The Monday Memo

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Here we go – these are the topics for today’s column:

  • Utility Rate Hikes
  • Wealthiness
  • Constituent Services
  • The Plane, the Plane
  • One More Thing

UTILITY RATE HIKES:

The Electric reports that the Great Falls City Commission is “considering a substantial increase to water, sewer and stormwater fees for the upcoming budget year.”

The keywords in that sentence are “substantial increase.” 

This is on top of a recent vote to increase sanitation fees. 

The Electric reported that the proposal, which can be amended, is:

  • water: 21.17 percent increase
  • sewer: 26.26 percent increase
  • storm drain: 57.6 percent increase

Great googly moogly! This is insane. This commission has become a rubber stamp for what the city Department heads request. I doubt anyone on the commission has the guts to vote against it. Since taxpayers won’t approve levies, it appears the commission will raise money for the city in other ways. 

Check out the very thorough report from The Electric HERE. 

WEALTHINESS:

I saw an article from Quiver Quantitative in which they report that Montana’s senior U.S. Senator, Steve Daines, made $2.5M in the stock market last month, per Quiver Quantitative’s live net worth estimates. 

Quiver Quantitative also estimates that Senator Steve Daines is worth $21.4M, as of May 11th, 2025. This is the 44th highest net worth in Congress, per our live estimates.

U.S. Senators and Representatives make $174,000 per year. 

Check out the full article HERE. 

CONSTITUENT SERVICES:

Last week, I mentioned contacting U.S. Senator Tim Sheehy via his official U.S. Senate website and asking him why he missed a vote. Over a month has gone by, and I have not received an answer. I think this is poor constituent service.

I read an article from a former State Senator, Jim Elliott (D), who was writing about “Montana Viewpoint: The best use of political power,” in which he talks about helping one of his constituents with a problem she was having with a state agency. After he helped solve the problem, Elliott thought, “And that was when I realized that the power of a political office is the collective power of the people the elected official represents.”

He goes on the write:

One of the best people at constituent help was the late Republican U. S. Senator Conrad Burns. I had heard that he was good, but when a friend of mine showed me letters she had had from his office I was truly impressed with his concerns and kindnesses.

I am a little slanted toward Burns, who was my boss for about 12 years. During that time, I ended up being in charge of helping people who were having problems with Federal agencies. 

I’m glad that others noticed his outstanding work. I’m not sure that helping constituents with the bureaucracy of the government is that big a thing with our senators and representatives these days, but it should be. 

THE PLANE, THE PLANE:

In case you missed it, the Associated Press (AP) and others are reporting that  President Donald Trump is ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during his trip to the Middle East this coming week, and U.S. officials say it could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft.

Trump defended the potential gift on social media:

So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA

U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said:

“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”

In other news, there’s no such thing as a free lunch…

ONE MORE THING:

Last night, my wife asked me if I had seen the dog bowl. I said, “I didn’t know he could.”  (Pinterest)

## HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK ##

4 thoughts on “The Monday Memo”

  1. Pingback: Tuesday’s Quick Hits | The Western Word

  2. Curious that existing GF ratepayers are always being asked to subsidize “growth and development” with these higher rates, in order to “grow the tax base”. Yet that new tax base never seems to arrive, at least not enough to pay for the infrastructure that was required to attract it. So then next time around we’re asked to cough up even more. When does it end? When does the growth pay for itself? Or are we all here simply expected to subsidize profits for developers in perpetuity?

    According to at least one commissioner there’s been tremendous growth in Great Falls over the past several years. So where has all that new tax money gone?

    It seems sort of like a big shell game or Ponzi scheme. The legislature starves local governments of property tax money with the artificial 1/2 of inflation hike limit so basic services like fire and police suffer, then the local governments have to scramble and are forced to make it up on the back end with revenue sources they CAN control. So they raise utility rates and the like on the existing taxpayers to help pay off the shortfall in current bills as well as try and subsidize new growth to attract additional taxpayers. Meanwhile all the homeowners/business owners/rate payers in existing established neighborhoods are asked to pay 10%, 20%, whatever more per year, well above inflation, for basically no additional service.

    • Great points. I don’t know if the leaders understand what growth is. I don’t really think they understand much at all. They follow the Department heads lead like sheep.
      If the FB comments on The Electric’s post about it are any indication, people are pissed.
      Might be a tough election for the incumbents. I will not vote for the incumbents. -JmB

  3. I remember when the geniuses were going to ship a 16 ton garbage truck 6300 miles to Kyrgyzstan. They had enough money back then to spread around.

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