Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
I supported the 2008 bond measure to finance the consolidated 911 center for Flathead County. I thought it would produce administrative efficiencies that would reduce response times and save money. I was half right: response times have been reduced. But whether it’s saved money is doubtful.
My mistake? Believing that a logical, fair, long term plan for funds for operating expenses would be in place before voter approval for the construction bond was sought. Instead, the plan evidently was “let’ get the bricks and mortar in place, and then the taxpayers will have to pay whatever it costs to run it the way we want it run.” That’s how government behaves, and it’s stupid and unfair. In private enterprise, seldom is anyone fool enough not to include operating expenses, including maintenance, as part of a construction package.
So now the 911 center’s bricks and mortar are in place, piled up off the Stillwater road in the best example of Cold War architecture in the Flathead. Every time I drive past that bomb and fallout shelter I’m tempted to scan the sky for Russian bombers and hope I can stock-up at Costco before atomic weapons vaporize Hungry Horse Dam.
Meanwhile, the Flathead’s county commission wants more money to run the place, so it put on the November ballot a measure creating a countywide special communications district and a 911 tax that would pour $1.9 million a year into 911 operations. According to Molly Priddy’s report in the Flathead Beacon:
The annual tax would be $25 for residential units, and $50 for commercial units, with a maximum of 30 commercial units possible; larger businesses and organizations will be charged more than smaller places, the board said.
For businesses, there’s a hint of progressivity: larger businesses will pay higher taxes than smaller businesses. But homeowners receive no such consideration. Big Daddy Megabucks, with his $100 million a year income, will pay $25 per year for his 25,000-square-foot trophy palace on the flanks of Big Mountain — and so will Widow McCaully, living on a $500 per month Social Security payment in her dilapidated 900-square-foot clapboard cabin on the floodplain in Evergreen.
Surprised? One should’t be. All three Flathead commissioners are Republicans. That’s how Republicans govern: kiss the rich and slap the poor.
I’m voting — I always vote — and on this issue, I’m voting NO.