by Ken Toole | Apr 15, 2025 | Elections
This post is comprised of Facebook posts which appeared on Mayor Cory Reeves’ Facebook page. It begins with his tongue-in-cheek solicitation for campaign contributions for watching the Mayor take a shower ($5) or taking a shower with him ($10). I commented about the ad. Full disclosure- I mistakenly thought this was an official page from the city because the name of the page is Mayor Cory Reeves and is dominated by posts about city government. The page is categorized as “Public & Government Service.” He also has another page which is named “Cory Reeves.” Still, it was my mistake. I included that in my last comment to Mayor Reeves.
I have not copied other comments from individuals who are not public officials. But let me also say for the record that they were mostly supportive of the Mayor. I encourage anyone who is really curious to take a look at the Facebook page Mayor Cory Reeves. But, it appears that Tryon deleted his comments and my responses or maybe it was a Facebook algorithm. Our readers can decide what they think on their own.
Reeves’ campaign solicitation begins with the following statement above a photo. I deleted the address.
It’s already that time—campaign season is kicking off!
We’re excited to continue the work of moving our community forward, and as always, your support means the world. Whether it’s your encouragement, your time, your vote, or your donations, it all makes a difference.
If you’d like to contribute to the campaign, donations can be mailed to:
Cory Reeves
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Great Falls, MT 59405
Let’s keep the momentum going! (Max donation is $450)
Despite the fact that it was obviously a joke, I made the following comment on his post.
City Commissioner Rick Tryon responded with his usual vitriol to my comment and I replied. My post referenced an email he had sent to a Canadian citizen who complained to him about Trump’s tariffs. See our previous post. https://wtf406.com/2025/03/canadian-emails-reeves-and-tryon-just-dont-want-them/
Then Reeves responded to my comment.
Mayor Cory Reeves
Ken Toole Ken, you’ve got a gift. Truly. Only you could read a joke and turn it into a personal crisis. Can’t wait for your article—your talent for dramatic reinterpretation is unmatched. Pulitzer-worthy stuff, really. Keep swinging, champ!
Finally, I made the following response to Reeves.
After this back and forth appeared in comments on the Mayor Cory Reeves Facebook page, I received an email with a link to an Electric story about an ethics complaint filed against Commissioner Tracy Hauck for putting a notice on her Facebook page about a women’s march. The complaint was filed by Jeni Dodd who writes occasionally for E-City Beat along with Rick Tryon. The Electric wrote, “The Facebook page is not owned, provided, operated or maintained by the city, but when elected or appointed officials use a social media site in their official duties, they’re supposed to notify the city and the city has a software system that captures the posts to maintain a public record.” https://theelectricgf.com/2019/02/08/city-ethics-committee-hears-first-complaint-regarding-houcks-social-media-post/
In addition, Reeves has changed his Mayor Cory Reeves Facebook page cover to mimic the design of his campaign graphic. He also posted the complete campaign graphic with the words Re-Elect Mayor Cory Reeves
I am not a supporter of either Cory Reeves or Rick Tryon. In this exchange they do nothing to address the underlying issue of the mayor soliciting contributions on a Facebook page that has every appearance of a public official. In any other context (like a personal page) I wouldn’t have commented, though I don’t think it is particularly funny. Instead, both of them respond with personal attacks and sarcasm. Great Falls deserves better leadership.
by Ken Toole | Apr 4, 2025 | Legislature, Uncategorized
Guest editorial submitted by The Legislative Lurker
The Montana Legislature is made up primarily of old people. Out of 150 legislators, 113 are over age 45. Eight legislators are younger than 35 this session, which is a good thing. We need younger people’s perspectives in order to make policies that will serve the next generations.
Lukas Schubert, The 19 Year Old Legislator
We need the “olds” for practical knowledge and experience, but most sessions skew older, and so it’s nice to see younger folks stepping into the game. I just wish they wouldn’t always be, you know, stepping in it. There’s Lukas Schubert (R-Kalispell, 19 years old) , who brought at least two bills that caught my eye and made my eyebrows shoot up.
There’s HJ 22, titled “Joint resolution acknowledging that Christ is King.” That’s bad enough, considering that 45% of Montanans don’t identify as Christians, whom he calls “imposters” who should kneel before Christ, but he also brought HB 896, which is titled “Prohibit harboring or assisting illegal aliens.” The two of them together plant an image in my mind of Jesus, wearing a MAGA hat, banging his shepherd’s staff on someone’s door, saying, “You better not have any immigrants in there!”
