Council supports optional sales tax for cities

The Mitchell City Council expressed its unanimous support Tuesday evening at City Hall for an effort to allow an optional 1 percent of additional sales tax for cities.

The South Dakota Municipal League and the city of Sioux Falls are among the main backers of the proposal. Some Sioux Falls city officials want the extra revenue to help with the cost of building an events center.

The Legislature, which convened last week and meets through March, is expected to consider legislation this session that would allow cities to add the extra tax.

Mitchell Mayor Lou Sebert, a former state legislator, said Monday evening that the legislation contains several requirements: the extra tax would have to be approved by local voters, it would have to be dedicated to a specific project, and it would have to be used to pay off the bonds for that project. After the bonds are paid off, the tax would sunset and any future application of the tax would have to be approved again by voters.

Both Sebert and Councilman Mel Olson, another former state legislator, said that they doubt the additional tax will be authorized by the Legislature.

“The state is really jealous of their sales-tax authority,” Olson said, “and especially in these times, if you were going to raise the sales tax to cover a budget shortfall or whatever, they would want to hang onto that. They wouldn’t give it to the cities.”

Sebert agreed, but said “I think an effort to do that is certainly worth our effort, if you’re interested in it.” Olson concurred.

Purchases in Mitchell are currently taxed at 4 percent by the state, plus the maximum-allowed 2 percent of additional tax applied by the city. On top of those taxes, the city also applies the maximum-allowed 1 percent of additional tax to lodgings, alcoholic beverages and prepared food.

Some Mitchell city leaders have been attempting for years to build a bigger athletic arena, and it’s thought by some that an additional 1 percent of sales tax could make the project affordable.

In 2008, the most recent year of published statistics, each percent of Mitchell’s 2 percent sales tax resulted in about $4.6 million of revenue.

City property review

A city-owned lot near the middle school and two at the intersection of Burr Street and Ash Avenue could soon be up for sale, judging by comments made during the Public Properties Committee’s review of city-owned real estate.

The review focused on a city map that was prepared by the Public Works Department and displayed on an overhead projector. The map, which is a work in progress, was shaded red in places where the city owns property.

Mayor Sebert said he requested the review, because he believes some city-owned properties are of no use to city government and should be sold. The city is currently considering a swap of some wooded, city-owned land near the lake for a parcel of privately owned land adjacent to the city’s new soccer complex, but that swap was not discussed Monday evening.

Deputy Public Works Director Terry Johnson led the review. As he showed various parts of the map to the committee members (the committee consists of five City Council members), he paused periodically to allow discussion.

Sebert singled out a parcel of land located on the east side of the Minnesota Street and Eighth Avenue T-intersection. It’s believed that the lot was given to the city years ago by an owner who didn’t want to clean up an accumulation of concrete rubble. The city accepted ownership of the land and cleaned up the rubble but now has no apparent use for the property.

Council President Jeff Smith inquired about the two city-owned lots on opposite sides of Burr Street, south of Ash Avenue. Public Works Director Tim McGannon said the lots were acquired in 1990 as part of a Burr Street underpass project.

“It’s probably a reasonable piece to get rid of now,” McGannon said.

Council members took no action following the review but expressed a desire to visit some of the sites in the spring. Sebert said now might not be the best time to sell property, given the poor status of the economy and the unlikelihood of getting a good price. He said he’d like to identify properties to potentially sell in the future, though.

Controversial casino

Local resident Joel Fischer rose to speak against the transfer of an on-off sale wine license to 324 W. 10th Ave.

Fischer said the location is in a residential neighborhood and, more specifically, is adjacent to his backyard.

“I’m a million percent against this,” Fischer told the council.

The wine license currently belongs to Wade Greenwood for a business that is described as the “Wine Cellar,” but the business apparently does not exist. Greenwood was the last person to obtain a wine license with a video-lottery option prior to the City Council’s placing of a moratorium on video-lottery-eligible wine licenses in 2007. The council later passed an ordinance prohibiting the issuance of any further wine licenses with video lottery.

Greenwood is apparently seeking to sell his license to Kelly Hohn, whose application says the license would be used for a business called Platinum Players Club at 324 W. Havens Ave. That was formerly the location of Firesteel Technologies, people at Monday’s meeting said.

Hohn was not able to attend Monday’s meeting but sent word that he’d like the transfer application to be tabled if the council had any questions for him. The council obliged and tabled the matter until Feb. 15, when Hohn expects to be able to attend.

Legal announcements

Councilman Scott Houwman, who recently was the only council member to vote against designating The Daily Republic as the city’s official newspaper for 2010, said he wants the Legislature to repeal the law requiring local governments to publish their legal announcements in a newspaper.

Houwman said that until recently, he thought the newspaper published the legals for free out of a spirit of “kindness.” He was surprised to learn, he said, that the city spends $50,000 annually to publish legals in The Daily Republic.

