Chair's Column
Chamber focusing on
legislative session in new year

By Dave Rozenboom
2009-10 Chair of the Board

Dave Rozenboom 2009-10 Chair of the Board

2009 is now officially "in the books" and we are all looking forward to 2010. Despite the challenges we have faced throughout the past year, I know that I would not trade places with any other area in the country. By nearly every measurement, the Sioux Falls region once again proved to be far more resilient to economic conditions than anywhere else. As the economy begins to rebound, we are operating from a position of relative strength — and that is a good place to be!

The state legislature will soon convene and your Chamber's Board of Directors has worked diligently with our Issues Management Council to set our 2010 Legislative Platform, which will guide our advocacy and lobbying efforts during the upcoming session. We have a position statement covering six key areas, including: education, infrastructure, Lewis & Clark Regional Water System, local option sales tax, pre-Kindergarten pilot, and the University Center building project.

Several of these platform issues carry over from year to year because they are of long-term strategic importance to our region; however, a new area of focus this year will be our support for enabling legislation for a Local Option Sales Tax. After an 18-month study, this has been identified by the Mayor's Events Center Task Force as the most viable funding source for a new events center in Sioux Falls. This recommendation was recently approved by the Sioux Falls City Council.

The issue now moves on to the state legislature and your Chamber will be providing our full support for this measure. If this enabling legislation is approved, this will provide the City with an opportunity to bring a new events center proposal to a public vote of the citizens of Sioux Falls — returning it to our local control. This is a very important piece of legislation, not only for Sioux Falls, but for all municipalities across the state that would be able to use a local option sales tax in order to pay for particular infrastructure projects that they are in need of and have no other way to fund. In the end, it is all about local control — and your Chamber is strongly in favor of that.

Later in January, the Sioux Falls Area Chamber will host the 57th Annual Sioux Empire Farm Show. This event is a great opportunity for the Chamber to highlight the important contributions of agriculture to our regional economy and all shows and exhibits are free to the public. Businesses and individuals who want to financially support the area livestock producers should attend the Mayor's Round-Up & Sale of Champions. This fast-paced and fun event, which will be held Jan. 29 at The Best Western Ramkota Hotel Exhibit Hall, caps off the market livestock portion of the show. The financial incentives from the area business community are a great way for us to show our support. To learn more about the Farm Show, please refer to the featured articles in this issue.

As a reminder, Future Sioux Falls, the comprehensive economic development strategic planning process for our region, is approaching the mid-point. The first three phases are complete, including the competitive assessment, target business analysis, and marketing review. We are now working on the Economic Development Strategy phase and will conclude with establishing our Implementation Plan later this spring. Please take time to stay abreast of this project by viewing the reports at www.futuresiouxfalls.com.