SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The state is making some changes to property taxes, which is forcing The City of Sioux Falls to make its own cuts.
An email sent out this week from Downtown Sioux Falls says the city of Sioux Falls is looking at budget cuts that could take away $150,000 every year from the Downtown Ambassador Program.
The program involves a seven-person team that operates every day from seven in the morning until seven at night, keeping an eye on different sanitation and safety issues.
“Sanitation is pretty critical to what they do beyond trash cans,” Brandon Hanson said. “It includes, removing graffiti inside the car washing or removing by hand stickers or fliers. Just keeping downtown beautiful, and kind of preserving that small town charm of what downtown Sioux Falls offers the community.”
City council chair Rich Merkouris says the city isn’t looking to reduce the ambassador program.
“I don’t think there’s any desire from the city’s perspective that I’m aware of to see the ambassador program be minimized or go away in any form or fashion.” Rich M said. “So I think there’s strong support for the ambassador program. There has to be conversation on the funding method and the level of support from the city.”
Nevertheless Merkouris says that next week they will see the mayor’s recommended budget for 2026 and will be expecting a few cuts to multiple programs in the area.
“One of the things that’s been discussed is, how many of our outsourcing contracts will be cut? That will be some subsidies to nonprofits. Our contract for service to nonprofits. We haven’t seen the recommended budget yet, so we don’t know exactly where everything’s going to fall,” Merkouris said.
On average the ambassadors complete 1,400 tasks per day. If there were to be budget cuts, that would significantly impact the program.
Hanson says that these budget cuts could remove certain programs they offer such as the flower program. He says they also would have to scale back on services such as trash cleanup.
“It’s a tough time. It’s weird, I think for everybody it’s gonna be really tough on the nonprofits. And, we want to see everyone succeed. And that’s kind of the model of DTSF. And so, these are tough decisions.” said Hanson.
Downtown Sioux Falls is encouraging you to email the City Councilors before July 23rd to request preservation for Downtown Ambassadors and share your own stories of positive Ambassador interactions or how this program has helped your business, employees, or customers.
