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Sioux Falls

Downtown Sioux Falls Property Taxes SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Does the Sioux Falls City Council already have the power to give property tax cuts?

l3wis 6Comments

As l learned on Wednesday there is probably going to be proposed legislation next year that could change TIFs to apply to residential housing. But does the city have to wait for Pierre to make a move?

I don’t think so.

There are already things the city has been doing or are planning on doing;

• A home buying program for police officers and firefighters

• The city can give property tax rebates to homeowners, I think the last mayor to do this city wide was Hanson

• The mayor gives yearly tax rebates to dozens of developers and big employers

• Community development loans either low interest or no interest and federal grants associated with the program

• Councilors Pat Starr and Curt Soehl are exploring elderly property tax rebates

The city council only likely has the power to rebate the city’s portion of the property tax, but over a period of 5-10 years, that is significant savings.

I don’t think the city has to wait for state law to change, I think they have the power right now to start a city property tax rebate program for people who want to buy a home in our core that needs rehabilitation, in fact they could have started this program 20 years ago if they wanted to.

I have been a proponent for over a decade that the city engages in a pilot program in our core that rehabs entire neighborhoods with a combination of public works (streets, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalks, curb and gutter) and individual property owners with fixing up their property with the use of Federal grants, community development loans and city property tax rebates.

So why doesn’t the city pursue this? I don’t have that answer, but if I had to guess it has to do with developer greed and the elite structure of leadership in our city.

So when someone tells you it is hard to rehab poorer neighborhoods in our city because of ‘laws’ I just don’t believe them. The city council in conjunction with the mayor’s office and planning department have all the tools they need to start on a pilot program like this, but their hatred of the working poor is getting in the way of their handouts to the welfare developers.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Nov 16, 2021

l3wis 4Comments

Informational Meeting • 4 PM

Presentations on October financials and City Council legislative priorities for the 2022 legislative session (notice the City Council continues to support TIFs without any evidence of their economic benefit since NO independent study has been done).

Regular Meeting • 6 PM

Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub-Item #12, Centralized Facilities, Public Works Street Division Administration Building Remodel; Agreement for professional services, Stone Group Architects, Inc., $143K (So now we are already remodeling a brand new building? How about we get payment on the de-funk HVAC system first? Or are we still not supposed to be talking about that?)

Item #28, 2nd Reading, Ordinance, AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF ITS WASTEWATER SYSTEM REVENUE BOND, $123 Million.

Item #30, 2nd Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AMENDING CHAPTER 57: GARBAGE AND RECYCLYING OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY PERTAINING TO THE COLLECTION REGULATIONS. (This is going to be a S-Show. I would suggest leaving it as is, and if people want to kindly take their cans down to the end of the driveway, let them. No matter how this goes, the garbage companies have already vowed to raise rates due to inflation, gas prices, labor costs etc. The irony is we can save on all that stuff if we just mandated hauler zones so we don’t have 27 different hauler company trucks driving down the same street on a Wednesday to pick up one can from one house.)

Item #32, 1st Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY BY AMENDING CHAPTER 111: ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. (Due to the Census, this stuff gets changed, or something like that. Anyway, I found it interesting that they increase the initial license fee for full service restaurant $157 and the initial license fee for On-sale dealers $48,286. Huh? I guess you can’t get as drunk at a restaurant? And we wonder why no one wants to get a MJ Med dispensary license in Sioux Falls?)

Item #39, 1st Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, APPROVING OFFER TO PURCHASE REAL ESTATE FROM THE CITY. (Another fire sale to the city’s favorite welfare developer, and this time cleverly done behind closed doors . . . wait. Who appraised this property? Kassidy Peters? Nope, it is THIS COMPANY, interesting that the city used the same appraiser that has the developer buying this as a regular client;

Private Individuals who own apartment complexes, businesses and other independently managed organizations such as The Lloyd Companies, Costello Company, Hefty Seed Company, Sioux Steel Company

That shouldn’t throw up any red flags . . .

District 10 Sioux Falls State Legislature

I moved, kind of

l3wis 5Comments

Ever since I have owned my home I have lived just barely in District 13. The district used to be pretty balanced but it seems lately it has become ran by Republicans. I have been watching the districting process over the past few months. It seemed that I was destined to be moved to District 10 and I barely slipped in. I welcome it. The District has moved out of Brandon (Thank God) and mostly encompasses the Whittier neighborhood, Beadle and a tiny chunk of McKennan, it also leans Dem. It will be fun to watch how the legislative seats in the District play out in 2022. It’s time to kick Maggie Sutton to the curb and create a left of center district in Sioux Falls.

Charter Revision Commission Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission

Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission denies my proposals based on (non-legal) Opinions

l3wis 4Comments

As I told the Commission at the end of the meeting during general public input, I had NO doubt they would deny my proposals because the CRC kills all proposals unless it comes from the administration in the form of fixing a typo in the charter.

I have reminded the CRC in the past that it was not their job to deny proposals based on their personal opinions but based on the law and if they legally could be on the ballot.

I do believe they had a good argument against my TIF changes proposal based on inserting a whole new section in the Charter. I also think the legislature once again is going to fiddle with TIF qualifications this winter in the legislative session. No harm no foul.

But where I take issue is the comments coming from Chair Justin Smith and Commissioner Anne Hajek when reviewing the other two proposals (directors living within the city and public input) Both said that these measures are ‘micro-managing’ and that they are trying to fix something that ‘isn’t broken’. These are merely personal opinions not based on the legality of the proposals being on the ballot, and two commissioners agreed with me. Commissioner Carl Zylstra voted for both of the proposals and Commissioner Larry Long (a former Judge and AG) voted for the director residence requirement. He said if it wasn’t prohibitive of the city to help pay re-location expenses he could support it.

I offered plenty of evidence that public input at all the public board meetings is broken, but they hung on the fact that it was 5 minutes and Hajek used the tired old argument that the business people and poor school kids had to sit through public input. Once again giving no LEGAL basis why this could not be put on the ballot and be voted on.

At the end during general public input where I informed them they denied my proposals not based on legality and evidence but just personal opinions and assumptions, I also reminded them the reason why the only two people in the audience was Mike Zitterich and I was because they hold the meetings at an inconvenient time for the public. I told them that city government is turning into serving leadership and the city employees and NOT the public. They quickly adjourned.

Charter Revision Commission Sioux Falls

I would like to thank the Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission for their Professionalism . . .

l3wis 0Comments

. . . while hanging me. I can certainly be upset that all 3 of my proposals were killed (as I assumed they would be) I have to admit that I did enjoy nerding out on city government this afternoon, I love talking about these things almost more then underground art and punk rock. Heck, I even got a former Attorney General and Judge, Larry Long to vote for one of my proposals and another commissioner to vote for 2 of my proposals.

I will write a synopsis soon about what happened and why the CRC failed to bring these fair proposals to the ballot, but it all boils down to a disregard of the public and what the ruling class wants. Stay tuned.

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