Bring Back Sidney, Sidney, NE (2025)

12/23/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
This morning, we would like to show you what is actually happening in Sidney. Pure facts and statistics straight from the State of Nebraska, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Labor, and the City of Sidney's actual audits. Here we go.

Has economic development been able to turn Sidney around? NO, absolutely not. Let's look at the numbers honestly with a desire to fix this city and county together with the truth. In the photo we post here, you see the Sales and Use Tax Revenue for Sidney since 2016 in the left column. We pulled every audit since 2016 and read each and every one. Each audit notes interesting facts, such as many of those years' revenues are below what was predicted and budgeted. Some audits note the decline in local income. Very concerning.

Let's look at 2018 since it is the first full year after the departure of Cabela's. Revenue, according to the City's Audit, was $3,396,552. Compare that to 2025, which is $3,819,992. At first glance, you would say, “Great, we went up!" NO. We went down because during those years there was inflation. Remember those high gas prices? This is why our Federal Government makes an inflation calculator, so we have a complete idea of how our businesses and incomes vary with inflation year to year. So look at this calculator on the right. In 2025, you need $4,370,165 to have the same buying power as 3,396,552 in 2018. We are down from 2018 levels, and 2018 was a bad year.

So, 2025 revenue was 14% below the levels in 2018. We are going down. Not just a little. Any drop larger than 10% is really concerning. Since 2018, we have spent millions of tax dollars on economic development, and now we are about to enter a contract for another huge amount of money. It will not work. We can say this for a fact. There is another metric we will show you after the holidays that will prove this beyond any doubt.

Almost 2 weeks ago, we emailed every member of the city council and the mayor. Our intention was to ask them to put this new way of economic development to the people. Residents of Sidney and Cheyenne County need to vote on this. Residents should decide this. Add it to the November election. NO councilman or the mayor has answered my email. Crickets. We are watching to see what they do

In 2025, our Sales Tax Revenue was 14% lower than what we made in 2018 after the loss of Cabela's. Our town is declining. You can see it. The audits show it. The numbers prove it. If we do not stop spending now, bad things are coming in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2026. Really bad..... Revenues will go down even more. We will show you after the holidays. It is time for everyone to speak up. Share this post, make comments. It is time to stop ridiculous spending that isn't solving the problems. We, the people, want to vote on this new proposal because it is going to raise our taxes again, and it is our right to vote.

Note:
There is an asterisk next to 2025 because the final audit is not been completed for that year. We pulled the final figures from the city budget figures in October, which had the fiscal year-end figures for 2025. We expect those revenue numbers to be adjusted down slightly with a loss as high as 17%.

12/18/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
Last week, we saw the new November stats for our city. Have you seen them? All accounts are down. We have spent almost $1 million more than we have taken in, and that is in just 2 months. Read the city graph we posted here..... All accounts are down. Layoffs will be coming, and it is no joke. We can't have layoffs. Those are our neighbors. The money isn't there, however. “All accounts are down”. It is past time to tighten the belt. Stop the spending.

Facts.... In 2017, our sales tax receipts were $3,627,078. This is from actual city audits. In 2024, our sales tax receipts were $3,938,137. If you adjust for inflation, which has to happen. Use this calculator from our U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

The value of the dollar decreased between 2017 and 2024 by 26% due to inflation. So, we should have sales tax receipts of $4,641,709, to stay even, no growth, with 2017. So far we are almost $1 million below where we were in 2017. All the millions in economic development spent here are NOT WORKING. Now, we want to enter into a 5-year contract and spend $675,000 more? That is called “reckless spending”. There are NO results in our local economy to justify that expense. Show us some numbers where that is true, instead of childish memes.

The most powerful tool we have to control our economy is taxes. We should be concentrating on that. All accounts are down. REVENUE IS DOWN. So stop spending. We can't afford it. “All accounts are down”. It is time to be adults and save our community. Put a hold on spending and concentrate on cutting taxes. This isn't about groups of people; we would be saying the same thing to Santa Claus if revenue is down. Santa, we should not spend money we don't have.

12/16/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
Where are your tax dollars going? Why is our town going down so much? Why are our taxes so high? All good questions. Let's start finding the answers, together. Off we go!