The hearing for HJ 22 is worth a watch, especially for the part that starts about seven minutes in, with Rabbi Rep. Ed Stafman (D-Bozeman, 71 years old) quizzing the quisling on the Bible, and pointing out that bringing the name of God into the secular realm violates the Third Commandment. Schubert responded to the older man’s obviously more complete scriptural knowledge bravely, if not directly. His moral rectitude may have metastasized to hubris already. In one so young!
Representative Braxton Mitchell, Fixated with Trans
Well he’s only 19, and his brain is still developing, I guess. Boys will be boys, especially when they’re not so sure of themselves. Remember Rep. Braxton Mitchell (R-Columbia Falls, 24 years old) , who gained fame last session for a picture of him man-spreading at a drag queen? Well this session he’s been chivalrously carrying bills for his Lt. Governor, Kristen Juras, such as HB 247, titled “Eliminate damages for injuries and death arising from dueling.” That one was tabled in committee, so if he had a plan to duel, and didn’t want to have to pay damages, he’ll have to re-think it.
What’s This About Menstruation?
Mitchell and Schubert together tried to prohibit “Dispensing menstrual products in male-designated restrooms” for some boyish reason. The vote to table that one, in a Republican-dominated committee, was unanimous. I suppose if they had better role models, among the olds in the legislature, they wouldn’t have to learn the hard way.
Maybe These Young Men Need Mentors
They could have looked to Sen. Jason Ellsworth (R-Hamilton, 52 years old) for guidance, right? They’re all from the same neck of the woods – Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Hamilton – and in his long tenure, Ellsworth has demonstrated a certain deftness with creatively manipulating legislative power. Surely he could have advised them. Alas, he’s no longer a resource for the youth, as he was just barred from the Senate for life for a laundry list of infractions, including trouble with the Federal Trade Commission, abusing his power trying to weasel out of a traffic ticket, accusations of domestic abuse and, finally, indications of fraud, waste and abuse in allocating money for legislative contracts.
https://wtf406.com/2025/01/guest-post-from-john-schneeberger-in-ravalli-county/
And let’s not forget big boy Rep. Ron Marshall (R-Hamilton, 63 years old) , who might be the most honest one of them. He apparently came to the legislature in order to get advantages for his vape shop, but he couldn’t get his bills passed, so he took his toys and went home. He complained that corporate lobbyists were calling all the shots, and he’s not wrong. Still, I wonder who Marshall thinks is supporting his business by marketing addiction, if not those self-same lobbyists. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, Representative!
https://wtf406.com/2025/03/life-on-the-dark-side-of-a-flat-6000-year-old-moon/
by Ken Toole | Apr 3, 2025 | Guest Articles
Two Cents
A few people got pretty crabby about my last editorial, which was skeptical about Donald Trump’s benevolence and competence. One reader called me a “liberal loon” and told me I just need to “get over it.”
Where was that advice on January 6, 2021?
A couple of people cancelled their subscriptions. Others told me I should stick to Montana issues, which is what I do, mostly, but we don’t live in a vacuum here. What happens in D.C. matters, and for generations our economy has been subsidized by the federal checkbook, now in the hands of Elon Musk.
Things could change.
The federal government manages about one third of this state. To atone for this, it pays us money. I won’t bog you down with details, but programs that go by the acronyms SRS and PILT sent schools and local governments $54.2 million in 2023. That’s a lot of cops and teachers.
Farm subsidies amounted to $305 million in Montana in 2023, making federal checks to farmers the state’s fourth largest cash crop.
Highway money? $225 million in 2023.
Medicare and Medicaid keep our rural hospitals and nursing homes afloat.
Our state universities rely heavily on federal grants, aiming to foster better crops, better health, a better economy. Nonprofits of all sorts win grants every year to feed, house and educate people. Cities and counties get infrastructure and planning grants. Many people earn federal wages and retirement benefits, and Social Security checks. Add it up and Montana gets about $1.50 for every dollar we send to D.C.
Elon Musk has a new axe and few restraints. His DOGE crew had batting practice with foreign aid projects, and trotted out many examples of silly or wasteful programs that needed to go. But they didn’t mention any babies when they tossed out all the bathwater.
Domestic programs are next. You can read on page 46 about an exciting project in Great Falls that is turning plant oils and beef suet into aviation fuel. It relies on a federal loan guarantee that employs words like sustainability and climate, so I suspect the DOGE team has it on a “woke” list. Will Montanans stick up for it? Will it help if they do? How about seasonal rangers and toilet cleaners in our overcrowded national parks? A lot of those jobs are in limbo.
