During the Minnehaha County Commission meeting, Jeff Barth cracks a funny after Mayor TenHaken addresses the commission on ‘working together’. TenHaken mentions he already has had lunch with Chair Heiberger and wants to meet with the rest of the commissioners and promises to come to joint meetings.
After his testimony, Barth says, “You have already tied the previous mayor’s record for such a (lunch) meeting (with Cindy).” In which the crowd busts up in laughter, and Cindy replies, “He has already broken the record by one.”
Remember Former Mayor Coors Light & Olives stopped going to joint county/council meetings early in his 1st term after he realized he wasn’t in charge at the meetings.
Funny how our Governor, Attorney General and County Sheriff have admitted to the drastic crime growth in our City and State but our own police department seems to be in denial;
The incredible addictive nature of Methamphetamine has led to a 50 percent increase in meth arrests here in Minnehaha County. Fifty percent in just three years.
Some Sioux Falls leaders deny there is a crime issue. Yes, some arrests are down, but murder, shootings, stabbings and assault are up. Failing to admit the problem helps nobody.
As citizens, we need to demand better. We need treatment for users, bigger prisons for dealers and help for mental health issues. That will cost money, but denial and early release put you and your children at risk.
When the country of Portugal changed their drug policy to full legalization and resources spent on treatment VS. incarceration they saw a drastic decline in addiction. Who figured?
I know what you are thinking, a few contradictions there, but not really. I have often believed a tax hike in alcohol would actually help the bar business and give property tax payers a little relief from paying for criminals.
First the distribution issue. Distributors are clearly fighting this because of greed. But they have their excuses;
Distributors, meanwhile, said allowing craft breweries to work as producer, distributor and retailer in some capacity could create problems for the state in collecting tax revenue and for consumers in ensuring their beer meets quality standards.
Breweries would still be paying taxes and as for the quality issue, that is silly. Distributors ARE NOT testing the quality of the product, if they were Coors Light would no longer be available 🙂 This is clearly a way for distributors to reap a commission for basically doing nothing but acting like a keg taxi. Distributors would still be in the picture anyway for mass distribution. All brewers are asking is to brew more beer and sell it from their locations.
As for increasing the alcohol tax, I agree 100% with Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth that it is silly that property tax payers are footing the bill for crimes related to alcohol. I think if alcohol taxes increase, liquor stores and bars will charge more, which in turn could mean bigger profits and less consumption, which means less crime. MPR has a great story about this.
“Currently, federal and state taxes do not even come close to covering those costs,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, author of a recent article study on state alcohol excise taxes. “Public health is a strong rationale for alcohol taxation. … If we don’t recover the costs related to alcohol sales, then it amounts to a subsidy for people who drink, and who drink excessively.”
I don’t think the habits of casual drinkers would change with a tax increase, but I do think it would help to curb reckless drinking.
Jeff said he wasn’t opposed to TIFs but wished the County Commission could make an independent decision about forgoing their share of tax money instead of the city just making that decision for them.
Dean, being the good Chamber of Commerce brown nosed soldier he is couldn’t let Jeff’s comments stand.
Dean started by peddling the half-truth that TIF’s ‘Don’t take away anything (from the county) because as he put it, “You can’t take away something you don’t have.” Well, Dean, maybe I should tell Pam Nelson that the next time I refuse to pay my property tax bill.
He went on to say he thinks TIF’s are a wonderful development tool AND incentiveĂ‚Â (yes, wonderful to the developer who gets a 13-14 year property tax break*) Does Lloyd who owns thousands of apartment units and pays more property taxes than anyone else in the County really need an ‘incentive’ to the develop? Is the company that destitute? Dean also claims that we don’t buy them the land. No, but with the Lloyd TIF we are really just giving it away. The TIF is $4.1 Million, soil cleanup is $3.1 million and the purchase price is around $900K. The way I look at it, they are getting the land for free.
Jeff responds to Dean that the city is pretty much ‘giving away’ the property (as I have pointed out) he also points out that if the city has these kind of assets/funds to give away, they could have cleaned up the soil themselves at their cost (as I have also pointed out in the past). Jeff sums up TIF’s by saying, “Tools that belong to the city that spite our interest.”
*It’s actually almost 25 years when you consider this property was supposed to be bought and developed by Lloyd over 10 years ago, instead the taxpayers of Sioux Falls sat on this land, collecting ZERO property taxes from it and essentially holding it for the Lloyd Companies. How would you like a 25 year property tax break? Think of all the upgrades you could do to your home?