Here is a link to the LB840 fund used by the city to promote “economic development”. There are a few interesting payments in here. Some questions. We FOIA the records, and Sidney was great in responding. Very open. Unlike our last city manager, who we fought for transparency. I want to thank them for that. Well done. These are payments, and while some get money for free, others have to pay it back.... Interesting..... Some interesting statistics in here as well. Click the link. Get informed. We have questions we will be asking. Lots of them.
https://changecheyenne.com/images/PDF/LB840_Worksheet.pdf

Also, this morning we are going to point you back to what the city has told us in the past. Here is an article from 2 years ago. https://panhandle.newschannelnebraska.com/story/50121824/city-council-approves-housing-development In the article, it is pointed out that Sidney needs 280 new homes by 2030. “They did a study”. That is from our mayor! We said that 1 year prior in 2022 on this page. In the last 2 years, we have built 7 homes.... 7. We are not going to make it. If we are not going to add homes, then we need to cut spending. Not enough people here to pay our bills. That is why our taxes are so high. That needs to be fixed before any downtown development plan can be effective. Also, read in the article that R. Perry Construction is the contractor. Those homes were flat-out screwed up. Overpriced and horrible. We showed you that. Cross-reference that with the LB840 fund, and you see a $50,000 “forgivable” payment to R.Perry Construction, which we have questions about. Your money. There is more, lots more. Last month, we were “blasted” on another social media page that this money is “paid back”. Maybe the grant, but why is there a $50,000 forgivable payment to the contractor that built that mess, then? We have questions.

Let's move forward to “Job Creation”. This is where millions of our tax dollars are going. Let's remember this article about it.... https://panhandle.newschannelnebraska.com/story/47285060/sidney-city-council-passes-job-creation-incentive-fund Now look through the LB840 fund at all the money that goes to “Job Creation” in our town. Just look! Cheyenne County has the lowest unemployment in the USA. 2.7 percent. Yet we are funneling millions of dollars to create more jobs. We pledged $200,000 to Crecera to create 12 jobs. That is a lot of our money for 12 jobs.

Before we enter into any new contracts for economic development, we had better make sure we are following both state and federal guidelines for government contracts, which we currently are not. We have those guidelines and have compared them to what we are doing. We will post about that soon. We need to put the brakes on our spending. High taxes, low wages, cost of housing are destroying our town. Spending more money on economic development right now is NOT THE ANSWER. More coming. Please share this post; everyone needs to know where their money is going.

12/12/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
There is one very important term used in corporate legal terms, and it is called “Winding Down,” which is usually followed by “Dissolution”. Years ago, I went through this process when I broke away from a contract with another company. Winding down means you pay off obligations and gradually stop operations. It is a legal process. The end goal.... stop operations.

Now read the articles I have linked below. Both were published last month. Nebraska, like the Federal Government, is “winding down” pandemic programs. Ending grants and other government programs. They are ending or being reduced. Why? We can't afford them any longer. Just please read the articles. This isn't Bring Back Sidney stirring problems. This is Bring Back Sidney, trying yet again to warn our community about what is happening nationally.

The other night I asked a City Councilman if they read the article about the Nebraska Department basically laying off 22 positions, A 20% decrease in staff. His response was that maybe they discovered they had too many employees. That is not what the article says.

QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE....
“And the department, via Pinkerman, says the downsizing is part of a winding down of pandemic-era programs. “ This is what the article says. Several Federal and State agencies are “winding down” programs, grants, and assistance programs. The economy can not afford them any longer.

For 3 years, our group has warned everyone here about grants. Grants have a purpose. Start a business, give a hand up during a pandemic. They are NOT long-term programs. Business has to be built on solid economic conditions. Nebraska's current budget is in trouble because they based the last tax cut on grants. Now, it is not working. Cuts are coming. Programs winding down.

We should be preparing for this. Grants are not going away, but many will be winding down as governments figure out how to balance budgets. We need to prepare for that. One way is with “enterprise zones”. Just what other successful communities I have lived in have been using for many years. They work, and work well. We can fix Sidney; we just need to make better choices. Don't base our future on something that is “winding down”. Read the articles, get informed and let's plan for our future.

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/12/05/nebraska-department-of-economic-development-cuts-full-time-staff-by-22-people-in-two-months/

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/12/05/nebraska-department-of-economic-development-cuts-full-time-staff-by-22-people-in-two-months/

12/11/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
This week we learned that our city in the first 2 months of this new fiscal year is $961,600 over budget. That is the worst start to a new year that we have ever seen. Our spending is way out of control, and our revenues are declining. At this rate, all of us will experience a record tax increase in 2026.

The city is exploring the E3 proposal, which would lock us into 5 years of economic development at a cost of $675,000. Our position is that we can not afford it. As you can see from several social media pages, the community is really divided by this. Some believe spending more on economic development can turn our economy around. Others say we have been doing this for 5 years, and we are still declining, and it is time to lower spending and cut taxes. Sidney is becoming too expensive for many residents to live in.

