As I have complained about in the past, it rubs me the wrong way that the Sioux Falls Planning staff recommends approval or denial of items on their agenda. It is the job of the Planning Commission to study the merits of a proposal from the information staff provides, it is NOT the job of public employees to recommend approval. Layout the plan, show the compatibility than let the Planning Commission decide based on the information.
While zoning and development in general is one thing, a massive 20 year, multi-million dollar tax rebate is totally different.
The Planning Commission can deny this proposal simply based on the fact that we don’t really know if the TIF will be beneficial or not. Denying the TIF would simply mean the PRIVATE developer would have to go back to the drawing board, the citizen taxpayers would not be harmed one iota if this was denied. In fact I would go step further and say that approving this TIF would be harmful to the 100% property tax paying citizen of our city because we would have to pay more in taxes to prop up this private venture.
I still think the city council needs to pass an ordinance forbidding planning staff or any public employee (that is hired, not elected) from recommending approval of endeavors that benefit private business. It’s unethical, if not highly suspect.
Dustin does a nice job of explaining the proposed TIF. While I disagree with ‘editorilizing’ the proposal, at least he does explain it in detail. I believe the TIF will pass 8-0. I don’t think one single councilor has the appetite to vote against it. What I do hope though is they negotiate a better deal for the taxpayers. I would really like to see the parking ramp FREE 24/7 not just at nights and weekends (unless you are using a valet service from the hotel/convention center). I would also like to see a non-compete clause with the CVB when it comes to the kind of conventions they book there. We are really cutting the private developer a ‘blank’ check’ worth well over $30 million (TIF + BID + River Greenway). I also struggle with the $25 million dollar yearly economic impact. Whether the place gets built or not, people still have other places to stay downtown, eat downtown and park downtown. That money is being spent already with or without this project. All they are saying is that money is being re-directed to their site from other competition that already exists in Sioux Falls and Downtown.
While I have no reason to argue with the data (maybe a little), what they left out of their presentation this afternoon at the informational meetingwas that the supposed $25 million dollar a year economic impact doesn’t come from the owners of the development, it comes from their customers, whether local or visitors. They also left out that a large amount of this ‘economic impact’ goes straight into their pockets. So really, what is the justification of the TIF and BID Tax rebates?
When you build a ‘for profit’ business in a capitalist society, you expect to make a profit. Why should you be also rewarded tax breaks? I would think a ‘for profit’ private business that is expecting to have a $25 million dollar impact a year, wouldn’t need any handouts, breaks or rebates. I would think they would be smiling all the way to the bank and simply thanking the city for issuing the permits.
When I look at TIFs I always ask the same question, “What is the benefit to the public as a whole, you know, the ones who have to pay higher property taxes to supplement this TIF?” While I appreciate the study, the only thing it shows me is the money that it will be generating will mostly be helping them.
I would be willing to still give a BID and TIF to the development, but only for the benefit of the city. As I have suggested in the past, I think the city should gift them Kiwanis Park and grant them a TIF for the amount it would take to redevelop that part of the project and forgo the additional $10 million it is supposed to cost taxpayers to redevelop the river greenway, which really makes this a $32.6 million dollar tax break when you add it all together.
I think the city council should amend this TIF, make it a lot smaller and reduce the TIF time limit to 5 years.
After hearing the council tonight discuss the TIF, I have no doubt this will pass. And hey, if you want to support corporate welfare based on a study the developer produced (not the public) so be it, but at least ask for a study that shows the REAL benefit to the rest of us in this community who are paying 100% of their property taxes and always have. You know why they will never produce such a study? Because they won’t like the results.
You also have to take into account, the study they did on economic impact is a ‘prediction’. The study I have asked for is of our current TIFs and what benefit we are getting from them. This would give us REAL data to base their prediction on. Government should never base a 20 year, multi-million dollar tax break on ‘predictions’ of what could happen, but should base them on actual data that already exists. Will they have to courage to ask for it? Probably not.
Hultgren Construction has been sentenced to one-year probation for “willful violation of the OSHA Act, causing death to an employee.†The company pleaded guilty to the federal misdemeanor in September.
They were also issued a $50 fine (which I doubt they will pay since the LLC is bankrupt).
While I could go on about worker safety laws in SD and even nationally and the lack of any local investigation of the collapse, I want to talk about something else; How easy it is to form and dissolve LLC’s in SD, something our MSM in SD needs to dig in a little;
To dissolve your Limited Liability Company in South Dakota, there is a $10 filing fee required.
I believe the charge to form an LLC with the state is around $150.
While Hultgren and others involved with this mess are paying a separate settlement, the LLC’s that were formed and dissolved throughout this have protected ‘the people’ involved.
I know I have beat this dead horse before, but our state legislature is a joke. Only in SD we would find it appropriate to charge people with a crime for ingestion, think industrial hemp is recreational pot, but if someone collapses a building do to negligence and kills a person, they walk away with NO jail and a $50 fine.
We need to start lawfully connecting LLC’s to ‘PEOPLE’. You know, the people who own them. An LLC is just a piece of paper, it can’t kill anyone on it’s own.
I would hope our legislature would revisit our LLC laws, but since a lot of the members probably own a lot of LLC’s themselves, I won’t hold my breath. Another sad, sad, sad day for justice and workers in South Dakota.
The first thing he does in this interview is blame the last guy for the problems with the Bunker Ramp. While there is ‘some’ truth to that, he could have put the brakes on immediately after he took office, instead he took a piece of toilet paper signed by developers that said they were good for the money.
Then he says he doesn’t want to do an audit until after it is finished, while that is SOP, and I get it from a financial standpoint, there is NOTHING stopping him from looking into what went wrong RIGHT NOW. That doesn’t take an audit to achieve, it requires him doing his job as the city manager and city employees boss (his main job according to charter) and putting a boot up their butts or at least a stern talking to and get them on investigating what went wrong before we sign on the dotted line for another developer to finish it.
He once again fails to lead.
I really believe one of the reasons the deal fell through towards the end is because of the Sioux Steel development and potential for a TIF funded parking ramp.
This is pure speculation of course, but think about it for a moment, what if they would have allowed the Bunker Ramp Hotel to be ‘scaled back’ and finished? That means a nice hotel in the center of our downtown would have opened at least a year before the Sioux Steel Hotel and Convention Center. Things that make you go hmmmmmm. I won’t get into all the players involved, but something smells funny here.
Towards the end of the interview, PTH continues to blabber about charging non-profits for police assistance, China and Kermit.
