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I’ve been waiting for the right moment to write about the proposal to create a 57th County in Western Montana and I think that moment has finally come for reasons I’ll get into after this quote explaining the most obvious reason Seeley-Swan residents are considering a form of secession: taxes.

When I saw reports that a group of residents in the Seeley-Swan area is exploring the possibility of splitting from Missoula County, I was intrigued. The concept of creating a new county seems like a relic of the past, and indeed, Montana’s 56th county, Petroleum, was created in 1925.

This discussion among rural Missoula County residents isn’t new, but it’s gained momentum recently, with a new, growing Facebook group and a feasibility study digging into the details. This week, I called Swan Valley Community Council member and Condon resident Ted Morgan (on his landline) to talk about the study and why some residents are looking to break away from Missoula County.

“We just see a lot of tax dollars going to county initiatives closer to urban areas,” he said Wednesday. “We see our tax dollars going up every year, and there’s not a marked effect on rural people.”

Ted Morgan and his fellow Missoula County residents studying the feasibility of this move don’t like seeing their tax dollars going up, but they DO seem to appreciate the increasing tax base from second homes. In fact, according to Ted, it’s the luxury development that’s making the feasibility of secession seem, well, more feasible:

Morgan said the area has seen an increase in taxable values since 2020 and includes “massive” second homes and resorts. That increase makes the new county a more realistic proposition, he said.

“Our tax base, while small, is definitely enough to run its own government,” Morgan said.

According to the feasibility study, the 6,435 parcels located in the proposed new county have an assessed taxable value of $31.13 million. That’s higher than Mineral and Powell counties, the report said.

Operating a “lean governance model,” the new county could reduce the county-level property tax burden for residents while maintaining full service levels, according to the report. The proposal calls for a county government with 18 to 20 employees working in administration, public works, law enforcement and other positions. Morgan said the county would not build its own jail, but would contract with another county to use its facility.

One of the taxing schemes that I suspect is inspiring our northern neighbors in Seeley to consider leaving Missoula County to create a whole new County is the use of Tax Increment Financing through Targeted Economic Development Districts.

But don’t tell that to Cascade County.

Starting with the taxing jurisdiction of Great Falls, where Janicki Industries is making a massive investment, I discovered how the use of a bond will potentially extend the life of the taxing district just like in Missoula, where the Missoula Redevelopment Agency used the pedestrian bridge over Reserve Street to extend the life of THAT taxing district.

And I discovered this move because of how annoyed this X post made me:

A truth-seeking, pot-stirring, caller of bullshit should probably be less indignant when dealing with the public’s frustration over doling out financially short-sighted subsidies and repeating the stupid policies of Missoula by making sure those special taxing districts never die.

To see how this conversation is shaping up in a different western Montana location other than Missoula, here’s two screenshots from minutes taken from a May 19th, 2026 meeting in Great Falls (GFDA stands for Great Falls Development Authority):

While this conversation is happening, a different part of Cascade County is so unimpressed with Sheriff Slaughter’s Cascade County Sheriff’s Office services that they are considering starting a police force of their own. Hmmm.

The Town of Cascade is considering creating its own municipal police department, with residents and town leaders discussing the proposal during a public meeting Thursday night.

A proposed ordinance would establish the Cascade Police Department, outline its leadership and set requirements for officers. Under the proposal, the department would be led by a chief of police, with additional officers hired as authorized and funded through the town’s municipal budget.

Supporters of the proposal said they liked the idea of having local law enforcement and giving the town greater control over hiring, department operations and its budget.

Opponents, however, raised concerns about whether the town has accounted for all of the costs associated with operating an independent police department.

Why would a little township like Cascade want “greater control” over their lawmen? Sadly, we can’t expect local media to give us the full story about incompetent and/or corrupt law enforcement, so instead we have to rely on content creators like those involved with the “Peaceful Sea Network” to highlight how dangerously unaware of Constitutional protections the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office appears to be.