Yesterday, I wrote each member of the city council and asked that we let the voters of Sidney settle this issue before it divides Sidney further. We can place an “Economic Development Referendum” on the ballot for 2026. This would allow everyone in Sidney to have a voice. Just like it should be. Other cities around us are doing similar referendums. Yesterday, I was in contact with residents in Alliance who have added a tax referendum to the 2026 ballot. The Alliance City Council didn't want it. The voters in Alliance started a petition and went around them. If we are all working for what is best for our residents, why don't we let them all decide in 2026? It is next year!!!!

If the Sidney City Council chooses not to add this to the 2026 ballot, we as voters can do it. Just like Alliance has done. We will need between 200 and 300 signatures. Yesterday, we emailed the Secretary of State, who will help us formulate a plan. We will outline this plan next week. If the council decides not to place it on the ballot, we can go around them, like Alliance. It should be decided by residents/voters. It is a lot of money and a huge change to how Sidney runs economic development.

Before we sign a 5-year $675,000 contract, spending more money while we are already $961,600 behind, let's make sure this is something that the voters think is necessary and cost-effective. Let's fully debate the issue before we let an outside corporation take over here in Sidney. It is time for everyone to have a voice. Please like and share. Help your neighbors find out what is really happening. Time for everyone in Sidney to have a say in our future. Let's go to the polls in 2026 and make some changes.

12/09/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
We study budgets. This is by far the worst economy we have seen in Sidney and Cheyenne County since 2017. That is a fact, and tonight it will become insane. Tonight at the City Council meeting, they will be considering the approval of outrageous amounts of direct taxpayer money, spending, all while our economy here is going down. Let us show you. These are the city of Sidney numbers, not ours, and they are really, really bad.

Here is the chart that will be presented to the city council tonight. You can see that the spending in these departments is higher than the revenues. In other words, Sidney, we are spending more than what we can afford, by a lot! Here is how much taxpayer money we lost in the last 2 months.
General Fund ($412 033.07)
Street ($240,143.07)
Electric ($263,866.71)
Water ($32,576.09)
Landfill ($13,338.30)

So.... for October and November, the Sidney City Council has spent over $961,600 more than they have taken in. Your money. Tax dollars. Your future. This is outrageous. Almost $1 million loss in only 2 months of this new year. 2 months! Truth.

Some supporting this new insane spending proposal have been building their businesses with taxpayer funds. Some good, some bad. We will show you those numbers in future posts. All that taxpayer money, though, and it hasn't improved our taxes or increased sales tax revenues. Look at our downtown and look at the numbers. It is scary where our financial position is. Insane.

Tonight, they will consider approving a contract that will lock us into $675,000 more in spending over the next 5 years for “Economic Development”. MORE SPENDING. This will NOT benefit taxpayers here in Sidney. Yesterday, I asked a Sidney city councilman to please name one way the new $675,000 spending will help the residents of Sidney. I got NO answer. This proposal will benefit a small group of investors here, but not the taxpayers. It is time to stop giving tax dollars to a small group of investors and start taking care of residents. Lower our taxes.

Look at sales tax revenue. Last month (November), it was down another 10.7% ($22,300) from November 2024. Sales tax revenue has been going down for several years. DOWN, again. Even though we spent millions. Economic development is not working because our taxes are too high. Now we are heading into a crisis of spending. We are in trouble. $961,600 of debt in the first 2 months of this year, and they want to spend more tonight. Insane.

If the council signs this contract to approve $675,000 of new spending over the next 5 years, it will cause huge tax increases next year for every single person in this city. More taxes. That is the truth. Look at the chart. Revenues are going down, but they are going to spend more? INSANE!!! We will expand more in the comments. Everyone needs to comment and share this post. Staying quiet will benefit a small group here and destroy hundreds of residents with taxes they can not afford. People matter, Sidney. Take care of the people.

12/04/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
In our last post, there was a comment as to what was being built on the hill next to the Fairfield. I don't know why the city hasn't said anything. Obviously, they have permits and are moving dirt around, so the city knows. Maybe a Les Schwab?

