Big Sky Cairn

There are many accusations that could be levied against Governor Brian Schweitzer, but that he is not a shrewd politician is not among them. His actions are always well calculated - whether his goals are to get his smiling mug on TV, or to offer verbal support for things that he has no intention of supporting. Schweitzer is masterful with the media - and they swallow his BS hook-line-and-sinker.

Recently, the Governor’s compulsive need to get his likeness in the press overcame the pesky requirement to abide by Montana law. I’ve already blogged about this lapse in ethics, but there’s another aspect to this story that hasn’t been covered - one that’s even more revealing. A double-standard has emerged - one that seems to signify the presences of impropriety on another rather important matter.

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We’ve seen the lack of respect Governor Schweitzer has for laws that don’t suit his goals. We’ve seen that he’s not the first Montana Democrat to shun the laws they want to be elected to create. The case for a Culture of Corruption is getting more compelling. And there’s more.

Investigators will tell you the best way to find underhanded activities is to follow the money. Gaps in the money trail - unaccounted for sums, and unrecorded expenditures - are tell-tale fingerprints of shady activity. Governor Brian Schweitzer maintains an unregulated political account worth at least $46,000. Where the money came from and how he spends it are unknown because he has refuses to disclose. What is the Governor hiding?

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We elect people to pass laws. We call them representatives because they are supposed to represent the people who elect them. That’s one of the reasons politicians brag about the laws they pass - because they perceive themselves as doing will of the people. So when they pass laws on our behalf and then ignore those laws whenever they are personally inconvenient they’re doing more than violating the law. They are betraying the people who elected them.

I commented on this before when I remembered the illegal actions of a Democrat candidate named Jon Tester. The law was clear, but Jon decided unilaterally that he didn’t think the law was Constitutional so he skirted the process and did what he wanted. Too bad he was running for the Senate and not for an appointment to the Supreme Court. I had this to say about his activity and the precedent it set:

The Culture of Corruption tag that was so effectively attached to the national GOP in 2006 ought to find itself a comfortable home right here with the Montana Democrats. Their candidates - their leaders - have only as much respect for the rule of law - laws that they pass - as they expect there to be political fallout for breaking them.

Well, he got away with it, and now we find Governor Brian Schweitzer demonstrating the same disrespect for the laws that were passed on our behalf. Except this time, the Governor is breaking a law that was enacted with his signature.

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This weekend I spent some time with my ladyfriend (hi baby!) - and honored her request that I keep my computer use to a minimum. She gets jealous sometimes and being that it’s her birthday, I figured I’d respect her request. But over the next few days, I’ll be back. And when I get back I’m changing tracks a little bit to talk about some hyjinx that aren’t getting nearly the attention they deserve. Governor, you’re been warned. Consider this a warning to get your house in order.

And just to let you know I appreciate your patience, here’s a fun little factoid I learned from the good people at Diet Mountain Dew (I kid you not).

The term “news” to describe important current events like reprinting DC-based gossip columns as if they were really important came from an old graphic that was use by papers. It was a globe, with the points of a compass marked thusly:

North, East, West, South. NEWS.

I love Diet Mountain Dew.

Update: Okay, so this factoid more interesting than it is true.  I still love Diet Mountain Dew though.  And to make up for it I leave you with this replacement factoid:  You have more bacteria in your body than cells.  Even with anti-bacterial soap.

Speaking of taxes, turns out Montana’s businesses are paying more than the national average in taxes. Montana Main Street Blog has the scoop:

1. State taxes paid by businesses in Montana (45% share) are higher than the national average (39.9% share).

2. Local taxes paid by businesses in Montana (66.5% share) are higher than the national average (50.5%).

3. The amount of state and local taxes paid by businesses in Montana as a percentage of the Gross State Product (6.5%) is higher than the national average (5%).

4. The total change in business share of the tax growth in Montana (55.6%) is higher than the national average (45.8%).

Of course those taxes are ultimately paid by the consumer - you.  There’s more so go read it. And then think about supporting Roy Brown.

Undeterred by allegations of impropriety in January, the Billings Gazette went full steam ahead today pushing for an $817,000 elementary mill.