Here’s the first episode of the new season of “The Cascade Effect” showing what you can expect once you’re targeted by these types of “law enforcers”.

If you don’t see the connection between tax subsidies, first responder budgets, and the overall quality of life issues that arise when your local cops and Sheriff deputies don’t understand the basic protections of the CONSTITUTION, let’s return to Missoula, where the Downtown Business Partnership ensures they have a more consistent police presence downtown by literally funding cop salaries:

While the Missoula Downtown Partnership has reduced paying for this protection racket for downtown businesses–businesses that are ALREADY paying taxes for cops–the fact that “dedicated policing” requires additional expenditures should be getting more context from local media, and that context should include the economic suck of Urban Renewal Districts. Too bad STATE tax changes are getting all of the attention right now for being a total dumpster fire of confusion regarding the legislative changes ostensibly trying to shift some of the fiscal weight of the property tax burden to owners of second homes.

How’s that going?

“The biggest change for most people are going to be whether they got their property enrolled as their homestead principal residence or a long-term rental or they didn’t,” Kaatz said. “If they did, they obviously get the benefit of those tiered tax rates.”

In cities like Missoula, the changes mean properties classified as second homes or short-term rentals will see property taxes more than double, while the owner-occupied home will see a slight reduction, the Missoulian reported.

About 42,000 residential properties in the state secured the long-term rental status, according to DOR data, but Kaatz said census data estimated there are approximately 55,000 long-term rentals in the state.

That means about 20% of the state’s long-term rentals could see a higher tax rate. Often, those higher costs get passed on to the renter of the home.

“We could effectively tell the taxpayer their taxes would be doubling in amount from 2025 to 2026,” State Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, said at the meeting.

Hertz and other state legislators sued the state over the new law, arguing its creation in the 2025 was unconstitutional. No decision has been made in the case.

The pot-stirring shit-talker tried assuring me on X that no one in Great Falls wants to become Missoula, and I’m sure Rick Tryon believes what he says. But was he ever in attendance at the 2023 Legislature to see Great Falls TIF addicts coming to rescue Ellen Buchanan from the remnants of the Missoula Tax Insurrection?

Whether one is looking at city policies, county policies, or the crafting of state law, Montana appears to be a complete and total shit show incapable of following the simplest of open meeting laws, or even respecting the critical legal protections enshrined by the Constitution, which is how this country was built in the first place.

And to highlight the shit show of local media, last evening I tried giving a drunk reporter a tip, but learned instead you don’t interrupt Missoulian staffers talking about “post-journalism” when they’re at a boozy work meeting with their new editor, Cory Walsh, so I went to compose something trollish on X and got a surprise visit with an informant, which I recorded.

Maybe now I have something more concrete about the death of Sean Stevenson and the coverup by law enforcement to stop me from finding out why he had to die in a private hospital room at St. Pats on January 5th, 2020.

Stay tuned…

When I first heard about the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” my initial reaction was to ignore it. Then a data point emerged that connected what is happening in Missoula to the California legislation trying to do this:

Starting next year, Californians who provide legal aid, counseling or other types of assistance to immigrants will be eligible for a privacy program that keeps their addresses confidential and out of public records.

Gov. Gavin Newsom approved this latest expansion of California’s Safe at Home program amid concern among Democratic legislators of a rise in reported harassment and threats against immigrants and immigration advocates.

Ok, so the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” is about creating a new “privacy program” to shield anyone who helps immigrants in California from scrutiny. Would this program also ensure privacy for immigrant helpers who live in California but help immigrants in other places, like Missoula?

Here’s the data point that suddenly had me thinking differently about this stupid California legislative move:

Yes, the funding of Soft Landing in Missoula by Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation is something I would definitely be interested in researching more. If I had the money (like Nick Shirley obviously does) I would even consider taking a trip to California to try and talk to someone about it. But that might become illegal if the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” is passed.

