Month: August 2019

by William Skink

Like a pack of hyenas, US corporate media is suddenly yapping about a recession. Democrats will gleefully label it the Trump recession and the media will dutifully pin it on Trump and the trade war. Since Trump has stupidly (or with stealth complicity) claimed the high-mark of the stock market, the trap has long been set.

If you think the upcoming recession, which we are already in the early stages of, is the sole fault of Trump and his trade war, then you are a victim of propaganda. Similarly, if you think there was something called a “recovery” from the last economic crisis, you are the victim of propaganda.

The culprit of economic misery going back to the Great Depression is the Federal Reserve. The policy decision in 2008 by the Fed was to defer dealing with the ponzi-like derivative blackhole by pumping low-interest liquidity into the market. The result has been to re-inflate a huge economic bubble that has to, at some point, burst.

Enter Trump and the alt-right populism he represents. What better scapegoat for the next phase of the economic crisis?

One writer who has been articulating the concern that Trump and his base is being set up to take the fall for the next economic crash is Brandon Smith. Here is an excerpt from his latest post:

Anyone who has read my work for the past few years knows I have been warning about Trump as a false prophet for the liberty movement and conservatives in general. And everyone knows my primary concern has been that the globalists will crash the Everything Bubble on Trump’s watch, and then blame all conservatives for the consequences.

To be clear, Trump is not the cause of the Everything Bubble, nor is he the cause of its current implosion. No president has the power to trigger a collapse of this magnitude, only central banks have that power. When Trump argues that the Fed is causing a downturn, he is telling the truth, but when he claims that recession fears are exaggerated, or “inappropriate”, he is lying. What he is not telling the public is that his job is to HELP the Fed in this process of controlled economic demolition.

Admissions of crisis in the media are coinciding directly with Trump’s policy actions. In other words, Trump is providing perfect cover for the central banks to crash the economy without receiving any of the blame. Trump’s insistence on taking full credit for the bubble in stock markets as well as fraudulent GDP and employment numbers, after specifically warning about all of these things during his election campaign, has now tied the economy like a noose around the necks of conservatives. The tone of warning in the media indicates to me that the banking elites are about to tighten that noose.

Read the whole piece, it’s well worth it.

Or don’t and keep consuming the propaganda corporate media is feeding you. Either way, serious economic pain is coming, and like each crisis preceding it, those who know what’s going on will use that knowledge to exploit the crisis in order to consolidate more power and control for themselves.

by William Skink

UPDATE: how MRA compensates the private sector seems more complicated than this post reflects, see comment section.

*

In yesterday’s post about the Mayor losing the narrative on TIF and the role of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency I used the Missoula Current as the source of Engen’s quotes, but in the Missoulian today more of what Engen said to the MRA board is being reported:

Engen said he hopes to launch some sort of public relations campaign to extoll the benefits of Tax Increment Financing.

“There is considerable noise around TIF and considerable misunderstanding in the community about what TIF does and the purpose and reason we have redevelopment districts,” he said. “We’re doing some work to help folks better understand that. There’s a fundamental misunderstanding that we’re just, we’re giving money to the private sector.”

Engen feels that isn’t true, and hopes to convince people otherwise.

“We’re producing some explainers that will help folks understand that we’re actually creating public infrastructure that supports private investment, that creates taxable value, that expands our base that allows us to levy fewer mills to tax individuals less and to get more done. This is a success story at the end of the day and I think we have an opportunity to share in that success,” he said.

A public relations campaign? Are you kidding me? What is that going to cost? And where will the money come from? Is the Mayor off the wagon?

I guess Mayor Engen doesn’t like that the public is starting to think critically about how MRA uses the tax revenue it siphons from Urban Renewal Districts. Instead of acknowledging that critics have legitimate concerns, it looks like Engen is going to take the linguistic smoke-screen route in an attempt to re-obfuscate what’s going on.

When Engen states that MRA doesn’t “give” money to the private sector, he’s technically correct because MRA is not cutting a check to the Marriott directly for a million plus dollars. But Engen’s perception management here is really just a linguistic shell game. If MRA wasn’t paying for things like sidewalk improvements, then the project would be on the hook for those costs because there are building codes and those can be enforced.