Today you have stories on;

• The decrepit elementary budget situation
• The “concerns” of one voter who feels squeezed by inflation already, but he is of course a good citizen and taking a hit on his personal finances to provide for the kids.
• An editorial by the Gazette board touting the good work of the schools’ partnership with local businesses.
• A guest editorial by the Yes for Kids campaign calling for passage of the mill levy.

I do not have a dog in this fight as I am not a resident of Billings. I cannot imagine though, that when you look at the past troubles the Gazette has been in over unpaid advertising, this latest effort is doing any good for the proponents of the mill levy. The reporting is incredibly one-sided, albeit because opposition to school mills tends to be a silent majority, but I just read this stuff with a wary eye.

Meanwhile out West, I should plug a good write-up the Missoulian had a while back on where Montana ranks nationally in school funding issues. Of interest to me was this blurb;

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has refuted the MQEC arguments, saying the recent increases and policy changes have resolved the education funding problem.

Governor, I humbly submit today’s Gazette as evidence that in fact this issue is not resolved. On a broader note, the school funding issue will not go away until the State finds a dedicated funding stream like Roy Brown is pushing, namely by creating a trust fund from new energy development. Until that time you are going to see pitched battles on the local level between the education groups and their allies and property taxpayers who feel stretched too thin.

*Update:  Apparently the Billings Gazette did not get its point across with four articles yesterday so they came right out today and said to care for kids you have to vote yes on the mill before May 6.  Good to see our newspapers taking a balanced view on these issues.  Also, in case you missed it last night, Gee Guy has an interesting post up with the final tally on what a quality education will cost the state.

When the Montana Headlines post appeared in which we viewed the governor’s visit to the Hardin Prison as being perhaps yet more evidence of him feeling the heat in his re-election campaign against Roy Brown, it was greeted with derision on the sinister side of the Montana blogosphere. So be it — and now here comes more of the same, likely on both counts.

Because now we have the governor criticizing the likely Democratic nominee for President, Sen. Barack Obama (the more popular in Montana between Obama and Clinton, no less,) on a number of issues. The sinestras are of course, deeply disappointed in the governor — but don’t worry governor, it won’t last long.

The governor predicts that McCain will win Montana against either Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama, because of one word — guns. In fact, the governor is in such a blistering, blustery hurry to show that he is pro-gun that he hands a loaded high-powered rifle to a reporter who was in the process of telling the governor that he he didn’t know the first thing about guns.

Indoors. Within city the city limits of Helena.

Let’s just say that it was a sure-fire way to make sure that the episode got into the national news. We’d like to think that the average Montana hunter wouldn’t be at all impressed by this stunt. But then, as the governor likes to point out, he believes that the average Montanan doesn’t hunt or ride horses — he just likes the idea of horses and hunting. So the governor believes all he needs to do is hold a gun while sitting on the back of a horse, shooting campaign commercials. It worked against Bob Brown, anyway. Against Roy Brown? Yet to be seen.

Getting back to the point at hand, though, if the governor were feeling confident about his re-election bid against Roy Brown, one would think that he would be talking up the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, trying to deliver Montana for him — not throwing him under the bus.

Well maybe not my backyard precisely, but the US Geological Survey released its report on the Bakken-shale formation today stating they estimate there is 3-4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the area. Compare that to the previous estimate of 151 million barrels a little over 10 years ago. This discovery makes the Bakken the richest oil patch in the lower 48 states.

For those not from the Richland county area, which I assume is most everyone, the Bakken is a huge formation about 2 miles down which was first tapped around 2000 near Sidney and runs in roughly a right triangle from Minot south to Dickenson then diagonal northwest through Sidney to the Canadian border. People have known for a quite while that there was some oil in the formation, but no one knew how to get to it until recently.

So far according to USGS, 65 million barrels of oil have been extracted from Elm Coulee (the Richland county formation) in the past 7 years, they think there is another 410 million barrels in that part of the Bakken. This means at the current pace of drilling, Richland County has another 40 years of oil. Further north, Roosevelt, Phillips and Sheridan Counties are sitting on about 850 million barrels.