One of the claims about Archewell that critics say lacks merit is the claim that Harry and Meghan were using Archewell to get USAID money. Here’s an article pushing back on that claim:

Picture this: you’re scrolling X, and a post screams that Prince Harry swiped $13 million from American taxpayers via USAID. It’s juicy, it’s outrageous, and it’s got just enough edge to make you pause. But here’s the kicker — it’s not true. Or at least, not in the way the outrage merchants want you to think. Over the past year, this claim has popped up like a bad penny, fueled by a mix of royal resentment and misinformation. So, let’s cut through the noise and figure out what’s really going on.

The story starts with Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation, their post-royal venture to do good in the world. Archewell’s been busy — teaming up with groups like World Central Kitchen to feed disaster-struck communities and pushing mental health initiatives. Noble stuff, right? But somewhere along the line, critics started whispering that Archewell was a front for funneling taxpayer cash into the Sussexes’ pockets. The number $13 million got slapped on, tied to USAID, the U.S. agency that funds global aid projects. Suddenly, it’s a full-blown scandal — at least in certain corners of the internet.

Here’s the reality check: USAID doesn’t write checks to Archewell. It funds organizations tackling poverty, health crises, and disasters worldwide — think NGOs in Haiti or Ethiopia, not Montecito mansions. No credible outlet, from Reuters to The Washington Post, has found evidence of $13 million flowing to Harry or Meghan. The claim seems to have sprouted from a misreading of Archewell’s partnerships with charities that might, in some cases, receive USAID grants. But that’s like saying your local food bank is “fleecing” taxpayers because it gets government support. It’s a leap.

Parsing out the money trail for a Royal couple who recently fled the states with their figurative (or maybe reptilian) tails between their legs doesn’t interest me. Instead I’m wondering…why Missoula? Is there some kind of social connection to our humble little mountain town?

Perhaps the social connections of Shuana Nep, who tops the list on the 990 forms, could be of interest.

Besides Archewell, Nep is also involved in a handful of other high-profile ventures, including one with Taylor Swift’s arch nemesis Scooter Braun. She is the vice-president of philanthropy at Braun’s SB Projects, described as the “diversified entertainment and media company behind pop culture icons such as Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, J Balvin and Ashley Graham”.

Her LinkedIn bio notes that she “works closely with each client to develop social impact initiatives tailored to reflect the passions, causes and communities most important to them”.

This wasn’t enough to satisfy my hunch, so I went back to the 990s, clicking the most recent filing for the Archewell Foundation. The first thing that got my attention was a financial recipient located in the Kansas City suburbs where I went to high school. The second thing I found was an Epstein-connected woman working for an organization just few lines down.

Hopelab Foundation? What’s that, I wondered.

It didn’t take me long to find out.

For those unfamiliar with the highlighted surname, think PayPal mafia, and as you’re thinking PayPal mafia you can add that seemingly important Paws Up Founders Fund gathering which happened last June, north of Missoula.

When I put the name “Pam Omidyar” in the Epstein DOJ search engine, the following email most certainly got my attention, as it should anyone living in a billionaire’s vast Big Sky playground.

Seeing Elon Musk’s name and knowing he was at the Paws Up Founders Fund event last June, and seeing Nick Pritzker’s name and knowing he has that Buddhist family member living in the same region of Montana as Paws Up Ranch, is enough connective tissue for me to understand why Soft Landing would get a chance to suckle some charity from Harry and Meghan as they attempted, and failed, to get a foothold in this blown charity racket.

Maybe now Harry and Meghan they can pivot to working with former English immigrants returning home from abroad after they’re no longer welcome to grift inside MAGA-ville.

Returning to the poorly labeled “Stop Nick Shirley Act”, there absolutely IS, in my opinion, something worrisome about selectively qualifying a group of people for enhanced privacy. Also, the word “program” leads me to believe public resources are going to be used in some way in order to do said qualifying, which in California is never a good idea if you’re a regular tax payer.

