by WTF 406 Staff | Dec 14, 2022 | Taxes
By K.T.
We are in the calm before the storm — that period between elections and the legislative session. After a sweeping victory in the elections, the Republicans are sharpening their knives to cut already stressed public infrastructure and services. And along the way, they plan to “rebate” much of the current budget surplus to the taxpayers of Montana. How much, (and who gets it) remains to be seen, but count on it happening.
Is there really a Surplus?
So first let’s talk about the budget surplus. While it is true that we have a record surplus, it is not true that it all came from Montana taxpayers. Plain and simple, much of the money was sent to Montana from the Federal government in the form of Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and other Covid relief programs for the purpose of providing emergency grants, lending, and investment to hard-hit small businesses so they can rehire and retain workers. And damn little of the money coming from the Federal Government came from Montana taxpayers. For every dollar Montana sends to the Federal Government, it receives $1.47 back. Interestingly, 7 of the 10 states which pay the least and receive the most from the Federal Government are governed by Republicans, while over 50% of the states which actually send more to the Feds than they get back are governed by Democrats. https://www.moneygeek.com/living/states-most-reliant-federal-government/
Back in August, the right flank of Republican legislators began thumping their chests, demanding a special session to “return the surplus” to Montanans. In promoting the call for a special session, Republican Mark Blasdel said, “Legislative Republicans are excited to return excess tax money back to the taxpayers who paid it, … What taxpayers need to know at this point is that under Republican leadership, they can look forward to receiving their money back that the state doesn’t need.” Nice rhetoric, but we don’t think they were really talking about sending anything back to the people who live in other states, ones that actually foot the bill for a big part of the surplus.
Well, the effort to call a special session failed and highlighted the friction between moderate and hard-right Republicans. Republican Representative Llew Jones of Conrad wrote an editorial which ran in papers across the state arguing to use the surplus for long term investments in infrastructure. . .a rare good idea from a Republican. (Here in Great Falls we didn’t see it because the Great Falls Tribune doesn’t run editorials).
The votes of Republican legislators here in Great Falls follow the fault line split between “moderate” and hard-right Republicans. Supporters of a tax rebate special session included: Lola Galloway, Stephen Galloway, Scot Kerns, Steve Gist, and Jeremy Trebas. Opponents included Wendy McKamey, Steve Fitzpatrick, Ed Buttrey, Fred Anderson and Brian Hoven. (Democrat Carlie Boland voted no and Democrat Tom Jacobson did not respond to the Secretary of State’s poll).
Check the poll here: https://sosmt.gov/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?juwpfisadmin=false&action=wpfd&task=file.download&wpfd_category_id=777&wpfd_file_id=48436&token=c5ae0d97d318b35ffe27e66a6281d79f&preview=1
Is this “refund” even legal?
But let’s get back the idea of giving tax rebates at the state level using ARPA funds from the federal government. Stated simply, it violates the spirit and the letter of the law. ARPA specifically prohibits states using the funding for tax rebates. Seems those wiley Federal bureaucrats anticipated that some states would try to put the money in wealthy people’s pockets rather than use it to stimulate their economies by putting dollars to work providing street level services and money for investment to deal with the economic havoc caused by the pandemic.
So in the up-coming session the war of wiggle words will begin. The Republican party is so wedded to the failed idea of “trickle down economics” that they can’t see, or don’t care about, the reality that giving tax breaks to wealthy people simply does not do much to stimulate the economy. Instead it goes into fancy financial vehicles and things like stock buybacks which actually move money out of the community. And given that Republicans in Montana have consistently passed legislation that is unconstitutional or in violation of existing Federal law we can bet that they will go ahead with their plan no matter what.