After tracking several LLCs, etc.. etc. We came up with CenterPointe-CRE, which is developing the property. They manage development for several corporations, one of which is Les Schwab, which is the most likely candidate. Here is a link. You can see the dot on Sidney.
https://www.cp-cre.com/portfolio

I may not be from Sidney, but I do know Les Schwab. They are an Oregon company. I was born and raised in Oregon, not far from the original business. I have watched them grow over the years. I moved to a small coastal town in Northern California in 1982. Built a business. The city was declining, but as a community, we were turning it around. In 1993, a Les Schwab moved in. They put most of the other auto tire and service establishments out of business in our area. One was the business next to mine. Easy for large companies with deep pockets and huge purchasing power. In 2007, the founder, Les Schwab, passed away. In 2020, the family sold to Meritage Group LP and a San Francisco investment group for what some say was around $3 billion. Last year, Meritage put the company back on the market for as much as $7 billion. Does this sound familiar to anyone here? Destruction of competition is a corporate manifesto. Les Schwab is a powerful corporation with over 500 locations in 14 western states, with upwards of 8,000 employees.

Some say Les Schwab will be after the interstate traffic. Maybe. But that goes against their history. There are already locations in North Platte, Sterling, CO, and Cheyenne, WY. Yesterday, we tracked down their latest business plan. We could be wrong, but we have read their market plan. Rural targets. Smaller markets, agriculture, etc. We feel Sidney is next and fits the plan. Large companies care about stockholders and bottom lines. Not about keeping the competition in rural areas in business. The profit is also corporate, which means all the profits will leave Sidney and go to the 120,000 sq. ft Les Schwab corporate offices in Bend, OR. Nothing stays here. That is the way it works.

It will be very important to support local businesses and help them survive. They give amazing service and have been here for us. We need to be here for them. We have to be a community.

Just one more thing....
About the busing and cutting services. We did tell everyone several months ago that it was coming. We showed you the numbers. Eric told the City Manager and Finance Director months ago in a meeting that it had to happen because the numbers were not adding up. We spend too much money here. This is just the beginning.......

12/02/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
We all see it. The empty buildings downtown and the large number of homes for sale in Sidney. We showed you in a post on November 11th that the decline is real, and contrary to what some people say here about Sidney always recovering, it isn't true. Since 1967, Sidney has lost 36% of its population. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=866551322819914&set=a.122532460555141

A couple of weeks ago, the Chamber held a meeting at the Elks. 4 of our group attended to hear the presentation. All great. Awesome ideas. It was stated that we need to promote the “positive things” about Sidney. We agree, but we also need to fix the negatives. Taxes, spending, and wages.

At that meeting, it was stated that they interviewed 74 residents, of whom 32.4% had lived here in Sidney for less than 5 years. That is high.....really high. So this last week, we pulled more U.S. Government census results about Sidney to see the trends. Numbers, statistics, truth, that is what we like to look at. It is shocking.

As we have shown in the past, our median family income has gone down since 2018 by $20,000 a year. That is huge. You can see by the chart we post here, which is from the U.S. Census about Sidney, 40% of the population of Sidney has lived here less than 7 years. 40%!!! More than twice the national average. People are leaving Sidney, plain and simple, and the most common reason is wages and taxes, better opportunities.

Common sense says we need to fix problems before spending more wasted money on things that are not working. Since 2018, we have spent millions on economic development, and it has not lowered taxes; just the opposite, it has raised them to pay for all this economic development. Taxes were raised AGAIN this year because of excess spending, and it is hurting our beautiful town. Time for common sense, or as we are going to start promoting.... logical spending... “Common Cents”.... Cut the spending, so we can lower taxes and make it easier on the residents here, so we stop the decline.

Adding more businesses will not help. FACT. We showed that in a post on November 4th. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=860141906794189&set=a.122532460555141 We have no labor pool. According to the U.S. Department of Labor there are fewer than 132 people without jobs in Cheyenne County, so if you bring more businesses here right now will have the opposite effect. It will drive those currently in business out of business because they will not have employees, labor pool, and all those new businesses will be competing for the same limited dollars from overtaxed residents.

Common sense (cents) says we need to cut spending and get back to what we can afford. Start there. We have been saying this for 3 years. I hope this year, you add your voice to ours and we make positive changes to help everyone here. These are scary numbers, but we can fix this by coming together with a community plan and using common sense. Cut spending before it is too late.

U.S. Census – Sidney
https://censusreporter.org/profiles/40000US81820-sidney-ne-urban-area/

11/25/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
This is the beginning of our holiday season. So this year, let's be thankful for what we have. Come together and help move our community forward. Bring success to everyone, equally. We will explain in detail next week, but this week, let's give thanks.

I was going to write a post this morning about the economy and what we need to do. But it is Thanksgiving week, and yesterday changed that. Yesterday, two young men delivered a sofa we had purchased from Sutton Home Gallery here in Sidney. Excellent customer service by the way! Doesn't come any better. It was a pleasure talking to these two hard-working men and listening to their points of view. One wanted to build a new business in the future. It was great to just sit and listen to the future, his ideas. We can be so much. The desire is here; we just need to do a better job and make those dreams possible. It is so important.