The Epstein class, however, are NOT regular tax payers, so to conclude today’s post I’d like to link to a well-researched article by Johnny Vedmore, a truly independent researcher who has done some of the best work on John Brockman’s “Edge Foundation”. Here’s an excerpt:

The Edge Foundation was not simply a forum for elite scientists to discuss what interested them most; a clear agenda was at play. The Masterclasses and Seminars tackled three main subjects: how to alter or affect human cells and genes; how to predict the future social order; and how to change people’s decision-making and behaviour. If you were to question any of the Large Language Models about Edge’s major events, they’ll currently tell you that everything was innocent and professional. They are also very quick to belittle and dismiss the uncomfortable fact that much of Edge’s activities were funded by Jeffrey Epstein.

For those still stuck in the two-party political con, where Elon Musk saved Twitter and Trump is still fighting the deep state by playing 5-D chess, Vedmore’s connection of Musk to Edge, and therefore to Jeffrey Epstein, has ensured his relative obscurity and increased personal risk because that’s what happens when you seek the actual truth about who runs the world and what they’re planning for the useless eaters threatening their Transhumanist future by merely existing.

If you appreciate this unique and surprising connection of stupid California legislation reaching all the way into the complicit parts of Big Sky country with the Epstein class, please consider donating to my new GoFundMe page. Any little bit helps.

And for more on my Epstein/Big Sky coverage, this post has been updated with ALL the relevant links to my Epstein research. Dig in!

And, as always, thanks for reading.

Unlike John Roy Simpers, who was charged with assault and told to meet his public defender at the library by the judge in his case earlier this month, I showed up to court last Wednesday.

Where was Mr. Simpers? And why are we, as a community, so willingly turning our trillion dollar library into an insane asylum?

I’m not writing this post because John Simpers did what I expected him to do by NOT showing up for his hearing. I’m writing this post because John Simpers is just one of MANY unwell people shuffling through the revolving doors between Court Cuckoo and our public library.

To help make my argument, here’s an email I just got from someone I wrote about asking me to remove this three year old post:

After looking closely at my post and the Missoulian article that I was reacting to, in which the man named above was NOT named, I determined that more context was needed before I responded to his request. That’s when I found a court document, written by Municipal judge, Eli Parker, explaining why he tried punting this to District Court, a legal move that ultimately blew up the viability of the criminal charge.

Here are some highlights from Judge Parker describing the original incident, which occurred in the library, where the defendant was allegedly in possession of several knives:

In my original post from three years ago I was criticized in the comments for focusing on the Municipal judge by retired lawyer, Kevin Hunt, who defended the inexperienced judge’s punt with this:

Judge Parker was trying to protect both the suspect and the public. It isn’t constitutional to keep a person waiting for an aid & assist evualuation longer than the maximum sentence for the charged offense; nor is it constitutional to incarcerate mentally ill persons without treating them. It also is absurd that the municipal court would have exclusive jurisdiction over misdemeanor offenses allegedly committed within the city, rather than the muni and district courts having overlapping concurrent misdemeanor jurisdiction. If you want to find a scapegoat, how about the cop (whom I agree deserves credit for using non-lethal tactics!) for citing the guy for a misdemeanor instead of a felony? Oh, wait, there is this other absurdity in the system here by which the guy wouldn’t be charged by Pabst’s office, held, and arraigned on an Information of Felony pending grand jury indictment, but instead released pending grand jury action. It’s a goofy process and it demands remedial legislation. Don’t forget that the state hospital is a joke, is underfunded, and cannot evaluate criminal defendants in a constitutionally reasonable period of time.

The turd does not belong in Judge Parker’s pocket but rather in the legislature’s, which rejected Gov. Gianforte’s request for funding of dozens more public defenders, instead approving only two.

Too many crazy people and not enough publicly-funded lawyers to defend them? Is that the problem?