The Real Cost
So we just want to leave this with a final thought. Cascade County just passed a public safety levy. We’ll see property tax increases from that. The City of Great Falls is about to put their own public safety levy on the ballot. High end estimates of the property tax increase of a City safety levy will double the city’s budget and result in a 191% increase in city property tax bills. https://theelectricgf.com/2022/11/18/city-considering-35-million-public-safety-levy/
State tax cuts and rebate programs often result in increased local government spending on vital services such as police, fire, facility maintenance, roads, streets, and schools. And if the local mill levies fail, the quality of the community suffers. Schools can’t hire teachers, public safety suffers, streets get potholes and VIOLA! No one wants to live here. And ironically, Republicans justify this snowballing deterioration of our community infrastructure in the name of “economic development.”
by WTF 406 Staff | Dec 8, 2022 | Uncategorized
The Great Falls Tribune is a shadow of its former self. Back in the day, it was the best paper in the state, routinely fielding solid reporters like Chuck Johnson, Mike Dennison, and John Adams. Today, it is short-staffed, has no editorial page, and has rapidly declining subscriber rates. Most print papers across the country find themselves facing similar issues. There is little doubt that the Tribune and many other papers will not be around in ten years. The question is what, if anything, replaces the daily local newspaper?
The good news is that local papers, mostly online and “free” (contributions and subscriptions encouraged), have been springing up across the state. These include The Flathead Beacon, Missoula Current, and here in Great Falls, The Electric. In addition, we now have two state-wide online papers, The Daily Montanan and Montana Free Press. Both of these papers have solid reporting and provide in-depth coverage of many issues. The Daily Montanan also has regular commentary and guest editorial content.
Check out these links for online papers and consider subscribing or contributing this holiday season.
by WTF 406 Staff | Dec 6, 2022 | Taxes
Sitting on top of Gore Hill at the end of the airport runway sits a building that resembles a cardboard box: the Cascade County Adult Detention Center. Unfortunately, this ugly building is the first thing visitors approaching from the south see when coming to Great Falls. Now, the Sheriff’s office wants to expand the jail complex to include a new “evidence facility”.
Where’s the money coming from?
During the campaign for the recently passed public safety mill levy, most of the proponents’ campaign centered on the need to increase salaries for county attorneys and sheriff’s deputies. But that’s not all. It is bad enough that goofy ideas like Slaughter’s plan to have deputies teaching courses on the constitution and putting armed volunteers in local schools may get some of that public money. But we don’t think many people thought we would be paying for a big garage to house the Sheriff’s search and rescue jet boat and a new grant-funded, $700,000 “command vehicle” (Whatever the hell that is).
Wait, how much are we paying for this?
If you are surprised by this, you are not alone. So was the County Commission. The Electric reported that Undersheriff Scott VanDyken and Public Works Director Les Payne met with the commission to discuss the project on Nov. 21. Commissioner Joe Briggs said the first they saw of the project was in a memo which said it was already going over cost estimates. The proposed ten thousand square foot facility is now estimated to cost almost $2 million. Briggs also said there was no mention of having to build a garage for the vehicle when the commission approved submitting the grant to buy it.
Just last year, the City of Great Falls bought two incident command vehicles. We have to wonder how much of this kind of hardware we need in Great Falls. The county and city should be able to share use of these vehicles rather than spending all of this money to buy and store these expensive vehicles.
Is this money well spent?
Right wing politicians like Jesse Slaughter and City Commissioner Rick Tryon want to focus public fear of violent crime to promote pet projects. In both the recently passed Public Safety Mill Levy and the yet-to-be-proposed City Public Safety Levy, the public is on the hook for significant tax increases. Even worse, while law enforcement is stomping around with military-style equipment and weapons, public services which really could reduce crime (like mental health care, crisis intervention programs and adequate housing) get none of this tax-funded largess.
-KT
by WTF 406 Staff | Nov 26, 2022 | Elections
Had enough of election politics? Well, that’s true for most of us here in Montana. But then came the news that Montana’s former Secretary of State – turned mediocre country western singer – Corey Stapleton is running for president. Stapleton obviously has no lack of ego and a certain attraction to delusional thinking, that’s for sure. So let’s take a quick look at his illustrious political career just to see what kind of president he might be.
Is he a political hack?
In 2020, a court ordered Stapleton to remove the Green Party from the ballot following revelations that the Montana Republican party spent $100,000 to qualify the Green Party for a slot on the ballot. It was an obvious underhanded attempt to siphon votes from Democratic candidates. As Secretary of State, Stapleton not only supported this kind of game, he appealed the court decision to the US Supreme Court . . .twice. His petition was denied both times.
