do that? Because it frees up the 2nd penny for bond payments on play palaces. Take the proposed Convention Center. The bond payments on that project will be $40 Million+ a year for 30 years. Thru August of this year the 2nd penny has only collected $60 million. Let’s say we hit $100 million for the year. That would leave us very little for road repairs. Not to mention all the other debt service.

There is another option, a 3rd penny, which is a hard sell.

You never ever want to borrow for road projects while spending money on crap we don’t need. If this Convention Center passes it will bankrupt this city without another special tax to cover it.

WE MUST STOP THIS INSANITY NOW!

There are options. Citizens or the City Council can refer an ordinance to voters in the next election that would require any bonds over a certain amount (let’s say $30 million for reference) would go to a LEGAL STATE BOND election which requires a 60%+1 passage and not this silly fake advisory vote that the councilors keep parroting. The citizens NEVER approved the Denty, the city council did.

This could work and I think citizens would have 6 months to collect the sigs. Let’s put a stop to this stupidity while we still can.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center

Congressional hearing proves our Premier Center is a money vacuum

l3wis 3Comments

If you watch the hearing below you will see just how much of your ticket purchase goes to the big guys and how very little goes towards the artist. What is left out of the discussion is just how much money stays in our community. Very little. I have argued that when you spend money locally on entertainment that money gets re-circulated in the community when you spend it at the Denty most of it goes straight out of town. And SALES don’t reflect profit which doesn’t even cover 10% of our mortgage payment;

It was the Premier Center’s most profitable year yet, coming in at $2.1 million compared to the previous record of $1.5 million set in 2019.

And just how much of that ‘profit’ goes back to city coffers?

Denny Sanford Premier Center Levitt Pavilion Multi-cultural center SF City Council Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion Zoo

With Non-Profit Mergers you wonder what they have in the bank

l3wis 6Comments

This week was busy with another non-profit merger;

The Butterfly House & Aquarium has raised $4.2 million toward its capital campaign to expand aquarium exhibits, which can be applied toward the project, Otto-Pepper said.

Of course the Butterfly House is merging with the Zoo and it seems they have raised a lot of money.

LSS is also merging with the Multi-Cultural center, which I fully support, and probably is long past due.

But you have to wonder what is going on with their bank accounts.

As you know, the Levitt has yet to release numbers from their 2021 season even as their 2022 season has been finished for over a month.

The Denny Sanford Premier center is up for contract renewal and they are taking in millions in profits and commissions.

According to the Pavilion’s annual report in 2021 they had over $5 million in the bank. This is after basically skipping a year due to Covid. You also have to remember that we not only give the Pavilion a yearly operational subsidy but we give millions each year fixing the building due to the poor construction of the facility to begin with (windows, roofs, etc.)

Maybe it is time the city council takes a hard look at how much we are subsidizing these facilities taking into consideration how much is in their bank accounts. Do we really need to subsidize the Pavilion, the Zoo, the Denty and other facilities when they may have millions in their bank accounts. I don’t think so.

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