The DOGE crew wants to leave the sorting to their AI software (what could go wrong?) and the wise and benevolent oligarchs (who also want a tax break). Here’s how rolling over for the oligarchy worked out in my little corner of the world: your winter edition of Montana Quarterly arrived as much as eight weeks late because the US Postal Service gave top priority, and a hefty discount, to “last mile” delivery of Amazon parcels. That means your magazines, Christmas cookies and pet medication moldered in a corner while overstressed postal workers delivered for Amazon. That means everybody who buys a postage stamp is subsidizing the rocket ships of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
So, no. I won’t pipe down.
Scott McMillion
Editor in Chief
Montana Quarterly
by Ken Toole | Apr 1, 2025 | Legislature, Taxes
Like most large corporations, Calumet/Montana Renewables hires law firms with well-connected lawyers. Here in Montana, it is Browning, Kaleczyc, Berry and Hoven (BKBH), a Helena-based “silk stocking” law firm. Their attorneys use law and politics to help the corporation comply with the law, maximize profits, and avoid paying taxes.
Calumet Gets Property Tax Breaks Every Year
A prime example is Calumet/Montana Renewables’ repeated appeals of their property tax valuations. They have appealed their property valuations every single year since 2017. These appeals have resulted in significant reductions to their valuations resulting in lower property taxes in every case. In five separate appeals between 2017 and 2021, the average valuation reduction Calumet/Montana Renewables received each year was $107,123,622. There are currently appeals still pending for the last three years.
When a large business like Calumet/Montana Renewables, the largest property taxpayer in Cascade County, files a property tax appeal, local governments are forced to delay adopting budgets. They cannot be sure how much revenue will come in based on new valuations. But when an appeal is settled through negotiation, as these have been, there is no complete record of findings. The parties (Department of Revenue and Calumet/Montana Renewables) simply agree on a number.
Fitzpatrick’s Special Tax Legislation
More concerning is the activity of a BKBH attorney and Republican state Senator representing Great Falls, Steve Fitzpatrick. To our knowledge, Fitzpatrick is not directly employed by Calumet. But he is a “shareholder ” in the firm, which derives significant revenue from Calumet.
In the 2023 legislative session, Fitzpatrick introduced Senate Bill 510, titled “Provide Property tax incentives for alternative fuel production.” This new law changed the process for receiving tax “abatement” for Calumet/Montana Renewables. Now only the county has the authority to approve forgiving property taxes. But requests for abatement cannot be denied by the county commissioners. The county can only decide to give up 80%, 90% or 100%. In March, the county commission voted to give Calumet/Montana Renewables the minimum, 80%. The abatement phases out after five years.
https://theelectricgf.com/2025/03/11/county-approves-80-percent-tax-abatement-for-calumet/
This year’s action comes on top of a 50% abatement Montana Renewables is already receiving. The city estimates that the previous abatement cost the city $2.77 million in lost revenue. No figures were available from the county for the same period.
https://montanafreepress.org/2024/10/21/a-closer-look-at-calumets-tax-benefits/
The Whole Plant is Air Pollution Control Equipment?
Fitzpatrick’s bill also added language which defined virtually all of Montana Renewables’ plant as tax-exempt “air pollution control equipment.” Naturally, Montana Renewables then applied to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for the exemption of the $430 million plant. DEQ denied the application, approving only 8% of their request. Calumet/Montana Renewables appealed DEQ’s decision to the Montana Tax Appeals Board. A decision is pending.
These Special Breaks Cost The Rest Of US
The stakes in this game are very high. A full tax exemption for Montana Renewables could erase more than $1.5 million in proceeds to schools, $1.8 million for the City of Great Falls, and $1.1 million for Cascade County. If this case is resolved by “negotiated settlement,” we may never know what justifies this huge tax give away.
https://montanafreepress.org/2025/02/10/calumet-applies-for-new-tax-benefit/
The Law Firm’s Influence For Calumet
As mentioned before, Fitzpatrick is a “shareholder” in (BKBH). Many of the principals in this firm are well established figures in the legal community with numerous connections in both political parties. BKBH provides lobbying services to clients as well as legal representation.
One of Calumet’s attorneys at BKBH is Kimberly Beatty, the wife of the current director of the Montana Department of Revenue, Brendan Beatty. The Department of Revenue website says he operates the family ranch as well. Brendan Beatty filed a potential conflict of interest disclosure with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices as required by administrative rules.
