Tuesday’s Quick Hits

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Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary: 

  • Create General Claims Court
  • Most Federally Dependent States
  • More Basketball
  • One More Thing

CREATE GENERAL CLAIMS COURT:

A reader brought to my attention SB 385, a bill in the Montana Legislature that would create a general claims court.

Almost everyone realizes the MAGA Republicans don’t like the courts in Montana. One of the main reasons for the dislike is that the MAGAs have passed so many bills that were later deemed unconstitutional by the courts. Often, Legislative counsel told the sponsor the bill would probably be unconstitutional, but they introduced it anyway. 

A lot of taxpayer money has been wasted by the state defending these unconstitutional bills. 

SB 385 creates a new court and the Governor gets to appoint the judges. How sweet is that for the MAGAs? 

The MAGAs say the State District Courts are overworked and need help, but instead of adding new judges to solve that problem, they will create a new layer of the judiciary that will deal with constitutional claims. 

The State Senate passed this bill according to the Daily Montanan. I hope the State House defeats this bill. They should add more judges, not create a whole new court.

MOST FEDERALLY DEPENDENT STATES:

WalletHub has a new report posted about the “Most & Least Federally Dependent States.”

Montana came in at #16. It looks as though Montana loves their federal money. We’ll see how they feel when Elon cuts a bunch of it. 

According to WalletHub:

In order to find out exactly how big the difference in federal dependence is from state to state, WalletHub compared the 50 states in terms of three key metrics: the return on taxes paid to the federal government, the share of federal jobs, and federal funding as a share of state revenue.

WalletHub also reported that “Blue States” are less federally dependent than “Red States.”  

New Jersey was ranked as the least federally dependent state. 

Check out the full report HERE. 

MORE BASKETBALL:

I almost forgot about the NAIA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. 

On the men’s side, Montana Tech is in the tournament. They will play on March 14. (Source)

In the women’s bracket, Carroll College, Montana Tech, Rocky Mountain, and Providence all made the tournament from Montana. Providence will host games on March 14 and 15 in Great Falls. (Source)

ONE MORE THING:

I’m jealous how Canada’s new Prime Minister doesn’t have 34 felony convictions. 

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4 thoughts on “Tuesday’s Quick Hits”

  1. The proposed General Claims Court would be – plainly, simply, even blatantly – an incredibly expensive rubber stamp. And we thought the PSC was badly focused in favor of the entities it is supposed to be regulating for the protection of Montana citizens.

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