Put together, this means the State of Montana has the potential to reap a windfall on production taxes. Personally, I was sympathetic to Roy Brown’s idea of using natural resources to create a trust to fund the education shortfall. But the biggest thing for me, as an Eastern Montanan, is I do not want to see the tax dollars created from oil revenue syphoned off to Helena and Western Montana like they were last legislative session. Compared to the revenue put into state coffers, Eastern Montana got the short end of the stick on transportation funding, school funding and almost everything else related to state spending.

I have not mentioned how any new developments will be impacted by the Governor’s positions (or I suppose more accurately, his appointees) on climate change. New oil exploration, especially in the Bakken where there is a lack of natural gas plants, means increased CO2 emissions. But that will have to be a new post entirely.

As mentioned, due to the efforts of Attorney General McGrath, Montana will be exempted from REAL ID. Governor Schweitzer seeing an opportunity to get his name in the paper, shot a letter off to DHS today saying, yeah I agree with what he said.

Initially I thought that maybe this was a conciliatory effort on behalf of the Governor, sort of a way to clear the air and let bygones be bygones. That was quickly clarified;

The governor’s staff said the letter was not a conciliatory gesture

Now that we have that out of the way, what exactly did the Governor have to say? Well on Friday, Homeland Security asked for clarification that the Governor supports the increased security protocols laid out in Attorney General McGrath’s letter that, while not being undertaken in the name of REAL ID, meet the requirements of REAL ID. Today the Governor responded with;

I recognize the question that some recent press coverage might have raised, but I can assure you I stand behind the Attorney General’s letter in its entirety.

Included in the Attorney General’s letter was the outlining of a plan to enhance security of the Montana drivers license including a new data management system. Of course, none of this information will be shared with the Feds, it is for state use only. Because as the Guv so eloquently stated last year;

“Montanans don’t want the federal agents listening to their phone conversations, rifling through their papers, checking on what books they read and monitoring where they go and when. We think they ought to mind their own business,” Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said in a written statement.

When reached for comment today, Governor Schweitzer said he believes Montanans will be proud to be spied upon by state agents.

It is a good day today. Montanans will not be treated like second class citizens due to REAL ID.

Hopefully the State remembers who did, and did not, help in this situation. Cannot say I am surprised about how the deadlock was resolved. Attorney General McGrath acted like an elected public official and did what was right for Montana. Maybe this will be a lesson to our other officials that you do not need to step up on a soapbox in order to help your constituents.

The Governor did say it best though;

“It was becoming the theater of the absurd,” the governor said.

This whole “showdown” had become absurd as illustrated by the content of McGrath’s letter. The letter stated that Montana had no intention of complying with REAL ID, and indeed Montana cannot legally comply with the Act. Yet, DHS accepted the letter because they are in a rush not to create a bureaucratic nightmare for themselves. I am sure the thought of training 30,000+ airport screenings on which ID’s can be accepted and which cannot is not appealing to Chertoff. The feds did not want a showdown with the states anymore than the states wanted a showdown.

So you have to wonder what, if anything, the Governor’s rhetoric did? For me, this whole episode illustrates everything that is wrong with our current Governor. This issue should not have been a divisive confrontation. Every single member of the Montana Legislature voted to opt out of REAL ID. Montana’s congressional delegation worked to delay REAL ID, whether through cutting funding for the program as Rehberg did last year, or through a letter to the Secretary as the Senators did. Most importantly, DHS did not want to go forward with the May 11th deadline because they are not in a position to enforce it. Good ole Schweitzer cannot have cooperation, so he decides to go and pick a fight, either out of ignorance that everyone is with him, or arrogance that he has to see his name in the paper.

Regardless, the situation is resolved. Now the focus should turn to how should Congress implement the 9/11 recommendation to require more secure government issued identification without putting an unfunded mandate on the states.

Finally, an open-ended question, where does the state go from here? I am not a legal scholar by any means, but I am curious if the law passed by the Montana Legislature prohibits the state from adopting security requirements for driver’s licenses found in REAL ID, but the requirements are instituted independent of the federal act.