We have another week under our belts, and here are some of the things that caught my eye…
- Americans for Prosperity
- Abortion
- LeBron & Kareem
- The Super Bowl
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY:
I received a postcard from Americans for Prosperity this week urging me to contact my state legislators and tell them to vote YES on House Bill 324.
The bill has about 19 sponsors. Here is the title: “An Act limiting local government expenditure growth; providing that the limit is equal to the average rate of inflation for the prior 3 years plus the average population growth of a local government entity in the prior 3 years; providing exceptions; providing mechanisms to expend an amount above the expenditure limitation in certain situations; amending section 15-10-420, MCA; and providing a delayed effective date and an applicability date.”
If you scan the QR code it brings up the Americans for Prosperity website with the following information:
“Tell Helena to create a local taxpayer Bill of Rights in Montana! It’s time to rein in out-of-control local governments.”
From the website, you can also send your elected officials an email about the issue:
The first thing I thought about when I read, “It’s time to rein in out-of-control local governments” was the Cascade County commissioners already raising my taxes and the Great Falls City Commission looking at raising taxes 191% until The Western Word and others slapped them back into reality. They will still be raising our taxes,; we just don’t know how much.
In my opinion, at this time any tax increase is a NO in my book.
My question is, “Can we count on our local government to not stick it to us?” Maybe in other places, but not in Cascade County and Great Falls. So maybe, just maybe, we need someone watching the tax and spend folks and reining them in when they go over the top on tax increases.
Sure, we can vote the tax and spend folks out of office, and I won’t be voting for anyone who votes to raise my taxes.
You can see the postcard HERE and HERE. Read HB 324 HERE.
ABORTION:
Gallup polling found in a recent poll that Americans are more dissatisfied with U.S. abortion policies now than they have been at any point in Gallup’s 23-year trend, and those who are dissatisfied are three times as likely to prefer less strict rather than more strict abortion laws.
Gallup also reported that the record-high 69% of U.S. adults dissatisfied with abortion laws includes 46% who prefer that these laws be made less strict, marking a 16-percentage-point jump in this sentiment since January 2022. In addition, 15% of Americans are dissatisfied and favor stricter laws, and 8% are dissatisfied but want them to stay the same. Meanwhile, 26% of Americans are satisfied with the nation’s abortion policies, similar to last year’s 24% record low.
I think we need to do something federally because every state is making its own laws about abortion. This is not fair.
Read the complete Gallup report HERE.
LEBRON & KAREEM:
Several sources, including Fox Sports, reported this week that Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA’s all-time regular season scoring list (38,387 points) on Tuesday.
I’ve never been a fan of James. He is a great basketball player, but there are some differences between Abdul-Jabbar and James that I think need to be taken into consideration.
Abdul-Jabbar played four years of college basketball. Players were not allowed to go straight to the NBA back then. He won three national championships in college.
James went straight from high school to the pros.
For the first ten years of Abdul-Jabbar’s pro career, there was not a three-point line. James had the three-point line all through his career.
Although they both have played 20 seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar would be way ahead of James in points if he had been allowed to turn pro right after high school.
Abdul-Jabbar has six rings. James has four.
My top five players have not changed. I think the best NBA player of all time is Bill Russell, followed by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kobe Bryant.
Abdul-Jabbar and James are in my top ten, along with Wilt Chamberlain and Karl Malone. Did I miss your favorite player?
THE SUPER BOWL:
This is it. My Kansas City Chiefs are once again in the Super Bowl. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named the Most Valuable Player in all of the NFL last night.
The Chiefs Kingdom has been spoiled the last few years with our seasons going long and our team making it to the Super Bowl three times. The Chiefs have hosted the AFC Championship game five times.
In April, the NFL Draft will be held in Kansas City.
As we get closer to game time, I will be as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The Eagles are a great team, but so are the Chiefs.
Kickoff is Sunday at 4:30 pm Montana time. Fox Sports has the broadcast.
Go Chiefs!
