by Travis Mateer

A Missoula Current article from earlier this week exemplifies how County Commissioners like Dave Strohmaier can become addicted to the transformative power of spending tax money, especially when the BIGGEST dealer of this tax-crack, the Feds, are gearing up for trillions in “infrastructure” spending.

What this means is a simple underpass rehab project on Orange Street becomes another opportunity for Dave Strohmaier to find some tax-crack for his figurative crack pipe. From the link:

Missoula County is urging MDT to think outside the box and work with local government to perhaps go beyond a basic rehabilitation. No timeline has been proposed.

“One thing we as county government can help with is look for and lobby for additional funding,” said Commissioner Dave Strohmaier. “I don’t want our vision of what is possible to be so constricted based upon an estimate of available funding and have a project we’re going to have to live with for decades.”

Well, Dave, MY vision is of you on your hands and knees looking for “additional funding” in the fibers of your carpet because addicts just KNOW that little morsels to feed one’s appetites can sometimes be found in unlikely places.

Strohmaier’s addiction to spending tax money on projects with no identifiable funding sources, and for a need no one is actually demanding, is kind of impressive when you step back to look at this one tiny example.

Like this part, where MDT says there’s NO MONEY to feed Dave’s addiction, and Dave’s response is to fiendishly salivate over his dealer’s new product about to hit.

Did I mention Dave’s dealer is Uncle Sam?

Strohmaier, a member of the Missoula Metropolitan Planning Organization, urged MDT to work with the city and county on possibly doing more than concrete rehabilitation. Smith said that would cost money that MDT doesn’t have.

“There’s a trillion dollars in infrastructure being debated in Washington, D.C., as we speak,” Strohmaier said. “Maybe a broader project was considered and dismissed for funding, but I would encourage us all to think as expansively as possible and look for the funding to make it happen. This is something the City of Missoula has some interest in also.”

If this isn’t a clear example of a public official with a debilitating addiction to spending public money, I don’t know what is. Strohmaier even assumes to speak for the city, where our alcoholic Mayor is now directing his INCIDENT COMMAND TEAM to find less visually obvious locations for homeless camps until the weather gets cold, which incidentally will be around the same time we have a municipal election.

It’s important to understand these addicts are only able to perpetrate their problems onto others because co-dependent enablers (also known as “voters”) keep kicking the can every election cycle instead of planning for an intervention.

Will this year be any different?