by Ken Toole | Dec 30, 2024 | City
The last year has been a roller coaster ride for the Great Falls Library. In February 2023, the city commission voted unanimously to place a levy on the ballot to increase funding for the library. The proposed levy was to raise $1.5 million for needed facility updates and to expand hours and services. The levy passed after an acrimonious campaign with the right-wing censorship crowd vehemently opposing the levy.
Commissioners Ignore Public Support For The Library
Contrast the public support for the library to the resounding rejection of the proposed safety levy to fund police and fire protection. The safety levy was a pet project of Commissioner Rick Tryon. After the elections, which demonstrated public support for the library and rejection of the safety levy, it seems that Tryon, Commissioner Joe McKenney and Mayor Cory Reeves have it in for the library, playing games with board appointments and finally reducing funding for the library and giving that money to public safety. https://wtf406.com/2024/11/city-council-takes-money-from-library-after-the-public-voted-to-increase-funding/
Opponents of taking money from the library have pointed out repeatedly that the small amount of money taken from the library would do very little to meet the $30 million for projected needs for public safety in Great Falls. But it amounted to a cut of almost 27% of the library’s total budget. The majority of the commission (Tryon, McKenney, and Reeves) was undeterred and took the funding anyway.
$1 Million To Replace Seats at The Mansfield Center?
Given that history, many people were surprised to see that the city commission allocated almost $1 million , almost three times the amount taken from the library’s funding, to replace the seats in The Mansfield Center. Most of us understand that budgets for local government are complicated and involve different sources of funding. Some of the money the city administers can be moved around and some cannot. Replacing the seats is part of a larger project and funded in large part by the State-Local Infrastructure Partnership Act which the Montana Legislature approved in 2023. In addition, tax increment district financing is also part of the package. But even with those sources funding it was still short. The city staff recommended moving forward with the full project anyway, despite the overage of almost $360,000. That “overage,” for which no clear source of funding was identified, is more than the amount removed from the library’s budget.
But all the byzantine maneuvering of public funding aside, this simply demonstrates that the attack on the library by Tryon, McKenney and Reeves was more about their apparent problems with the library and pandering to a small pro-censorship minority in Great Falls than it was meeting public safety needs.
by Ken Toole | Dec 27, 2024 | Guest Articles
In response to GOP state representative Greg Overstreet’s guest column, “Our legislators are just like you,” I must say that none of the Republicans mentioned in his column are in any way like me. A job doesn’t make a person. Instead, it’s a person’s integrity and ability to make decisions based on reality that matter.
It’s safe to say that every Republican Overstreet listed voted for Donald Trump, a man found civilly liable for sexual abuse, a convicted felon, an adulterer, a serial liar, and, in general, a disreputable, vindictive human being. But, apparently, as long as Trump hates the same people they hate, he gets their vote. So much for integrity!
Part of integrity is having consistent values. Why are so many Republicans bent out of shape that transgender people be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies, when the vast majority of Republicans think nothing about instructing a doctor to take a knife to the penis of any newborn sons they have? Obviously, it’s not the genital surgery that matters. It’s the bigotry.
Many of those same Republicans proudly use Christianity as a club while ignoring the reality of what is actually in the Bible. Denying a woman’s right to abortion is the most prevalent example of this. The Bible clearly gives instructions for forcing a woman to miscarry in Numbers 5:11-31, and elsewhere it states that life begins at first breath. It’s one reason few Christian sects spoke out about Roe v. Wade until it became a political issue they could profit from.
Also, part of ignoring reality is the Republican Christian Nationalist claim that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Again, there is written evidence to the contrary. The English version of The Treaty of Tripoli was read aloud in the U.S. Senate and unanimously approved before President John Adams signed it on June 10, 1797. Article 11 of that treaty states, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion . . .”
And then there is the science of climate change. That Donald Trump called climate change a hoax doesn’t make it so. Facts don’t care what Trump says, but, obviously, Republicans are willing to ignore the science—endangering their own children and grandchildren—both in the name of greed and in submission to their authoritarian leader.
