If They Get More Of Your Money Things Will Undoubtedly Improve, Right?

by Travis Mateer

Have you ever thought about all the amazing things you could do if ONLY you had more money? Guess what, so does local government! The only difference between you and local government is that local government has YOU to turn upside and shake for more money when they come up short, and every year it seems local government comes up short UNLESS they get more loot from YOU, the almighty taxpayer.

For the COUNTY, the “hope” was to keep the inevitable tax hike under the rate of inflation. At least, that was the propaganda we were getting from local media BEFORE the request for a tax levy. From the link:

Missoula County could place a $1.8 million mill levy on the November general election ballot to supplement its infrastructure money, which would raise taxes outside of the county’s general 2025 budget. 

The 5 mill levy, if approved by the commissioners at their Thursday meeting at 2 p.m., would focus on repaving county-maintained roads and providing local match funds for repairing aging bridges. 

Remember, this is the same county that bought a fucking mountain recently. When you read about how local officials can find money to buy a mountain, but struggle to pave roads, doesn’t that raise some SERIOUS questions about the quality of leadership? Especially when we get shit like this when budget season rolls around (emphasis mine):

Currently, the county has a $7.6 million budget for infrastructure needs, which comes from property taxes, state gas taxes and other state and federal funds. 

Of that, County Public Works Director Shane Stack said the county has roughly $600,000 for capital improvement projects, which he said is not enough to cover aging infrastructure. 

“Our needs are significantly greater than that,” Stack said.

I know it’s not polite to ask if these people running local government are retarded, but are they?

Moving on to the city’s financial woes, it’s clear our Mayor, Andrea Davis, took the Harvard class that teaches Mayors how to shift blame when reaching into your wallet for more money. Here’s how the article about the city tax hike begins (emphasis mine):

Saying she inherited a budget deficit on Day One, Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis on Monday night unveiled her first proposed executive budget, one that still relies on dwindling ARPA funding but also includes cuts she described as “difficult” to make.

What are these alleged CUTS to city services? Does the article specify that information, or do we get some other kind of bullshit instead? Let’s see how Martin “Gomer” Kidston continues his “news” article (emphasis mine):

As proposed, the budget pours additional dollars into social services and the public safety net, but it also finds savings by taking from the city’s primary tool to grow jobs and economic development at the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, and by changing the provider who handles the city’s worker’s compensation program.

Boiled down and Davis’s budget calls for a tax increase of 5.96%, or 11.08% when added to the fire levy approved by voters at the request of the city in June. A home with an assessed value of $450,000 – roughly the median price – will see a city-tax increase of $307 a year if the budget is adopted as is.

Ah, yes, it’s the old MRA shell game, a game I know well, having made a little documentary about Tax Increment Financing that details the negative impacts on this community from allowing a shadow government of unelected bureaucrats to throw around your tax money.

Don’t worry, Harvard has given our Mayor the tools necessary to USE WORDS in order to explain why this is not her fault, it’s the fault of things like REVENUE STRUCTURES. Goddamn those pesky REVENUE STRUCTURES!

“Running for office, I knew how important this budget discussion was, knowing some of the challenges that we face as a community, where we have increasing debts and requirements for delivering core services, and a challenge with our revenue structure,” Davis said. “We’re in a situation where I’ve inherited a very challenging budget structure. It’s inheriting a budget deficit, quite frankly.”

Writing this post almost gave me the sads, but that was before I read The Pulp’s pre-election profile on our Mayor and WOW, it’s almost like they knew I was going to watch a Superhero satire show (The Boys) and write some of the most interesting, synchronicity-driven analysis of our current predicament I’ve ever written.

From the link (emphasis mine):

The Missoula mayoral hopeful went on a “candi-date” with me to Lookout Throwing Co. to chuck axes at a wooden target and talk about how she aims to lead the city. 

This kind of date is bound to be, well, off the wall. But it became truly funny when The Pulp’s photographer, Andy Kemmis, had Davis pose holding two crossed axes in front of her body like a super heroine from a Marvel movie. She wore a green and black plaid button-down that nailed the lumberjill theme, with jeans and black boots that could have passed for real wood-chopping footwear if you didn’t notice they had a little heel. 

Kemmis gave her direction, took photos and reviewed them on his camera screen. Dissatisfied, but kinda laughing, he tried using different words to get at the same sentiment: look mad.

I know, how about our super heroine takes one of those axes and just CHOPS DOWN those goddamn revenue structures. I mean, isn’t that what a REAL superhero would do?

I have an idea forming for how I’d like to put out the synchronicity-driven writing I’m working on right now, and it’s old school, so stay tuned. If you’d like to help out MY budget, a donation to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is as easy as a few clicks, and any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!