SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Development and tax revenue are up; unemployment is down in Sioux Falls’ latest financial report.
City sales tax revenue in Sioux Falls was up 21% from 2019; the last normal April in the city.
Industries like restaurants, where revenue was up 15% in March 2021 compared to March 2019, account for part of the increase.
City finance director Shawn Pritchett said other factors could include stimulus checks, people “sitting on cash,” or an “Amazon effect,” a building boom in the city that may be “somehow rolling through our numbers.”
Pritchett said the entertainment tax is growing too but is lagging behind other sources of revenue.
Development in Sioux Falls hasn’t backed off from its torrid start to the year.
City finance director Shawn Pritchett says building permit values are up about 100% from where they were last year, and up by about $80 million from 2019.
“We are seeing a really significant and robust housing building cycle going on right now that is being led by the multi-family sector,” Pritchett said in a presentation to the Sioux Falls City Council on Tuesday.
The report also shows South Dakota, like many cities, is struggling to find workers for open jobs. The city’s unemployment rate was 3% in March, slightly lower than South Dakota’s and three percentage points below the national rate at that time.
“Anybody who is in business right now or looking to hire employees right now are in a fairly critical situation,” Pritchett said. He suggested the lack of available workers could be “a lagging effect, as people are rejoining the labor force.”
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