On the subject of greed, how are an overwhelming percentage of Republicans able to reconcile their claims of Christianity while being led by a billionaire president, who campaigned with the richest man in the world, and will soon give the rich massive tax cuts while cutting programs for seniors, the sick, and the poor? Isn’t that the opposite of what Jesus preached in the Bible?
So, no, I am not at all like Mr. Overstreet and his Republican associates. And neither are the roughly 40 percent of Montanans who voted against most things they stand for. We may be a minority—for now—but fifty years from now, when students study this era in history classes, it will be the Republicans, not the rest of us, who they’ll look at as they shake their heads in sadness and disbelief.
• Bio: Marty Essen is a college speaker and multi-award-winning author of three nonfiction and five fiction books. His latest, “The Silver Squad: Rebels With Wrinkles,” will be published on January 10, 2025.
by Helena Lovick | Dec 3, 2024 | Elections
The majority of the American electorate voted for Donald Trump for President, a conman with 34 felonies, a rapist, and a Hitler admirer. Wow. I will admit that I was surprised that he won the popular vote. This is some scary but also fucking embarrassing shit. Embarrassing on an international scale. Here is our leader! He can’t string a sentence together unless it’s talking about how big his rallies are.
But How Bad Is It?
Really fucking bad.
The sickening truth is, it’s going to be as bad or worse than we saw in the first Trump administration. Many people are going to suffer under the upcoming regressive policies.
Republicans hold all three branches of the federal government in America. From the stacked right-wing judges in the Supreme Court, both chambers of Congress and the Presidency, they hold them all. In Montana, our State Supreme Court is in slightly better shape with a majority of moderate judges, but our State Legislature still has a Republican majority, and our Republican Governor Gianforte is an ultra rich religious extremist who thinks the earth is only 6,000 years old. As a treat, Gianforte gave people record high property tax hikes while cutting his own taxes.
WHAT CAN WE DO??
Before I get into a closer look at the election results for Montana, I want to speak briefly about my hope and determination for the future.
If you are scared and worried about our country, the solution is civic engagement. We need to be building local community, talking to our elected officials, holding our politicians accountable and continuing to bend the path of this country towards justice. It took them 40 years to dismantle Roe v. Wade. and it’s going to take time for us to change the right-wing capture of our government. And unless you want to live under a dictatorship, it’s going to take some work to dig us out of this hole. FIND YOUR PEOPLE. Go to community meetings. Show up. Volunteer. Talk to your friends and family and get them involved, too. Register voters that understand the danger we are in. You can make things better.
So What Happened in Montana?
Sadly, the red trend continued. Not surprisingly, we saw a growing right-wing slant in Montana over the past decade, because from October 2008 through May 2024, for every two Democrats moving to Montana, slightly more than three Republicans did the same.
All Statewide Seats are now held by Republicans
As we saw in 2020 and 2022, all statewide Democratic candidates lost in 2024. With the ouster of Montana’s last statewide Democratic official, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Republicans hold every statewide seat. Dismantling of our public services such as Medicaid, access to public lands, tax cuts for the rich, and rising property taxes are all on the table.
How did the vote breakdown?
Jon Tester lost his senate seat to newcomer Tim Sheehy (45% to 53%). Montanans voted against a Senator who has continually proven his support of rural hospitals, abortion rights, infrastructure funding that directly helped Montana, and elected a man who is adamantly anti-abortion and will likely align with an effort to pass a national abortion ban. At the same time, voters passed the abortion rights measure of CI-128 to enshrine abortion rights in our state constitution, 58% Yes to 42% No. That is completely wild. I’m not sure if people know that federal law supersedes state law. If there is an abortion ban on the federal level, then there is an abortion ban in Montana no matter what our state constitution says.
But the happy outcome for CI-128 is a promising sign that Montanans still support women’s rights to their own healthcare decisions. There is space to have a discussion on the disconnect of who is being elected and what the voters and Montanans actually want.
