Quote for the day…
The fact that jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains gives hope to many people. -Unknown
Today’s independent commentary deals with these issues:
- Cascade County Public Safety Levy
- Montana Fentanyl
- Montana Supreme Court
CASCADE COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY LEVY:
The Cascade County (Great Falls) commission voted unanimously last week to send a $2.46 million public safety levy to the November ballot. According to The Electric, that equates to about $18.90 for a house with a $100,000 taxable value and $37.80 on a house with a $200,000 taxable value, according to the county.
Since the county commissioners want to stick it to us by raising our taxes, it’s important to know who they are: The Cascade County commissioners are Joe Briggs, James Larson, and Don Ryan.
Briggs and Ryan are up for reelection this November. Besides voting for their opponent or leaving the ballot blank by their names, I will be voting “NO” on the public safety levy. As I said last week, we have too many fees and other possible tax increases on the horizon. Things are tough for Joe and Jill Six-Pack, and this is not the time for tax increases.
You can read the full story about the county’s public safety levy by visiting “The Electric” HERE.
MONTANA FENTANYL:
Several state-wide elected Republicans (Governor Greg Gianforte, Montana AG Austin Knudsen, U.S. Senator Steve Daines, and U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale) met in Bozeman to talk about fentanyl and blame President Joe Biden for the problem.
Daines tweeted:
MT’s fentanyl crisis can be traced right back to
@JoeBiden ‘s southern border crisis.
While MT law enforcement do everything they can to protect our communities, the Biden admin leaves our border wide open. For the sake of our MT families & communities we must secure our border.
Daines is a liar. The border is not “wide open.” It never has been and, more people are patrolling the border than ever before. The southern border is the same as when his man, Donald Trump, was President. Stop lying, Senator, and focus on the problem. (Source)
The Gallatin county sheriff said fentanyl is primarily being trafficked through the postal service, which kind of hurts the narrative of the open border talking points. (Source)
Since the Republicans are running Montana, doesn’t at least part of the fentanyl crisis fall on them? It’s also a slap in the face of the law enforcement professionals being used by Republicans as props to attack the Biden administration.
MONTANA SUPREME COURT:
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s editorial board posted an editorial about the Montana Supreme Court and the Montana Legislature.
The Montana Supreme Court recently blocked an effort by the GOP-controlled Legislature to ask voters to change the way the high court justices are elected. Under their plan the justices would be elected by districts instead of by statewide vote.
The title was:
Editorial: Another bill struck down — and rightfully so
I’m glad some common sense is still prevailing in Montana politics and government. When the Republican legislators meet in Helena, they drink from a silly fountain that is in some dark hallway in the capitol. It turns them into dumbasses. They lose all common sense and pass bills like the one above.
The only thing keeping Montana from becoming a full-fledged MAGA state is the Montana Supreme Court. Thank you, Montana Supreme Court.
Read the complete editorial HERE.
The Western Word 
Yes, it was a silly news conference on fentanyl and the border … https://mooreonmontana.com/2022/08/21/borderline/
When you post your next Numbers maybe you could compare last year of Trump boarder crossers with Biden entries?
More germane might be a comparison of fentanyl numbers during the Trump years with the Biden years, since that’s what Daines was talking about. I would swear I heard something or another about fentanyl long before Biden took office.
It takes some real cojones and hubris to ask county taxpayers to pony up for a bizarre “safety” wish list when you look closely at the salaries of the people that Slaughter is whining about. A deputy can’t live on a starting salary of forty-five thousand dollars? Give me a break. Get outta here. Seems like that’s not a bad wage in poverty stricken Great Falls! Has Jesse been tokin’ the ol’ medical Mary Jane?
I think it’s time to take a serious look as to why the department is going belly up. Could it be that no one wants to work for a constitutionalist sheriff? Funny how all these problems didn’t arise until we got a sheriff who identifies with the kookiest law enforcement organization the nation. I personally wouldn’t contribute one penny to such an outlandish group of weirdos and misfits. Sorry, but we can do without until we get back to a real sheriff. And the county commissioners should be smart enough to realize this. They have worked with real sheriffs in the past. If you’ve got a real retention and hiring problem, look to the source. We pay you to watch our wallets not to pick them at the behest of a constitutionalist sheriff!
This vote is a joke, as is the department under Slaughter. Every job gets a periodic review before getting a raise. Give Slaughter his review by voting no! And stop your whining. It’s unbecoming of professional law enforcement.
The County (and City) are pretty good about telling us how much each tax increase is going to cost the owner of the mythical $100k house, but it would be nice to know how much safer that money is going to make us. If we vote yes, how many fewer auto thefts or meth labs or shootings or whatever? Saying it is for a $20k raise for each deputy to do the same job as now seems a hard sell to homeowners who have zero chance of a raise like that themselves.
And the final paragraph from the Electric story … is this something that was recently aired publicly with the parents of the county indicating they wanted it? Or did our sheriff just decide unilaterally he was going to put guns in the schools at taxpayer expense?
“The levy would also fund an additional school resource officer and Slaughter is planning to roll out a school safety program that includes training and arming civilians who would be in the schools.”
Sorry, I forgot to mention that. Guns in schools. You’re right. You would think that the parents might want to weigh in on that before it happens. I can’t remember exactly how many education degrees Jesse has, but I’m sure they’re numerous, mainly from John Wayne U. and the Dirty Harry School of Law. The kooky is strong with this one. But me personally, I would check to see what kind of liability the school is taking on before arming Joe and Jill Blow. Accidentally shooting a student could cost millions. Is Jesse going to deputize them and put that liability on the taxpayers? Has he really thought this through? Anyone who really knows guns knows that accidents happen. Who hasn’t had or seen an accidental discharge? I’ve seen plenty.