If anyone spends any time sitting in court, like I did for 2 hours last Wednesday waiting for my case to be called, the problem becomes obvious: the multi-jurisdictional criminal justice system is totally dysfunctional, and it’s being fed by poorly vetted civil processes compounding general societal problems, like drug and alcohol abuse.

Near the end of my 2 hour wait a young women who had previously had her moment in front of the judge came back into court with black smears of mascara running down her cheeks. She had just learned the harsh fact that the restraining order someone had taken out against her didn’t stop that person (known as the petitioner) from contacting her, either directly or through third party contacts, to harass her, and if she responded to those contacts in any way, then she would be in violation and criminally charged.

Just wait until she learns that petitioner’s can go so far as to make FALSE REPORTS in an attempt to destroy your life as effectively as possible and they will face ZERO consequences from city and county prosecutors, regardless of how much time and energy is being taken away from REAL crimes to vet claims that go un-prosecuted.

For those involved in lying about my conduct over the past 3 years, one of their collective successes are the 4 exclusion zones I am forbidden to enter, which includes the public library. That means I can no longer accompany my daughter into this dangerous asylum where I’ve found and documented drugs in the bathroom, along with delving into meeting notes in my most recent post in order to better understand the kind of people this “progressive” community is catering to, and who my daughter will be in weekly proximity to as she feeds her voracious appetite for reading.

One of the biggest ironies about the case against me is how my time spent homeless myself, living in my box truck, has been used against me. I guess going through a divorce and becoming financially destitute after blowing the divorce money by traveling FAR AWAY from the people intent on making good on their threats isn’t something worthy of consideration of city and county prosecutors.

How did I get the vibe wrong? Was it the Lego Meth Lab? Or maybe it was how eager I was to turn the trashing of my own life into a creative metaphor of narrative alchemy, where I advocated for a tweaker-clean-team to keep the streets and parks clean.

Coming up this week I’ll be writing about the Stop Nick Shirley Act with a unique tie-in to Montana, the spread of the TIF sickness to Great Falls, and other stuff that emerges as the week progresses, like an AI Summit I can’t physically attend to report on because it’s on campus.

If you would like to help support a truly independent and provably local (just ask Misty at pre-trial) citizen journalism, please consider donating to my new GoFundMe page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

There I was, trying to mind my own business and NOT really thinking about how gay I might be when I spotted a drunk man in his underwear losing a fight with a wooden support pole.

For a better shot of the damage to the wooden support pole, here’s a pic I took from another angle:

Considering the clip I’m about to share it’s important to know that recording the drunk man where he passed out in the tunnel was NOT my first choice, but a defense against his indignant reaction after I returned his phone.

The conversation picks up as the question of how gay I might begins, which started pretty quickly after he determined I wasn’t a cop.

I know it’s not politically correct to use “gay” in any kind of pejorative way, but when I started getting on my high-horse about working at the homeless shelter, yeah, I’m a Gen X-er who remembers how often we’d say THAT’S GAY, like calling out a dude (me) for filming a drunk man in grey underwear on a Friday afternoon as a family biked by.

On a different, but somewhat related note, the drunk man accused of raping a drunk woman in broad daylight by a popular river spot definitely doesn’t come off as gay, either in the conventional or pejorative sense, but whether or not his sexual intercourse was rape will be a matter for the court.

In the court of public opinion, though, we have a curious claim of two drunk people fucking before one of them passed out.

For a more official report, this is what the Missoulian picked out from the charging documents:

Elwood Gene Hall, 60, appeared before Judge Jason Marks Monday morning in Missoula County District Court on one count of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of tampering with evidence, both felonies.

According to charging documents, on Aug. 6, witnesses called in reports of two people having sex on the north side of the bridge. When Missoula Police Department officers responded, they found Hall with his genitals exposed performing oral sex on an unconscious woman.