Things are not all bad.
As mentioned above, CI-128 won handily. Democrats broke the supermajority in the Montana State Legislature, and Democrat Jane Weber won her election bid for a Montana House seat in Great Falls. Jane Weber’s win marks the first Democratic legislator elected in Cascade County since 2018.
Map of Montana’s 2024 Legislative Seats. Blue for Democratic seats, Red for Republican seats.
Even in the flood of other bad election news, we did have promising wins for Democratic policies in Montana. Things are not hopeless. Let’s build on that and do the local organizing work to fight for a better future.
by Ken Toole | Dec 2, 2024 | Elections
An investigator with the Montana Human Rights Bureau issued a report finding that the Secretary of State’s office discriminated against Rina Fontana Moore when it emailed the Cascade County Commission urging them not to hire her for a position running the election office.
After removing election duties from Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant last December, the county commission opened an election administrator position. Rina Fontana Moore applied for the open position. In a highly suspect hiring process, the commission hired Terry Thompson, who had no experience or training in running elections. Fontana Moore has 16 years experience and extensive election administration training. (See our post about the hiring process: https://wtf406.com/?s=Rae+Grulkowski+)
Secretary Of State Urged County To Deny Fontana Moore Election Job
On February 14th, the Republican Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen, sent an email to the Cascade County Commissioners urging them not to hire Fontana Moore: “Please do not hire Ms. Moore or a member of her administration as Cascade County’s Election Administrator. Doing so would directly undermine the voters of Cascade County, among other reasons.” Her letter closed, “Thank you and God Bless, Christi”. The next day the county commission voted to offer the job to Terry Thompson.
Commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson said they were surprised by the email. Both said they felt it was inappropriate. Briggs said, “I took it as a personal political statement that was done inappropriately.” The county attorney’s office contacted the secretary of state’s office. Jacobsen’s legal counsel said she had a First Amendment right to make the comments. When contacted by The Electric, Jacobsen’s office did not respond.
Fontana Moore Files Discrimination Complaints
Eleven days later (February 27), Fontana Moore filed discrimination complaints with the Human Rights Bureau of the Department of Labor. \One complaint was filed against Cascade County for discrimination based on her political beliefs in denying her the election administrator position. The other was against the Montana Secretary of State for advocating a discriminatory action by Cascade County.
Merchant And Grulkowski Mum About Meeting With Secretary of State
On March 1, two days after Fontana Moore filed her complaints, Jenn Rowell of the Electric was at a meeting in the Capitol building in Helena. She saw County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski and Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant going into the Secretary of State’s office. They came out about 20 minutes later. The Electric contacted Grulkowski and Merchant and asked what their business was in the Secretary of State’s office and if county funds were spent on their visit. They did not respond.
Cascade County Settles With Fontana Moore
The Human Rights Bureau accepted Fontana Moore’s complaints and initiated an investigation. As part of the process, the parties in human rights complaints attempt to resolve their complaints through mediation. On October 4, the Cascade County Commission approved paying Moore $52,500 to settle the complaint against the county on the advice of their attorney. The settlement resolved the complaint.
Rae Grulkowski was the only county commissioner voting against the settlement. Her actions on the hiring committee clearly put the county at risk in the discrimination complaint. Ironically, the county paid for Grulkowski to have an attorney separate from the outside lawyer the county hired to defend against the complaint. (See our post on Grulkowski’s legal fees: https://wtf406.com/?s=Grulkowski+)
Secretary Of State Declines To Settle; Complaint Goes to Formal Hearing
The Secretary of State’s office declined to participate in mediation. Election administrator and former chief legal counsel for the Secretary of State’s office, Austin James, argued that Fontana Moore should not be appointed election administrator because she lost her 2022 reelection to Merchant for Cascade Clerk and Recorder. Since the case was not settled in mediation, the investigator completed her investigation and found that the Montana Secretary of State’s actions were discriminatory. The case will now move forward to a formal hearing.
