A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

29 October 2015

GOP debate, 911 tax, Kalispell sales tax, the death penalty and Hillary

GOP Presidential debate. The Washington Post has an annotated transcript in which John Kaisch comes across better that he did in person, and in which Carley Fiorina comes across worse than she does in person.

Experts evaluate the candidates on what they say, but most viewers evaluate them on how they say it, deferring approvingly to candidates who speak smoothly and with great self-assurance, who sound as though they know what they’re talking about.

Fiorina spent years in corporate sales polishing her Power Point persona. Because she’s never in doubt, it doesn’t matter to some voters that she’s usually in error or off point or utterly unqualified to be dogcatcher . That’s why few listen to Kaisch when he says:

Folks, we’ve got to wake up. We cannot elect somebody that doesn’t know how to do the job. You have got to pick somebody who has experience, somebody that has the know-how, the discipline.

And I spent my entire lifetime balancing federal budgets, growing jobs, the same in Ohio. And I will go back to Washington with my plan.

Good points. But a majority of Republican primary voters want their government run by someone without any governing experience.

Flathead County 911 tax. Kudus to former county commissioner Joe Brenneman for blowing the whistle on the laziness that led to this awful capitation tax:

…He said the county had the chance to secure long-term funding through grants and other opportunities, but didn’t.

“The need for this (district) is in some ways a colossal failure on the part of the Flathead County Commission,” Brenneman said. “It’s unfortunate that things haven’t been developed in the last five years to make this tax unnecessary.”

He also said the district wouldn’t actually be fair, because someone in Marion would be paying for the city of Kalispell’s dispatching fees, as an example.

“There is no reason on Earth someone living in Marion should have to pay for KPD,” Brenneman said.

So why didn’t the county pursue grants and other opportunities, or did not pursue them with sufficient vigor and competence? I suspect it’s because the people running the 911 operation didn’t want to put in the work to secure the grants, and because they wanted the surest possible source of funding. By definition, the surest possible source of funding is a tax. So when, to their surprise, the voters rejected the capitation tax last year, they decided to approve the tax in a way that didn’t require a plebiscite. That’s the authoritarian approach and they might just get away with it.

Kalispell still wants to inflict a sales tax on inhabitants and visitors. Seaborn Larson has the story at the InterLake. The tax would start at two percent, but you can bet the ranch that within a few years the city would think of more nice things it could buy and start militating for another percent or two. And then, in another few years, for yet another increase.

Whether the tax would apply to groceries, medicine, and medical treatment and supplies is not clear. But the more sales that are taxed, the more money a sales tax raises. If everything is taxed, it amounts to a two percent cut in income for a lot of people. City residents might get a break on their property taxes, but county residents who shop in Kalispell would not.

Larson reports local legislators warned Kalispell’s mayor and manager that they need to convince Kalispellians and Flatheaders that a sales tax is wonderful before the legislature will legalize it. Don’t count on that happening anytime soon.

Hillary Clinton and the death penalty. During his 1992 campaign for the Presidency, Bill Clinton flew back to Arkansas to perform his duties as governor while a prisoner was executed. Perhaps he believed the execution was just, perhaps he believed it was just what he needed to win the election. Now his wife, in the midst of her campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, says she supports the death penalty, but wants the use of it to be rare. Perhaps she really does believe in it, or perhaps she believes endorsing it is just what she needs to win the nomination. But her position boils down to this: if getting a bit of blood on her hands is what winning the Presidency takes, she’s willing to do the wet work.