Saving the private sector these costs means the private sector makes more money on these projects. It is NOT a direct gift, but it IS tax money that goes to increasing the profitability of a project. Engen can try to pull a Bill Clinton by getting all shifty with defining what “give tax money to the private sector” means, but it’s not a strategy that’s likely to work.

I’m sure other aspects of this coming PR campaign will include explaining what the public gets in return for their TIF investment, things like nice sidewalks and no more above-ground electrical lines and jobs and more restaurants with dude’s who want to call South Broadway SoBro.

But other arguments may get omitted, like how none of these projects would happen without that sweet TIF infusion. Missoula is booming and trying to become Bozeman 2.0 with a slobbering, red-carpet roll-out for tech, and then there’s a chance the University is slowly turning the corner. With all this success, have Urban Renewal Districts done their job and now need to sunset?

Another thing I’ll mention before wrapping this post up is the conspicuous silence of MRA director, Ellen Buchanan. Last year, when Engen tapped the MRA piggy bank, Buchanan said she hoped it would be a one-off patching of the budget. I wonder if there’s some frustration that, feeling the political heat with an upcoming election, Mayor Engen is back this year for more so he can brag about mill levy voodoo and rainy day funds.

Missoula could have some interesting political developments this fall. Stay tuned.

by William Skink

Is Mayor Engen losing control of the narrative over Urban Renewal Districts and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency? I think the most recent example of political damage control, facilitated by the Missoula Current, titled Engen says MRA will become “more strategic” with broader focus on housing, means the answer is yes.

If I’m interpreting the pol-speak correctly here, Engen and his MRA board are feeling the heat of legitimate criticism, and part of their response is to deploy a rhetorical re-prioritazation of how MRA uses our public money to head-off calls for the outright dissolution of MRA altogether. From the link:

“I think we need a broader discussion about what’s the long-term plan here,” said MRA board member Karl Englund. “What do we want these (urban renewal) districts to do? We’re going to need to understand that both in terms of how we operate day in and day out, and how the city considers things like this.”
…
Engen also suggested a shifting philosophy in the role MRA will play moving forward. In the past, he said, the agency often reacted to projects that came to the city.

In the future, he said, MRA’s investments would become more strategic.

“The work of the agency over the past 15 years is much different than it was before. The projects are different, the need is different and the resources are different,” Engen said. “We have traditionally tended to react to proposals rather than make those proposals. We’re doing more of that, and I suspect there will be even more of that in the future as we move forward, based on community needs.”

Yes, 15 years of TIF money priming the pump of development has helped make the Missoula of today much different than the Missoula of 15 years ago. I’m glad our enlightened Mayor understands that. Some of those differences include the cost of housing sky-rocketing, the valley growing by thousands and thousands of people, a state government Democrats are incapable of making gains in (so the state of Montana does things to shift costs to County/City government), and more crime fueled by things like meth and cutting social services.

What the Mayor is trying to do is create some rhetorical window-dressing to save his slush fund, but he’s losing the narrative and he knows it. That’s why he says things like this, at the end of the piece:

“There’s a fundamental misunderstanding that we’re giving money to the private sector,” he said. “But we’re actually creating public infrastructure that supports private investment, that creates taxable value, that expands our base and allows us to levy fewer mills, tax individuals less, and get more done. This is a success story at the end of the day.”

Ok, if Missoula is such a TIF-enabled success story, then vote for Engen when he’s up for reelection. Or, if you understand that reality often conflicts with the rosy declarations coming from the Mayor’s office, you can prepare to support ABE (anyone but Engen) when the time comes.

by William Skink

Trump accomplished in one tweet what a million blog posts could never accomplish, and that is to highlight a serious concern over the imposition of red-flag laws:

How do you like your Trump red-flag law idea now, gun-control Democrats?

by William Skink

One of the most maddening things about watching the workings of local government is how two distinct worlds exist. There’s the abstract world of studies and master plans and “revenue projections”, where elected officials can chase visions of zero waste and mopeds that run on positive vibes, and the other world, the one we commonly refer to as the “real” world.

In the abstract world, where complicated financial mechanisms like mill levy’s esoterically rise and fall, everything is just fine and dandy. There’s even going to be money in the bank for a rainy day fund! That’s just swell!

Calling it a good year, the Missoula City Council on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to its fiscal year 2020 budget, one that will levy fewer mills while investing in new services, including police officers, roads and general maintenance.