Officers detained Hall and closed the bridge for an investigation. Hall at first denied having sexual intercourse with the woman, but then said it was consensual and that she initiated it.

It was with this report in mind that I decided to call 911 after this drunk man made his impairment a community safety issue.

Because, frankly, I’m REALLY getting tired of this shit.

Anyway, if YOU, dear reader, are curious about why I had AI put me in a kinda gay looking outfit inspired by the aesthetic of Twin Peaks, it’s because I finished the rewatch of all three seasons and now know what it’s all about. More on that later.

One positive thing that came from interacting briefly with law enforcement is the opportunity I had to show one of the officers the sign I was carrying. Hopefully with the added tape it’s legal for me to show, since I might have to expand my search for my lost Lego sign, considering who I suspect might be implicated.

If you’d like to donate to my multi-faceted GoFundMe ask, any amount helps. Even though I don’t have exact figures on cost, my impression is hiring PI Guys ain’t cheap.

Thanks for reading!

A woman with the same name as Missoula’s Mayor brought a spike in her electric bill to local media and local media is investigating. What will local media find out?

A woman in East Helena named Andrea Davis posted a bill showing that she owed $426 for her monthly billing statement ending on Aug. 20. That was significantly higher than her July statement, which was about $138. Her August statement included $334 for electric service, $39 for natural gas service and $52 for state and local taxes.

“We called and all they said was that we must have been using our AC more than usual because it was so hot in July,” the woman wrote. “Nothing we have done has changed. And we did the exact same thing last year.”

Did local media discover anything that actually explains this spike? No, after reporting that the month of July is hot, and that this July was not hotter than last July, reporter David Erickson (and his editors) gave Northwestern Energy plenty of virtual ink to explain how electric bills work and to assure local peasants that Northwestern’s monopoly power is closely overseen by the Public Service Commission.

Do you feel better, peasants?

Black noted that electric bills are based on the amount of electricity a customer uses. Bills are issued monthly and reflect the electricity used during the billing period, which is typically about 30 days. Because billing periods often span two calendar months, a bill received in August may include electricity used for a period that includes July and August.

“NorthWestern Energy works closely with the Montana Public Service Commission to ensure our customers have access to clear information, helpful resources and support when they have questions about their bills,” she said. “Both organizations hear directly from customers when bills are higher than expected, underscoring the importance of resources for customers to understand the factors affecting their energy use and costs.”

One of the most important factors affecting energy costs in Montana is the fact Montana-generated energy is NOT just sold to Montanans, it’s sold to regional customers outside the state. Another factor is where an energy company’s actual responsibility lies, not the PR crap regurgitated by local media, like this bullshit:

“Our responsibility is to provide reliable, safe energy at affordable rates for our Montana customers and the tools, information and support they need to understand and manage their energy use,” Black said. “NorthWestern Energy employees work every day to power Montana homes, businesses and communities while helping customers make informed decisions about their energy costs.”

Um, no, the main fiduciary goal of any company is to maximize profits for shareholders, so I would argue it’s only through this consideration that things like “reliability” and “safety” are considered, since unreliable/unsafe things aren’t as profitable as reliable/safe ones.

Or maybe I’m wrong and these people really do wake up every morning with Montana customers in mind.

A year ago this Executive Team, led by Brian Bird, told Montanans that their energy costs were quite reasonable, using coffee and Big Mac meals for economic points of comparison, which brings me to a very important question:

How many Big Mac meals do YOU consume in a week, Brian?

On the witness stand earlier in the week, NorthWestern Energy CEO Brian Bird agreed with Commissioner Annie Bukacek’s perspective that the utility’s rates are reasonable in comparison to other expenses people pay.

Bird said coffee can be $5 and a Big Mac meal can be $9.99. By comparison, he said, NorthWestern Energy powers all appliances in a person’s home and supplies all of its natural gas for $6 a day.

“I think people don’t really appreciate that when we can do that as affordably as we have,” Bird said.

