UPDATE: Final Sioux Falls School District Bond Task force meeting

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UPDATE: Looks like they will be asking for $190 million dollar bond in a stand alone election in September. Never pass. Never. If they get 45% I would be shocked. The only saving grace of the night is that they will assess us over 10 years and incrementally raise taxes over that time period. They are going to sell this to us as a $3 a month increase ($185K valuation).

One of the best ideas of the night came from Public Works Director Mark Cotter (who I think knows passing the $190 million is going to be a challenge). He suggested a $126 million dollar bond and pay for the rest with capital outlay funds. He got poo-poo’d right away. They were quick to point out that they can’t trust Pierre and they may need that money for other stuff. In other words, get as much as we can and hey if the outlay money is still there, we’ll spend that to. A lot of greedy people run our school district.

The final meeting will be tonight at 5:30 PM at the IPC.

The group is expected to come up with a final price-tag and what exactly that will be paying for. They will also be discussing an election date. I think they are shooting for $150 million.

The Superintendent wants the election in September as a stand alone, which I think is a bad idea and will not get the 60% passage required, I think they would be better off having it in November.

I think they are assuming they will have a lower voter turnout which equates to a better chance of passing the bond issue. In other words they are going to appeal to people who they think will be willing to pass it. Sometimes this works, in this case I don’t think they will get passage for either date. I think they need to get the bond at or under $100 million. If they go with the $150 million price tag, that will equate to a $100 a year for every $100K valuation of home in property taxes.

While I know we need to build new schools, I think they should scrape some of the money from other sources and get the price tag down below $100 million. I also think they need a long range to 5 year plan in build all of the schools, spreading the expense out. I will vote against it if they can’t get it down to $100 million, and I have a feeling most people will to. I would be surprised if they even get 40% in favor of it.

Don’t believe the platting fee ‘Ruse’

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We were told a decade ago that when we increased our 2nd penny to a full penny (.092 to .100) that developers would kick in another 50-60% in platting fees to help build arterial roads. That never happened. In fact taxpayers have kicked in around 8 to 10x more (from the .08 increase) than developers have. It really doesn’t generate much at all. When you consider we spend well over $40 million a year on roads in Sioux Falls (it may even be higher than that) platting fees only kicked in around $2.4 million in 2017, most of which came from US in that tax increase.

But there are some that think developers are literally paying to build our arterial roads, they are not, they are contributing, but not paying 100%. That’s why I really don’t understand this statement;

Sioux Falls real estate developer Darrel Viereck was one of the early backers of platting fees a decade ago.  Many developers didn’t want to pay the additional cost.  But Viereck saw the city was poised for a building boom, despite the recession.

When in reality, developers are not really contributing much of anything to our roads fund. But they can keep telling that same old lie.

Makes you wonder if TenHaken’s new COS gently nudged Stormland TV to do this story, or if Darrel was just bitching about something again. Who knows?

The SD Republican Party & their ‘Goofy’ ads

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Forget about my legislative experience, let’s talk Bible.

It’s one thing to put out ads that are just blatantly false, but some of the candidates for the primary are just blatantly ridiculous. I wonder if the SD GOP has depended on SD voters being ignorant and naïve for so long, they just expect any crap they throw at the wall will work.

Let’s start with Shantel Krebs. She wants to ‘drain the swamp’ (still don’t know what that means) and build a wall. I won’t comment on Trumpian talking points, but seriously Shantel?! Build a wall?! Are we afraid too many Mexicans are coming here from Nebraska? Mexicans have been immigrating to the Midwest for over a century. Not sure how building a wall is even an issue in South Dakota. How about finding a way to increase wages in SD so the Mexican immigrants stop taking our jobs.

Let’s move on to Marty Jackboots, who seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth lately, wait, he has always done that. In his ads he talks about keeping taxes low, than turns around and runs to DC to enforce South Dakotans have to pay online sales taxes. So which is it Jackboots? Let’s face it, sales taxes are extremely regressive, and as the economy continues to tank, more ways to bleed water out of a rock are not sustainable. It’s time to reduce sales taxes to luxury items only and implement a state income tax.

Oh, and who can leave out Princess Noem. Apparently she is qualified to be governor because in her latest ad her supporters say she believes in God and has figured out reproduction. This one actually confuses me. Instead of touting her DC experience and Pierre experience they talk about God and Sex. Weird.

I’m sure after the primary things are going to get even more strange.

Why has the entertainment tax collection been dropping since The Denty opened?

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Well, I don’t know the answer to that question. BUT, I have speculated quite often on this. I have often argued that the Denty has actually been a financial drain on our city, and not just in a mortgage payment.

So why is it with so many people coming to Sioux Falls for sold out shows at the Denty the entertainment tax has been dropping?

My theory is that more and more people are dropping their entertainment dollars on tickets at the Denty, those dollars go directly to the artists and promoters and directly out of town. In other words, they are not spending that money on authentic local entertainment. Not only has it caused collections to go down, it is NOT getting recirculated in the community.

While it is nice we can see world class acts in Sioux Falls now, it has acted like a vacuum taking money out of the coffers of local entertainment.

Ironically the Mayor had a press conference today peddling more lies about how ‘profitable’ the Denty has been. He said that after operational costs, it made $2.1 million PROFIT last year. Ironically they never discuss the $10 million mortgage we pay out of our 2nd penny road tax. They also don’t mention that the city only holds the account on this FAUX profit that SMG controls. In other words, the city coffers (us) never sees the $2.1 million left over after operational expenses. The only money we take in at the end of the day is the $1.9 million in sales taxes it generated last year, which still leaves us far in the hole after paying the mortgage.

He also thanks the voters for passing the Denty with a FAKE, non-legally binding advisory vote. If the voters would have had a LEGAL bond vote on the EC, it would have never passed.