Today’s Argus articles indicate I’m not alone in thinking the cost and location of the proposed events center are a deadly combination. Proponents will have an interesting choice deciding whether to bundle it with the rec center if and when a public vote occurs.
As an aside, I’m curious how Pepsi and US Bank manage to show up in the graphics of the events center. And a note to the planners, at least as depicted in the graphic in the Argus, your hockey rink is missing penalty boxes and a scorers’ booth.
Cities that rake in a chunk of their sales tax revenue from non-residents seem to have a rather cavalier attitude toward how they waste such revenue. This is another good reason to deny cities in SD the right to tax sales. The 2% or so rate that cities get should be converted to a state tax for school students..perhaps including college students..on a per student basis.
If city businesses want event centers let them add a business tax on their property taxes.
My guess is that event centers that bring in entertainment groups from out of the state are like a huge money vacuum sucking money from here to NY or California or whereever. That money never again turns over in South Dakota. Even higher pay for teachers and professors would do more for the South Dakota economy.
Whenever business and city leaders talk about “progress” at somebody else’s expense, voters and citizens should be very wary. Progrees is in the folds of their wallets and not in the eyes of sober citizens our rational, disinterested ouside observers.
Your web site (or blog) came up when I googled my name. I see that you are reading, or have read, my book, “Echoes of November, the Life and Times of Senator R. F. Pettigrew of South Dakota.” Do you have an interest in Pettigrew? Or are you a political junkie like me who can’t resist doing something to irrate the conservatives that dominate this state?