Increases in property values across Missoula, a result of state appraisals and what city leaders deem a strong local economy, has strengthened the city’s fiscal standing while giving it room to pad its rainy day fund.

“The fact that we’re lowering mills is a good thing,” said Mayor John Engen. “This budget reflects the interests of most of the folks on this council and the majority of the citizens we serve.”

Isn’t this great news! Good times in Missoula, shared by all, right? But no, that pesky real world still does exist, and here is the real world part of the article:

Despite what most described as good news, the state’s lopsided tax system still left members of the council frustrated. While city mills will decrease, most property owners will still see an increase in property taxes.

Well, gash darn it! I guess we’re all just the helpless victims of this “lopsided” tax system that no one can ever do anything about.

While the budget process is grinding your tax meat, this is the time of year, last year, when I started speculating on what the emergency shelter plan would be for the upcoming winter. In that vein I went looking for meeting minutes for the Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Commission. The meeting notes for April (which you can find here) are now available and they are quite illuminating, considering the notes amount to a debrief from the hard winter service providers experienced administering services. Here are some highlights:

The Salvation Army stepped up to provide services for those who could not stay at the Poverello Center. They opened the day after Christmas 2018 and closed at the end of March 2019. The Salvation Army served up to 70 people per night. They were not as strict as the Poverello Center and allowed pets and husbands and wives to stay together. Operationally it was very hard on the Salvation Army staff since they managed a more difficult clientele. There was property damage, people with mental health issues, needles in the bathrooms and items stored outside under bushes. The Good Food Store did have problems but they worked with the Salvation Army.

Plans are already in the works to discuss warming efforts for winter 2019. The Salvation Army decided not to participate this winter since they had issues managing the daytime hours. The transfer center was used as a temporary warming facility winter 2018. Eran explained that they are now looking locally for a place to house people 24 hours per day and that plan will be taken to the council and the commissioners in the future.

We, as a community, are nearly 8 years into the 10 year plan to end homelessness. Instead of acknowledging a more official, better funded, better staffed and trained option is needed, the head of City Council is wondering if Salvation Army’s no is a “hard no”.

Ethan Smith said that the police were called to the Salvation Army every night and staff was overwhelmed. Ethan recommended that whomever housed people this next winter should have training.

Bryan asked if the Salvation Army gave a hard no or if they might be willing to house a few people. Eran thought that was a good question and it was possible that they would be open to that. They were doubling or tripling their staff this winter when they typically only had four people working.

Bryan saw the value of a central facility but wondered if several organizations could work together. Churches could be an option. Transportation was an issue though; each facility would have to find a way to transport people to their facilities.

Even though this commission is supposed to be focused on downtown issues, homelessness is often the focus. So the issue of the Reserve Street camps came up:

Randy Krastel said that the warmer weather was bringing people out. He and the community resource officers are making an effort to get the parks cleaned up of trash so they are clean and ready to go when transients visit them, setting a good example. Several people have been very alarmed about the issues out on N. Reserve under the bridge. People living under the bridge have been building structures out of wood. Several people have also asked him about the YouTube video called “Seattle is Dying,” it’s about addiction and homelessness.

Eran Pehan explained that Theresa Williams, the Reaching Home Coordinator, has been using the Coordinated Entry System trying to reach out to people who have housing vouchers. The problem has been locating or contacting them. Most of those living outside have vouchers waiting for them. The Outreach Teams have also been trying to locate people with vouchers.

And there’s more:

Randy added that several people he knows of have been housed and he has not received calls on these individuals since January. Currently 30 – 40 people were living under the Reserve Street Bridge. Many people are building structures that are visible from the roadway.

– Ethan Smith added that several agencies come together twice per year to clean out the Reserve Street camp. Cleanup efforts by volunteers have also been organized. Food Not Bombs has been helping the people living under the bridge. People who have proclaimed themselves as liberals have been complaining to him that Missoula is turning into a homeless mecca.

– Jake Rosling said that the campers on Expressway are becoming a problem since the area has now been annexed into the city.

– Sue Wilkins added that several area prisons are releasing terrible people with nowhere to go into the community.

– Jake added that Reserve Street is housing several people with county warrants and camps are also being burned.

Very interesting stuff. I’m glad to see aspects of the real world are still being discussed. Whether or not anything substantive can be done is another question.