Raising taxes on food to build an Events Center is discrimination

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Let’s face it, taxing poor people to pay for an events center they will never be able to afford to visit is discrimination, plain and simple, yet it doesn’t stop our city leaders from pushing this stupid idea. This letter to the editor says it all;

Unfortunately, the current and proposed sales taxes already impact poor and moderate-income folks disproportionately. They pay a significantly higher percentage of their already strained incomes on food and other necessities. This includes baby food and food for older children.

As of May, Sioux Falls had 37 percent of its school children on free and reduced-price lunches. That percentage probably is higher now. South Dakota is 49th in hourly wages.

The Food Pantry in Sioux Falls is reporting a 70 percent increase in requests for food during the past 18 months. We need to eliminate the sales tax on food altogether. To consider raising it again is unthinkable and immoral.

This chart shows the percentage of income paid in taxes compared to what you make. As you can see most of South Dakotans are submitting over 10% of there income to local taxes. Couple that with Federal income taxes and you are looking at a staggering amount of taxes. We must stop the retail tax increase to build the events center, especially on food (Thanks to Bread for the World for the Chart)

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Rumblings of the 2010 legislative session in Pierre

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I talked to a Republican businessman last night about what might be happening in Pierre next year, and two things stuck out;

– A law may be passed to allow 19 yr. olds to drink in beer joints

– Rounds would probably veto any legislation that would allow cities to increase the sales tax

He told me that many legislators are for lowering the drinking age (Dems and Repubs). Eleven other states have done it. But it has to be specific. 19-20 yr. olds would only be allowed to drink beer AND they could not purchase beer off-sale. I guess it is a loophole with Federal highway funding.

And as I mentioned before, the state will probably not give cities the power to raise retail taxes, unless they come to some agreement like letting the state to raise taxes at an equal amount, which we could see our taxes as high as 8%. We’ll see what happens. My prediction is that there would be a citizen uprising and the increase proposal won’t even make it out of committee. Which leaves us at square one, once again with the Event Center.

I still think the council and mayor should just raise the bed and booze tax and start building the damn thing already.

Platting Fee interview 6 PM today – KELO TV

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I got interviewed this morning about my feelings on the platting fees being so low in comparison to the taxes collected for arterial roads (see graphic below). I touched on many topics, but here’s a summary

– I think it is unfair to mandate retail taxpayers to pay an extra tax when the developers are not

– I thought it was pretty obvious the night the council approved the tax increase that we were going into a recession

– I think the tax increase was just a ploy to max out our taxes to what state law allows so that it will be easier for the SF Event Center Task force to ask for another tax increase next year from the legislature.

– I think arterial streets should be built on a DEMAND basis. If developers start moving dirt, we start moving dirt.

– I pointed out that councilors Knudson, Jamison, Litz and Brown all had their campaigns funded by the very special interests that supported this tax increase.

Obviously not all of this will make it into a 3 minute news spot. KELO also interviewed Theresa Stehly and they were planning on an interview with Craig Lloyd, the main developer who was pushing this tax increase. Mark Cotter, city planner, may also be interviewed.

I guess we are only in a recession when it is hurting the developer’s pocketbooks, not the rest of ours.

City of Sioux Falls