This cozy “witness stand” chat between Brian B. and Annie B. makes sense when you understand that Annie Bukacek was the PSC hatchet-wielder who played her WOMAN VICTIM CARD to help the Gianforte administration oust Brad Molnar.

Here’s another candidate for the PSC commenting on this “clash of personalities“.

This excerpt was published in March. Now, six months later, Montana’s Governor just appointed the Republican who couldn’t win an election for three political cycles.

I hope Kirk Bushman got Annie Bukacek some flowers.

PSC spokesperson Michael Turner said Bushman, a Republican, will be sworn into office Friday or Monday and start work on Monday.

In a news release, PSC Vice President Jennifer Fielder said she’s pleased the governor selected a commissioner with previous experience on the PSC.

“I expect he will be able to hit the ground running and tackle the heavy caseload with both grace and proficiency,” Fielder said in a statement.

In July, Gianforte suspended Molnar after an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct including sexual harassment.

Molnar is fighting the suspension in Lewis and Clark District Court. His lawyer, Matthew Monforton, said Bushman lost the last three Republican primaries for the seat — in 2016 as an incumbent, again in 2020, and in 2024 against Molnar.

“Judge (Mike) Menahan is still deciding whether the governor had any authority to suspend an elected commissioner in the first place — and still deciding whether to block any appointment to this seat,” Monforton said. “The governor didn’t wait for the judge. He decided the judge was optional.”

Republicans have the same problem as Democrats in Montana, and that problem is BOTH parties are run by public-hating elites who only go through public processes if they can benefit from them, otherwise the public can go fuck themselves.

Whether that underlying message of fucking off comes from a DEMOCRAT Mayor in Missoula, gentrifying everything possible with Tax Increment Financing, or a REPUBLICAN Governor in Helena, juicing a commission involved in the most important decision facing it about energy in a generation, the result is the same: those who will be the MOST impacted by these decisions will continue to be the least heard.

It’s not just the use of energy that the public should be tracking when it comes to the escalating fervor around “data centers”, it’s also the subsidies BIG BUSINESS claims to need in order to build-out this infrastructure. Here’s an excerpt from an article discussing the subsidy strategies being assessed for public-private data center development in Ohio:

At the local level, governments can offer tax incentives through Community Reinvestment Area agreements (CRA), Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIF) and Enterprise Zone Agreements (EZA). With communities across Ohio vying for these data center projects, the total local incentive offered throughout the state is worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the region, projects in Jefferson Twp. (Fayette County), Piqua, Sidney, Springfield, Trenton and Wilmington have received some of these local incentives, with the beneficiaries being Amazon, Meta and smaller operators Constant Company and Crusoe Energy Systems.

It’s impossible to precisely calculate how much tax revenue these local governments are foregoing, given that the inputs (like the future assessed value of the land) will change over the course of these agreements.

However, based on current taxable real estate values reported for comparable data center campuses, the value of a local tax incentive could total hundreds of millions of dollars, and potentially even exceed $1 billion, over the course of a decades-long agreement.

Right now Missoula is doing the opposite of what other communities are doing by actually OVER-regulating anything carrying the whiff of a “data center”, something I will be equally critical of as the bureaucrat class gets their 3.8% payroll increase while scrambling to stop a local AI business from expanding to a space near the airport.

As a writer and inevitable hypocrite using AI to mock the fight against AI’s data center backbone, like the image above, I know enough about narrative control to know we’re collectively falling into a massively fallacious straw-man mentality that denies any comparison between a Democrat female Mayor, a Republican male Governor, and their shared disdain for letting the public get in the way of their plans, which I’m sure they genuinely think is for our own good.

I don’t criticize local and state processes over political parties for MY own good, quite the opposite, so if our local taxing jurisdictions haven’t sent YOU to the Food Bank yet, dear reader, then please consider donating to my new GoFundMe page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!