It Should Make You Go, “Hmmm”
Beatty certainly is paid for her work for Calumet/Montana Renewables. We can’t say if Fitzpatrick has ever received direct payment from Calumet/Montana Renewables. Even if he did, it likely would not be illegal. Fitzpatrick and Beatty are “shareholders” in BKBH. In theory both benefit from the firm’s work for Calumet/Montana Renewables. In these times of political influence peddling and big corporations dodging taxes, it’s just one of those things that makes you go hmmm. . . .
by Ken Toole | Mar 25, 2025 | Guest Articles, Legislature
Guest Editorial From Bill LaCroix from the Bitterroot Valley
On March 3, Hamilton vape store owner and legislator Ron Marshall (R-87) resigned his House seat in a huff, charging the predominantly-right-wing Republican majority with corruption for voting down HB 149 (his bill), which would have allowed him to sell toylike vape products from China designed to appeal to children.
Marshall Thinks Lobbyists Are Corrupt?
“The lobbyists run this capitol,” Marshall pontificates. “Don’t ever think that the people have a say up here, because you don’t….the people need to understand that, if you want your voice heard up here, you get rid of all these lobbyists. Get rid of them all because it’s the absolute worst thing that could happen to a citizen government.”
Well, duh, Ron, but which lobbyists are “corrupt” in your view? Apparently not the cultural-warrior and fossil-fuel-friendly ones like Montana Right to Life or A.L.E.C. , with whom you’ve consistently voted in lockstep. Just the tobacco-industry ones who are a little more reticent to openly sell Chinese tobacco toys to kids than yourself? So confusing.
But No Issue With Trump’s Corruption?
It’s appropriate to note here that the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee (RCRCC)—of whom Ron is currently a vice-chair—heartily endorses the most demonstrably-corrupt head of state in the history of Western Civilization…with the possible exceptions of Hitler and Caligula. “Oh, the hypocrisy,” I’d have a 21st-Century Joseph Conrad say about such a thing, but then, what do I know about hearts of darkness?
Marshall’s Replacement Is No Moderate
Well, how about this? Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Ron has been part of the uber-right/ John Bircher takeover of the already-ultra-but-not-uber-right RCRCC. And who did Ron (and Manzella, etc.) overthrow to form a more-perfect religio-fascist trainwreck of a committee? None other than Terry Nelson, who, as chair of the RCRCC, has orchestrated the far-right, Christian Nationalist takeover of our valley since 2010, and who has just been appointed by our right-wing-but-not-right-wing-enough county commissioners to fill Ron’s seat.
Terry is considered a “moderate” these days, because he’s only a “Tea Party” Republican and not a loopy John Bircher. That’s what the Republican infighting here in Ravalli County is about. But let’s be clear: Terry was honchoing the RCRCC when members in good standing, such as Jeff Burrows, were threatening sheriffs with “constitutional shootings.” His portrait has hung behind the booth at the Ravalli County Fair, where they display an uncapped, ready-for-action AR-15 they have auctioned off for years. He’s been the head of the planning office since 2011, but he’s a surveyor, not a planner, and was gifted the job of “planning office administrator” by his county-supremacy commissioner buddies in 2011 (I believe) as a prize after all the real planners were scared off by militia wannabes and rich guys wanting to build trophy homes IN the river. Stay tuned for more on Terry, but in the meantime, know this: the infighting in Ravalli County and Helena over where the Edge of the Flat World actually exists isn’t over here yet. I personally believe it’s just south of Conner, where tech billionaires ride long-necked Diplidons*, but again, what do I know about Dinosaurs?
The problem with being a Montana Republican these days is you gotta find someone in the room to hate. “Someone doin’ somethin’ dirty decent folks can frown on,” as the late John Prine put it. This is simple math: since you don’t have any real solutions to your constituents’ real problems, hate is your only sell-point to voters who, according to the latest statistics from the most well-heeled think tanks, are still paying top dollar for it.
This is a mere observation, and I wish I had a crystal ball to predict when the price of Hate will drop to, say, a pig in a poke or the price of eggs. But, for anyone gazing from afar at the 2025 Montana Legislature and wondering “WTF?,” look no further than Ravalli County.
On a personal note: apologies to readers of this blurb since, no matter how hard I try, I can’t put this stuff down into words without it sounding like a dark fairytale rejected by the Grimm brothers. because it was too unbelievable.
And I ain’t kiddin.’
*The actual dinosaur is called a Diplidocus, but I refer here to a fictional beast who is a metaphor to the well-worn truism: “Their brains were tiny and they died.”