Is he ethically challenged?
In August of 2020 the Billings Gazette wrote an editorial with the following title: “Stapleton Shows Why He is Unfit for Any Office.” The editorial says it better than we possibly could: “There was the issue of the nonexistent voter fraud that Stapleton referred to in public, then blamed the media for reporting. There was the problem with the unauthorized expense to the state for a personal ‘big truck’ he used to commute to work. There was the attempt to declare a bill vetoed by the governor as the law of the land, a move a judge found to be ‘without constitutional or statutory support.’ There was the botched voter guide and rush-job $265,000 correction, commissioned from a political ally’s print shop without bid. And there was the fine for using resources from the Secretary of State’s Office to announce his campaign for governor — a campaign he later abandoned to run instead for Montana’s House seat when that position looked more easily attainable.” Thank you, Billings Gazette.
Is he an ambitious politician?
In 2000, he was elected to the Montana Senate where he sat for two terms. In 2012, he ran for governor and lost the Republican primary to Rick Hill. In 2013, he announced he was running for the U.S. Senate but withdrew when Steve Daines also announced. Instead, he ran for Congress, losing in the 2014 Republican primary to Ryan Zinke. In 2016, he ran for Secretary of State and won – going on to prove his arrogance and incompetence in public office as summarized by the Billings Gazette above. In 2019, he again announced his intention to run for governor but withdrew and ran for Congress, losing in the 2020 Republican primary to Matt Rosendale. And now he is running for President of the United States.
Wait! We almost forgot. . .now he is a country western singer. He just released his second album. So is he a good country singer? Um. . . meh. Check it out for yourself. https://ffm.to/westernson
Well, there we have it. Now Corey is running for president. Who on earth would vote for an ethically challenged hack with a record of failure and mismanagement? Maybe country music fans? Of course he won’t win. . .will he? Well, most of us thought the same about Donald Trump. Stay tuned.
by WTF 406 Staff | Nov 7, 2022 | Elections
By K.T.
Wondering which political party will benefit from the inclement weather we are likely to see election day? Of course no one really knows but a quick cruise on the internet finds plenty of opinions. As most of us know, the media pundit class has been predicting a Republican victory nationally and here in Montana. As usual, their speculation is not based on much but their own bloviated opinion, verbal vehemence and continued reliance on polling which has proven to be inaccurate. . . particularly in the Trump Election of 2020.
But still the human desire to know the unknowable drives most of us to speculate on the many factors that create an electoral victory. Did the candidate work hard enough? Raise enough money? Did the candidate have a compelling message? Was the candidate’s “profile” appealing to some imagined voter? Some of these things can be based on facts but most of it is conjecture and speculation.
And that brings us to the weather. Most of us agree that you don’t really know what the weather is going to be. . . until a day or two before it happens. Unlike prognosticators and politicos the people who predict the weather have a fairly good record when it comes to short term forecasts. The question is, will inclement weather affect the election?
First, it’s important to remember that a lot of people have already voted by mail. The political site FiveThirtyEight (ABC News) says about a third of all voters vote by mail and that Democrats are far more likely to vote by mail. If true, then a big storm on election day would work to the advantage of Democrats.
But remember, in the 2020 Montana election all voting was done by mail (with return postage included) because of the pandemic. The result was a lot of low information voters, and people who rarely voted in the past cast a ballot because it was so easy. . .and they voted for Trump and voted for a straight Republican ticket. So much for the idea that Democrats do better with mail ballots. One could argue that because these voters aren’t likely to vote if they have to sign up for absentee ballots and buy a stamp they won’t show up again. Who knows?
Another interesting factor is that the election denier crowd is extremely distrustful of mail ballots. They are almost universally hard-core conservatives and Trump supporters. If they vote at all (they may not because they believe the whole system is corrupt) they will do it on election day. If the weather is bad they may just stay home. Problem is we don’t know how many of these folks there really are and by most accounts they are a very small vocal minority.
If you are reading this blog we hope you already voted by mail. If you haven’t, get out your winter boots and go vote. Here’s a link to polling places https://www.voteinmt.org/cascade
