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space, limiting the draw of groups in a city where walking could be dicey in the winter and a great concentration of restaurants and bars is a few miles away in downtown Sioux Falls.
• To alleviate this room and meeting space shortage, several questions will need to be answered: Is there a way to make the 1,000 hotel rooms near the convention center more attractive to potential groups who balk at having to walk or drive to activities? Can we add additional meeting room space in the existing convention center complex? Are there ways to use the convention center, Arena and new events center in creative ways that would please visitors? Are there events to book at the new events center that would provide entertainment and a draw for convention guests, too?
• We are not naive; clearly there are complex issues involved here. It is not unusual for a city our size to wrestle with those concerns. Take Fargo, N.D., for instance. That city's popular dome offers a large amount of exhibit space, but there is no hotel within three miles.
• But as a growing city, Sioux Falls should be a draw for state, regional and some smaller national conventions. Conventions bring money into the economy and fuel further economic growth.
• So, let's start to tackle this problem now. Bringing together private business, community and city leaders and Chamber executives to study the issue and potentially recommend solutions is the right first step.
• ___
• Capital Journal, Pierre, May 12, 2013
• Johnson is right: Taxing Internet sales is matter of fairness
• Sen. Tim Johnson is right: the Marketplace Fairness Act that has breezed to easy passage in the U.S. Senate would help put retailers and small vendors in states such as South Dakota on an equal footing with sellers who haven't had to worry about collecting the same taxes. It may have been difficult at one time to collect taxes from remote purchases, but that's become easier and easier in the age of the Internet.
• If Main Street retail space is to compete with Cyberspace, there's no reason Congress shouldn't pass this bill; and U.S. senators apparently agreed when they voted 69 to 27 in favor of it on May 6.
• With that said, it's not at all certain the bill will become law. A website called govtrack.us gives bills a prognosis, and it calculates that this one has a 0 percent chance of passage.
• Retailers who worry about losing customers to out-of-state Internet vendors should weigh in on this. Let Washington know what you think.

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