The Western Word 
Oops!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=574034978114389&set=a.102317501952808&__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWpc_h-_WJecmxpdeSHUnzaZBFfnqy2LEqdDwwLV85d-wdyvZJF2WDKd1nEHEBkNCDTxaoyZcTKbHIN3jzOo6qVK9PDkIYDQjROr1SWAREPgvRhMo4x6Q5wH3lIiKAz-rDUDDoOrSuLv04WBL8Gt1z8zPaKMkIKJDaadtTo0lUgUQ&__tn__=EH-R
And lest we forget constitutionalist Jesse’s hand picked, hand selected, highly trained SROs! Here’s one taking a break during their exhausting training schedule of weapons storage areas in an emergency! Any place the enemy won’t readily find it is good! And a great cure for hemorrhoids too!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=572268314957722&set=a.102317501952808&__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVJ5HUCnC2dzdVEIK8X0JbEn7UVLDl0BbWIMVCaJJhW3qD9W1uxkAsO1bJ6aA4sW_ghK1tgHL19O6Y7TkURczlRhD7pDhQ7e5dEuBN8yVh5lg&__tn__=EH-R
In case anyone wonders, that’s not a photo from Cascade County.
Reminds me of certain city commissioners who swore up and down that they were the ones to prevent the tax and spend liebruls from from hosin’ us with all kinds of unnecessary taxes, but once in office, got out the fire hoses!
And then, to add insult to a good hosin’, they plan to use OUR tax money to hire a PR firm to get us to vote for it! That’s some kinda chutzpah that is!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3322719328044491&set=a.1437309839918792&__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUyQuUn3BbmexXxoMnfgevhrQc66X7vaM9bUP0W80cIC_PXPjgtlvnQh4JKt4–NWgtfoMRM3c6xIYeAVz5YHX2FikAI0tb5MZRqg3hrhT_2DqVG0cg1dh77uvoE-cZBULMdPZoaqEwLs4rnB371s1xIiZjVKTMAuMEv2JQciE8_A&__tn__=EH-R
We already have someone watching the tax and spend folks and reining them in for Cascade County and Great Falls. It is us. The GF Commission won’t be raising our taxes for that big Safety Levy unless we as a community vote YES on the matter in November. We all voted on the County safety levy. All the commissioners can do is ask.
Voting yea or nay locally as we see fit on tax increases for local purposes should be our right. It should not be something dictated by radical idealogues in Helena or national billionaire front organizations like AFP. Stay out of our business.
Sometimes our neighbors and fellow citizens vote in ways we disagree with. That’s part of living in a democracy. Majority rules.
But HB 324 is all about minority rule at the local level. It is a transparent attempted coup by unhappy taxpayers in higher tax communities where the majority of their fellow citizens have voted for higher taxes. It’s a back door attempt by the unhappy minority to impose their own low tax wishes on their own community’s majority, using radical legislators from other communities and outside lobbying organizations to take away OUR local decision making authority.
I appreciate your point. Thank you.
I said “So maybe, just maybe, we need someone watching the tax and spend folks and reining them in when they go over the top on tax increases.” As for “All the commissioners can do is ask,” I think in this day and age, they should not even ask because we’re taxed too much. Save those requests for better days. Thanks again, JmB
Speaking of better days:
Check out the front page of today’s Trib, the article about an upcoming $2.1M/yr increase in the cost of GF City electricity that will be passed along to us through our utility bills. I suspect the City will try and hide that and keep it off our bills until after the November election, though.
But what they won’t be able to hide before we vote is the new and likely noticeably higher State assessed property values we’ll see in July or so, along with whatever increase that causes in the tax notices we get this Fall. Add to that all the existing levies and the new taxes that have already been piled on, like the assorted ones the City and County commissioners added unilaterally last year, plus the County safety levy, and who knows what else. We might see a whopper tax bill compared to last year and some angry taxpayers before we even vote.
Our City commissioners may not have picked a worse time to ask for a big fat tax hike.
Here I was having a great day with the sun shining, birds singing, and after reading this the clouds start rolling in…