I’ve got $50 left in my 2018 campaign warchest.
If I put another $100 in there, I can file to run for City Council again this year.
When I read headlines like I did today, I really want to do that.
What I’m talking about is the $5,000 that the City Council just voted to spend so that two workers in the city’s art department can go to New Zealand.
The rationale?
It'll help fight climate change.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the story right here.
Just one person voted against this waste of money, and I’m saddened by that.
Oh, and there have been lots of examples of the Council wasting money lately.
- Perhaps you recall the Council’s vote in December to annex the airport, something that will bring in just $300,000 in extra revenue a year, despite the fact that the move will likely push “some businesses into foreclosure.”
- You might also remember that just a week ago the Council voted to give $3.5 million to the private developer, HomeBase, to offset the costs they incurred building their $40 million Marriott hotel.
I think we have three examples of bad spending decisions by the council. Oftentimes, they choose to spend money on those bad ideas, and not good ones.
Remember, just a month or so ago the Council was beating itself up because it couldn’t/wouldn’t find the $50,000 to help fund the Salvation Army’s overnight homeless shelter.
The poor organization had to go out and raise the money itself, which it was able to do.
Another one that has me scratching my head is the Council’s decision last week to raise park fees for baseball games from $50 all the way up to $180.
I thought the idea was to have people visit our new regional park complex, not turn it down in favor of other, more affordable parks in other areas. Considering the Council is unable to fund the new regional park, I guess they have to do this, though. Funny, maybe if they didn’t vote to give rich corporations $3.5 million they’d have the money to keep baseball game rates the same.
When I put this altogether, it really makes me think we need to close the local Missoula government for a time, maybe putting those Council members in the corner with a dunce cap on so they can think about what they’ve done.
I’m not worried about losing any essential services, because we don’t really fund those anyways.
Right now none of our side streets have been plowed, and it’ll stay that way until summer.
We know our police aren’t being funded adequately, as we have no idea where we’ll get the money to add new officers for the airport we’re going to take over.
Oh, I wish we had more people highlighting how badly the government in Missoula is acting.
There’s just the corporate rag, the Missoulian, which doesn’t have a critical eye anymore.
Missoula Current is mostly a Dem talking point blog, run by a former communications person for the Montana Democratic Party. The thing to pay attention to on that site is the stories that don’t appear.
Lastly we have Reptile Dysfunction, which is the only site that actually questions some of the stupid things the Council is doing.
KGVO used to have some good stuff up, but their main investigative journalist left the state a few weeks ago.
I don’t rely on either KPAX or KECI for much of anything, aside from spelling errors.
I wish we had more sites, but we don’t and we probably won’t for some time. I’m positive that there are tons of important stories slipping right through the cracks.
At least if you’re in Helena and interested in the legislature you’ll have a new voice. There’s an anonymous site called Capitol Whispers that started up on December 18, mainly focusing on misdeeds of Democrats.
Don’t expect to hear about this site anywhere else, and don’t expect it to last much longer than April.
I wish we had some Missoula whispers, because it seems there’s a lot of funny business going on here in the Garden City when it comes to finances.
While it’s true elections are this year, I don’t see conservatives making any real gains. I do see long-time Missoula homeowners suffering more in the future, however, as the Council votes to raise their taxes again this year, and does their utmost to pin those homeowners with a sales tax as well.
I’ll keep paying attention, and I hope others do too.
