Emily Spartz/Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Eric Larsen, left, gives a delegation from Billings a tour of the Sanford Pentagon, a new sports venue in Sioux Falls, S.D.,
Longtime readers of the digital edition of the Billings Gazette will probably remember a particularly critical and crotchety commenter who, in any given week, used to leave dozens of screeds under various stories.
All she revealed about herself was that she was a female, an artist and a former resident of Sioux Falls, S.D. She never said why she had been exiled to Billings, but the gist of all her remarks was that this was a backward, dirty little burg that couldn’t hold a candle to her beloved Sioux Falls.
She finally went back there, as I recall, to a chorus of “Good riddance!” from other regular commenters.
Ed Kemmick
Well, I imagine she’s having the last laugh now. A contingent of 25 business and civic leaders from Billings made a pilgrimage to Sioux Falls last week, an “aspirational” visit to see whether we might learn something from that city.
It used to be that Boise, Idaho, was the regional city that civic leaders here looked at with envy and admiration. I don’t know how Sioux Falls became the new target of our aspirations, but it definitely has a lot going for it and is probably worth emulating in some respects.
Based on their visit, those 25 pilgrims came up with a five-point plan to make Billings a better city. Four of the points were interconnected and somewhat vague — have more public-private partnerships; encourage strong leadership; don’t settle for mediocrity; and bring young professionals into the process of deciding how to move forward.
On the subject of strong leadership, there was one concrete suggestion. John Brewer, president of the Billings Chamber of Commerce, who worked up the list, said Billings has to consider going back to a strong-mayor form of government. “An 11-person city council body is more difficult to hold accountable than a chief elected official,” he wrote.
That’s an interesting idea, especially in light of what those civic leaders heard in Sioux Falls from a former Billings department head. As the Gazette’s Mike Ferguson reported, Don Kearney heads the parks department in Sioux Falls, as he did in Billings from 2000 to 2005.
Because Sioux Falls has no city administrator and has a strong-mayor form of government, Kearney told the visitors, government there is “results-driven. There’s no red tape and no turf battles.”
That implied criticism of Billings is something I hadn’t heard before. I’m not quite sure why our system of government would produce more red tape and turf battles, but Kearney thinks it does, and those visiting leaders appear to have picked up on the idea.
But under the state constitution, voters are asked only every 10 years whether they want to study the form of local government and possibly make changes. That question is on the primary election ballot this spring, and I haven’t seen any organized group pushing for a review of city government. It’s unlikely to be approved — it will sound like a waste of time and money to most voters — and won’t come up again until 2024.
The leadership team made a fifth point, however, and it was also specific: they would advocate for a sales tax to support the development of civic improvements.
That seems even more unlikely than a vote in favor of government review, but it is an idea worth pursuing. I don’t know exactly what Brewer and company are suggesting, but I hope it’s not a statewide sales tax. That is dead in the water, for good reason, one being that Montana shouldn’t scrap the distinction of being one of the few states without a sales tax.
But Billings should continue to press for a state law allowing cities to ask their voters to approve a local sales tax. In Billings, that would allow us to get a few pennies from the tens of thousands of tourists and out-of-towners who come here for entertainment and shopping.
And the way to sell it locally would be do as Rapid City, S.D., does. That city, with a local vote, imposes a specific sales tax for a specific purpose, say a half cent or a cent or two for a year or two years, to complete a specific project, like a new museum or sports complex.
After a stated time, the sales tax goes away, and there has to be another vote to create a new tax for a new project. You could even limit the tax to in-person retail transactions, so it wouldn’t hurt businesses with on-line customers.
The Legislature has killed the idea of local option sales taxes on several occasions, but it’s still worth pursuing.
Beyond that, getting those young professionals involved in the planning process is a good idea. As Brewer said in his statement, young professionals increasingly choose where they want to live and look for work afterward.
We have to realize we’re competing with lots of other cities that are working hard to make themselves more attractive.
Not that Billings needs to try being a Bozeman or a Missoula, or a Sioux Falls or Boise, for that matter. Let’s welcome the young professionals but remember that Billings has always been a blue-collar town.
I like the idea of this remaining a working town, but one full of amenities that appeal to most everyone — a strong park system, good schools, widespread trails and a lively downtown. One thing we desperately need seems almost beyond our reach — an entertainment venue big enough and nice enough to bring in the likes of Paul McCartney.
It was reported last week that McCartney added Missoula to his summer concert tour after Mick Jagger told him how much the Rolling Stones enjoyed playing at Washington-Grizzly Stadium eight years ago. Can you imagine anyone ever saying the same thing about the arena at MetraPark?
