Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Great Falls Public Library
- Rosendale for Congress?
- Montana Governor Poll
- Reading Assignments
GREAT FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY:
Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon continues his attacks on the Great Falls Public Library. Last Thursday, The Electric reported that Tryon has again asked to revisit the 1993 management agreement between the city and the Great Falls Public Library board. In January, he suggested discussing the agreement to take some of its included seven mills for the library away to direct toward public safety.
The Electric says for the current budget, library staff estimates the tax revenue from those seven mills as $838,809.69, or 24 percent of their expected revenue this year.
Tryon was a big proponent of the Public Safety levy that was soundly defeated by voters. He is a sore loser. On the other hand, a levy for the Public Library passed. I supported the library levy and voted against the public safety levy.
I urge the city commission to reject any attempt by Tryon to take any of the seven mills from the library. I’ll be watching.
The Electric article can be found HERE.
ROSENDALE FOR CONGRESS?
The Daily Montanan is reporting that Rep. Matt Rosendale filed to run for re-election in his U.S. House seat Saturday after suspending a short-lived campaign for Senate earlier this month. A spokesperson for the campaign in a request for comment on the decision to run said the Congressman should have an announcement soon, but is currently working with colleagues on the impending deadline to fund the federal government next week.
If this is true, the race for the Eastern District of Montana is going to be even more interesting. Former President Donald Trump said when he endorsed Tim Sheehy for U.S. Senate that he would endorse Rosendale for Congress if he decided to “change course and run for his Congressional Seat.” (Source)
MONTANA GOVERNOR POLL:
In a recent poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of NonStop Local, our results found that incumbent Governor Greg Gianforte is leading against Democrat candidate Ryan Busse. The poll was conducted earlier this month and found that 52% of Montanans would cast their vote for Governor Gianforte, whereas only 30% said they would vote for Busse. The remaining 18% of those polled said they are either still undecided or would vote for another candidate.
NonStop Local received some comments about the poll from Busse:
“I looked at your poll. Greg Gianforte, an incumbent Republican governor, only has 52% – that’s low. You combine me with the undecideds there…” said Busse. “We get out and meet people. Like when people come to our events – half the people show up: they may not have heard about me but they’re curious; they may not know who they’re gonna vote for. Some of them may be Democrats a bunch of them Republicans – a lot of them are Independents – not a single person leaves those events thinking we’re not gonna win.”
There needs to be someone to stop the attacks from the Montana Republicans on women’s rights, and the LGBTQ community, and someone to stop the increase in our taxes. Busse seems to be the person who can do it. It will be a tough race, but he seems to be positioned well.
Read the complete article from NonStop local HERE.
READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Here are some articles you should read…
Daily Mail – Oklahoma bill wants to create database of every person who’s had an abortion – and how many
Privacy is dying in the USA…
Associated Press: A small, nonthreatening balloon was intercepted by a fighter jet over Utah
I wonder if it was from a child’s birthday party…
Associated Press: Trump wins South Carolina, easily beating Haley in her home state and closing in on GOP nomination
Trump trounced Haley 59.8% to 39.5%.
The Western Word 
just read and article where former Senator Heidi Heitkamp claims Rosendale dropped out of his Senate bid because he knocked up a 20 year old staffer. That will stir things up.
Yes. The story is all over the national news. Interesting. Thanks, JmB
Bwahaha! Go Rosie! MAGA, baby! Hey, Rosie, you’re supposed to take a red pill not the blue one, you ol’ horn dog!
LK
Tryon sure does have an monomaniacal obsession with that library. It has to be personal with him.
If it wasn’t personal maybe we would also be reading about all the other stuff he could be doing to search for public safety funding. Like taking a microscope to the budget of every other City department; working with the governor’s property tax force and/or local legislators to effect that “tax reform” he’s always going on about (never offering any detail, of course); looking at special fees on all the tax-exempt properties in town that use City public safety resources even though they pay no tax; maybe fees on the drivers of outward growth who make larger police and fire departments necessary; or even beginning work right now in conjunction with the public to put together a levy we WILL support. And so much more.
But no, it’s all about that $858,000 he approved for the library.
I think you are absolutely correct. If they take $ from the library, I don’t think I can support any levy for public safety. Thanks, JmB
Good points, Terry. And I do actually feel sorry for Chief Jones and the fire department. They should not get lumped into a “safety” budget that includes cops. They should have their own levy. I could seriously vote to give them more money because they really did get screwed over when the city annexed all that new area without thinking about the consequences. They are tasked with providing much more coverage to a much larger area with the same amount of resources. And from what I’ve seen they do a helluva good job. Any extra resources we provide them would be easily observable and easily quantifiable.
With the cops, the only thing I observe is their endless whining for more money. And their statistics are easily manipulated. If they want to make it look like we’re undergoing an horrific increase in crime, they simply play with the numbers. Or recruit a spokesman like Rick.
And they have options whereas the fire department doesn’t. The fire department can’t give a fire an alternate sentence. Ya gotta put it out. There’s lots the cops and courts can do to keep from filling up the jail. Lots of creative solutions. And those all need to be looked at before we give them an endless line of credit.
It would be interesting to see a poll as to how many people would be willing to give the fire department more money if it wasn’t attached to the PD. I certainly would.
There was lots of chatter on social media that people would have supported GFPD if it had been a standalone question. But we were not given the choice. And no guarantee those extra votes would have been enough even if we were.
I read the commissioners decided they weren’t going to address a levy again until 2025, which of course would again mean they decide on some number of mills right before we get our new property valuations. They should be working right now to put together something the public will support, and coming up with some sort of truth in advertising levy scheme instead of that ever increasing Trojan horse mill levy scam they tried to stick us with.
If state law does not currently allow an honest “flat amount plus inflation” levy scheme then that’s the sort of thing the commissioners should be working on with the state legislators. Among others, like the strangling half of inflation limitation on current levies.
In spite of a severe case of ED, (electile dysfunction), Ricky still has a hard on for the library. I don’t get it. What do MAGAs have against smart people? Is he really that threatened by intellectuals? Why? No wonder he loves trump!
LK