Houwman said he considers the publication of the legals in the newspaper to be “a waste of paper” and “a waste of money.” He said the city should be allowed to publish the legals on the Internet instead. The $50,000 could be redirected toward the installation of video cameras in the Council Chambers to broadcast council meetings on television, Houwman suggested.

Mayor Lou Sebert and Councilman Mel Olson, who are both former state legislators, said legislation seeking to carry out Houwman’s aim is routinely proposed and defeated. Legislators have been hesitant to approve such a bill, they said, because newspapers are still more accessible to some people than the Internet and because some small-town newspapers depend on legals for much of their revenue.

Houwman suggested that the council draft a letter expressing support for legislation to repeal the required publication of legals in newspapers. Olson said individual calls to legislators would be more effective, and no motion regarding a letter was made.

Snow dumping

Given all the snow piles around the city, Houwman said it might be a good idea to create a permit that would allow snow haulers to dump snow on some city properties. Many local businesses could benefit, he said, from having a place to haul the snow that is clogging up their parking lots.

Public Works Director Tim McGannon said that although he didn’t want to “sound like a naysayer,” he had numerous concerns with Houwman’s idea. Those concerns included the prospect of the city being in competition with private businesspeople who provide dumping areas; the potential need to devote staff members for monitoring of dumping on city-owned lots; the lack of sufficient capacity at sites such as the city snowfield along Foster Street; the need for insurance to cover the possibility of accidents during the dumping; and the risk of contamination from pollutants that could be in the dumped snow.

Following some discussion, the idea died for lack of a motion.

Other business

In other business Monday evening, council members:

• Approved, during citizens’ input, Golf and Cemetery Director Kevin Thurman’s impromptu request to buy two refurbished mowers that recently became available for $24,000, instead of spending $60,000 on new mowers as was originally planned.

• Approved, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, the application of Bartscher Concrete for a variance to construct a 50-by-80 foot building for storage at 301 W. Railroad Ave.

• Set, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, Feb. 1 as the date to hear the application of Kendra Zimmer for a conditional-use permit to operate a daycare center in her home.

• Heard an oral report from the Public Properties Committee.

• Approved eight written reports from various city departments and boards.

• Approved a resolution dealing with the refinancing of bonds by Dakota Wesleyan University, for which the city acts only as a pass-through entity.

• Adopted a plat of Lot 2, Block 2 of B. and J. DeVries First Addition.

• Adopted an ordinance that will amend the city code to conform with the practice of the city in obtaining financing for tax increment financing districts and will provide a procedure for the amendment of the tax increment financing application.

• Conducted the first reading of an ordinance that would supplement the budget with $6,000 from the airport’s cash balance for vandalism repairs.

• Set Feb. 1 as the date for a hearing on the application of Area Community Theater for a special-event wine license and special-event malt beverage license for a Feb. 5-7 Ladies’ Night Out event at the Pepsi Cola Theater.

• Set Feb. 1 as the date for a hearing on the application of Elks of Mitchell Building Association Trustees LLC for a special-event wine license and a special-event malt beverage license for the Feb. 7 ACT dinner theater at the Masonic Temple.

• Set Feb. 1 as the date for a hearing on the application of the Palace City Lions Club for a special-event malt beverage license for the Feb. 14 John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party at the Corn Palace and City Hall.

• Set Feb. 15 as the date for a hearing on a proposed resolution of necessity for 2010 sidewalk construction projects.

• Approved an automatic supplement of donated funds to the parks, recreation and forestry special-revenue fund in the amount of $10,639, for a playground system at the Cadwell Sports Complex.

• Approved the purchase of two Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars for the Public Safety Department from Vern Eide Motorcars.

• Authorized Gary Larson, CPA, to conduct the city’s audit for the 2009 fiscal year.

• Approved the application of Laura Sue Wehde for a taxicab driver’s license for Palace Transit.

• Approved the application of Phillip Sherman Nest II for a taxicab driver’s license for Palace Transit.

• Approved requests to conduct raffles from the Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team, the Heartland Quilt Guild and the Dakota Plains Chapter of the Red Cross.

• Abated taxes in the amount of $491.40 to Palace City Federal Credit Union, due to the removal of structures; $765.42 to Jeffrey William Eschenbaum, due to “missing application deadline for disabled veteran property tax exemption”; $72.35 to Mitchell School District, due to “purchase by tax exempt entity on Nov. 10, 2009”; $675.17 to the Dakota District of the Wesleyan Church, due to the removal of structures; $84.28 to Mark A. and Barbara A. Meier due to “tax bill generated to transfer title”; $372.08 to Larry and Jane Sexton for the removal of structures; and $201.58 to Edweena or Dave Brinker due to a removed and destroyed mobile home.

• Approved the paying of estimates and bills.

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