Next year, we will have an amazing opportunity once again to change the direction of this County and City with your votes. Many of our group are going to work very hard to earn your vote with new ideas and fiscal responsibility that will empower everyone. Equally. We must cut spending. This week, we are going to slow down, be with family, and be thankful for what we all have. Next week, we will begin to earn your vote with economic truths. Dream big, then show how we can make it happen. We need change.

11/20/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
So some call us troublemakers. Fine, they are uninformed. Today, we would like everyone to look at one of our community investments. I show photos of it here. We wrote about these homes last year. We wrote 2 more posts about these homes earlier this year. Like this one.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=731034443038270&set=pb.100083951631774.-2207520000&type=3

This was a giant waste of taxpayer money. Where did all the money go? Why did they start out so expensive and then change? We know why. Notice today, the homes are on new listings. New realtor, new lower prices. $44,950 lower, to be exact, on each home. Almost $225,000 total. If you notice one of the houses isn't even the same one listed. 1627 John Borm Dr. Not the same house they first advertised. In the beginning, we were promised 11 homes. We got 5. Still more to look at.

In early June, we wrote the Department of Economic Development, Grant Compliance. We exchanged several emails with Audrey Sauter. Link below. Notice in this letter how she TWICE thanks us for bringing the issue to their attention. She states, “The Department appreciates your vigilance and commitment to ensuring that public resources are used appropriately.”
Here is one of the letters she wrote us about the houses.....
https://changecheyenne.com/images/PDF/RWFHSidney%202.jpg

The State of Nebraska has several times thanked us for our commitment to oversight. Some local officials here, however, have different opinions. We are troublemakers. This is not the case. As we have stated several times, we are a watchdog group. We look at budgets, figures, expenses, waste, and numbers, and make sure tax dollars are accounted for. Some appreciate it. Some don't.

5 homes. An almost $225,000 oversight. We are not done looking into this. We need to be fiscally responsible with our residents' tax dollars if we are going to turn Sidney and Cheyenne County around. We spend too much. We waste money. We need to do better. We will do better. Thank you to some current city officials who followed through with this. Together, we will make common-sense changes. Please like, share, and comment on this post. Help push it out across the panhandle. Show the public that together we can make a difference. Thank you.

11/18/2025

Good Morning, Sidney and Cheyenne County,
We promised transparency, and here are some numbers. As you can see in the last 28 days, we are still growing. Reaching a very large portion of our community now, and we thank you for all your comments and shares. It is helping more people find out what is really going on. Transparency is the goal in everything. As you can see from our latest post, where we show the decline of Cheyenne County, it has had over 12,000 views. Now, let's turn views into action.

Tonight at the Elks Lodge, there will be a community meeting held by the Marketing Hometown American Action Forum. Some in our group are planning to attend to listen to the community. This is your opportunity to speak out. As the Forum stated in the letter about this event, “Because communities don’t move forward by accident. They move because people stop waiting for someone else to solve the problem and decide to be part of the solution.“ Our Bring Back Sidney group has no affiliation with this Forum except that we have some common goals, work together, communicate, and move forward as a community. Everyone should take this opportunity to come together and be heard. Here is a link to the letter they sent out.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcheyennecountychamber.com%2Ffrom-our-director%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExb0VTc0FYMGRXeUZXb21TeHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR69r9kpCdjQOy2y1GZ4DiHnH04-rLQerhIO0d1xZ_qxDxrRup7mzTMW6hvyrQ_aem_d4EkrSaKXc1ORVmHtxXeuw%23!board%2FFromourDirector%2Flisting%2Fthe-future-belongs-to-the-people-willing-to-participate&h=AT3SRc383LyCZTskHP2H96zfWflALBVzq9MYzuzJuDptFMumfxnhO5an2O0tJN3UvH_BKWYq_jjryrxlqg84GR1aMVnXV7NadnRjPM3X6zDn28b-fb9dD9n5vV8n--8

We believe that decisions should be based on numbers... reality, not controlled by small groups. Controlled only by the community. The tax and spend policies of our local government have damaged the long-term potential of our community. We need to change that. Before we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on more community development that has not stopped the decline of our community, we need to push reset. Stop all the spending. Lower taxes. Make this community affordable for those who live here. Make it a place people want to move to and not from. Rebuild our community that will shop in our downtown. Increase our community, which will increase our workforce. Then, and ONLY then, will spending more money on economic development work. Time to speak out. Comment, like, share posts. Attend meetings. Work together as a community for the best path forward. We can do this.

Bring Back Sidney

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