Why is the city playing a timeline game with the end of the year financial report?

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While Sioux Falls Finance Director is correct that over the past 3 years the financial report has not come out sooner than the beginning of April, it hasn’t always been a strict timeline. In fact if you look at the last three reports it has been all over the map.

In 2015 it was created on May 29. In 2016 it was created on June 27 and the 2017 report was created on April 6 (the earliest).

In other words the administration could have easily released the numbers by now. We already know they are available from the State Department of Revenue, and since there has NEVER been a strict timeline, and with an election year, why not release those numbers by the end of February? The state has figured out how to put those numbers together (before the legislative session) probably with a smaller staff than the city.

This is just a game the mayor is playing that doesn’t have to be played.

Watch him closely, he will be playing games with city finance and budgeting all the way to the end.

Lyft drivers should have just kept mouths shut about cash tips

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Sometimes I just shake my head when people shoot themselves in the foot. Of course, not sure who did the shooting? May have been councilor Neitzert who is also a Lyft driver (according to Belfrage). Greg was proposing an ordinance change but probably can’t now since it would be a conflict.

Apparently city ordinance says Lyft or Uber drivers can’t receive cash tips (they do anyway). But now if ordinance changes they will have to claim on taxes. Now, since it is policy NOT to receive tips, though they probably do, they don’t have to claim those tips.

If I was a Lyft driver I would not have said anything about it. Oh well. More government regulation, less money for the worker bee.

Mayor Huether admits to having 2017 end of the year financials, continues to selfishly sit on it.

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If you watch the video below you will hear Mike talk about the stable financial situation the city is in, he even admits to seeing the end of the year numbers from 2017. So why hasn’t he released these numbers? If not to the public, at least our legislative body, the city council.

But it would be helpful to the candidates who are running for city council and mayor so they can discuss how they will budget moving forward. But according to Mike it doesn’t matter because the candidates are liars and idiots. Of course he doesn’t use that terminology but does say they are sideline quarterbacks that are saying things that are ‘untrue’. You know, because no one does a better job of hoodwinking the public like he does.

How are the candidates supposed to give us their vision for the city if you sit on important information like this?

I have a feeling Mike and his financial team are busy ‘massaging’ the numbers. Which is stupid anyway. It’s not the administration’s fault if sales tax revenue is down, that’s just reality. A word the mayor struggles with.

He often wonders why people are critical of the things he does, it’s because he continually hides information from the public. Release the end of the year numbers without a fancy circus press conference. The public deserves to see how we did last year.

If you are visiting a tourist site, that makes you a tourist

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Sometimes I think it may be a good idea to drug test legislators, especially when they come up with stupid crap like this. You are either brain dead or on drugs killing your brain cells;

The bill would cut the state’s tourism tax rate from 1-1/2 percent to 1 percent, which wouldn’t leave enough funding for the South Dakota Arts Council.

State Rep. Tom Pischke (R-Dell Rapids) sponsored the bill because he doesn’t like the way the money is collected.

“Let’s say for example, I live in Dell Rapids and I want to take my kids to the children’s museum in Brookings. So I don’t really consider myself a tourist if I drive 30 miles up to Brookings to take the kids to the Children’s Museum. But then again, I’m getting charged a tourism tax,” says Pischke.

The definition of Tourist;

a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure.

Doesn’t matter if Tom lived next door to the museum, he is still a tourist. Oh, but Tom’s argument gets even better;

Pischke says he supports the arts, but doesn’t think the tourism tax should go toward things the SculptureWalk or JazzFest, two recipients of funding from the state art council. He says the collected funds should go directly toward tourism.

Public art is tourism. Do you think people would travel to Mt. Rushmore if there wasn’t a sculpture into the side of that mountain? Where do these legislators come up with this stuff?

How many South Dakota State legislators does it take to screw in a light bulb? Zero. They would be too busy arguing over how to pay for the light bulb, in the dark.

Why do property tax rates continue to rise in Sioux Falls?

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After watching the Sioux Falls school board meeting last night about the possible Sanford donation of land for another school, it got me thinking about property tax rate increases.

Since I have purchased my home about 15 years ago my property taxes have over doubled. In that time I had one small equity loan and a re-finance. Most of the increases have come from rate increases. While I can understand a rate increase with a community that has slow building and housing growth, that hasn’t happened in Sioux Falls. In fact when you think about record building permits over the last five years and the hot seller’s market in housing you would think that rate increases would not be needed due to this massive growth.

There are several ways increases happen. The city can raise property tax rates each year, and they have every year for probably the past 20 years or longer. Minnehaha county also has had several opt-outs along with the school district and now with a new high school looming in 2019, get prepared for another BIG increase in our property taxes.

It also doesn’t help that the county has to fund the drastic increase in criminal justice services through our property taxes. The city really should be helping to pay for incarceration with the 2nd penny and the alcohol tax really should be doubled to help alleviate those costs. It would also help if our PD was properly staffed, trained and paid to help combat crime through prevention instead of whack a mole.

That is why I am confused about the math. How can we continue to add housing and commercial property and have several press conferences about this growth yet have to raise rates consistently? So which is it? Is the massive growth adding to the tax rolls? Damn right it is. So are we being over taxed on our property? Probably, especially on private housing.

Part of the problem is all the cheerleading about building permits is kind of a false pep rally. Many of the big projects in our community are public or non-profit projects. And the ones that are not are getting TIFs or other tax abatements. In other words, the big wheels in town are seeing some big tax cuts while the rest of us are ponying up for infrastructure through higher taxes for projects like Flopdation Park.

The system is clearly broken and the city, school district, county and state need to take a different approach to funding government instead of constantly increasing our property taxes. I had a few solutions above, but I also think we should suspend or end the TIF program. It hasn’t proven that it pays for itself through workforce development or providing affordable housing. TIFs are corporate welfare in Sioux Falls and little else. I would encourage the next mayor and council to seriously look at ending this program and initiating different programs for developers like deregulation to save them money.

Let’s face it, if you are working class in this city you are getting the shaft when it comes to taxes (and don’t think apartment dwellers are immune, the high rental rates are proof property tax rates are high). Sales taxes are also very regressive. Taxing food at a higher rate to supplement teacher was and is a bad idea.

It’s time to stop the incremental property tax rate increases and use common sense when funding essential government services.