Tagged: Wyoming

Posted: June 14, 2012 at 7:53 am

Moving Montana Backward

Rick Hill’s understanding of economic policy and education funding appears to be outdated.

This week, Hill, who has been out of public policy discussions for most of the last decade, dusted off his vision for education funding–well, he dusted off Wyoming’s vision anyway.

Actually, given the tax give-aways for corporations Hill is also proposing, Hill’s plan looks more like a failed Wyoming proposal from Hill’s era 20 years ago–cutting taxes for big corporations like Exxon Mobil. Hill has been out of it for a while, so perhaps he can be excused for not having the most current information. By the time Hill rolls out his next education idea–say banning pagers in schools–we’ll be used to it.

Montana’s tax on oil production used to be similar to Wyoming’s until Montana’s Oil Tax Holiday went into effect in the 1990s. A “tax holiday” means that that the first years production of a new well would go untaxed by the state.

Years back, Wyoming implemented a similar tax holiday on a two year trial basis. But after only one year the legislature realized the idea was a giant failure and rescinded the tax holiday immediately. They found it didn’t create more production or more employment, but it did decrease state revenues alarmingly-including funding for education.

Hill used to blather about how we needed to be more like North Dakota, rather than Wyoming. So I guess Wyoming is the New North Dakota for the former 1990s Congressman.

GOP candidates used to repeat ad nauseum that North Dakota had fewer taxes and relations and therefore more development. Then Governor Brian Schweitzer called them out on their lies. Schweitzer said ”that Republican candidates for governor, who he referred to as ‘jokers,’ are wrong to blame taxes and regulations,” for differing oil development levels in Montana and North Dakota the AP reports.

There are more oil wells North Dakota because there is more oil there to drill. According to Montana Department of Commerce Energy Production and Development Division statistics, Montana’s taxes related to oil and gas production are 40-50% lower than in North Dakota. Our state also has a faster permitting process than both North Dakota and Wyoming. Montana permits are out in 60 days on average. In Wyoming a permit takes ten months. It takes a year in North Dakota.

It’s just not a good sign that Rick Hill–rather than coming up with current ideas to fit Montana in the 21st century–is focusing on obscuring the facts to make Montanans think we want to be more like Wyoming or North Dakota instead.

Posted: May 27, 2011 at 7:39 am

Dennis Rehberg’s Sloppy Homework

While announcing a conference call he organized to trash Jon Tester’s bipartisan Forest Jobs and Recreation bill this week, Dennis Rehberg tried to cobble together a laundry list of people and organizations that apparently oppose the bill (read Dennis’ list for yourself – and the screen shots here in case he tries to renege). The only leadership Dennis Rehberg has ever shown on this entire issue has been to hold a few conference calls with his base supporters to dump on Tester’s bill. Why? Well, according to Republican Sherm Anderson of Deer Lodge, simply because it’s Jon Tester’s bill.

Here’s what Anderson, an even-keeled former state senator and owner of Sun Mountain Lumber, told the Helena IR:

“Representative Rehberg has had the opportunity to get on board with this jobs bill and to be a part of it… I’m saddened by the fact that Representative Rehberg is making this a political issue.”

Ouch. While Dennis Rehberg scrambles to kiss-and-make-up with his fellow Republicans, his press release listing the “opponents” of Tester’s bill deserves a closer look. Because looking at it closely, there are more questions than answers…

1. Where exactly did Rehberg’s list come from? It’s a misspelled mishmash of organizations and batshit crazy ex-legislators cobbled together by Rehberg and… Matthew Koehler? (The guy who single handedly tried to damage one of my favorite blogs Left in the West all on his own a few weeks ago.) In 2009, Koehler testified against Tester’s forest bill before a Senate committee. Page 47 of Koehler’s testimony lists several organizations that Rehberg borrowed for his press release this week. Did Rehberg verify on his own that these organizations opposed the bill? Or did he really just take Koehler’s word for it?

2. Does Rehberg know he forgot to strike from his list all the out-of-state organizations that oppose Tester’s bill? Among the far-left out-of-state leftwing groups on Rehberg’s list:

-RESTORE the North Woods (Um, based in Maine)

-Big Wildlife (Yeah, that’s in California)

-Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (Wyoming, Dennis, Wyoming)

-Cascadia Wildlands (Washington State)

-Friends of the Breitenbush Cascades (that would be based in Oregon)

-WildEarth Guardians (Arizona!)

3. Do some of these organizations even exist? Seriously, you can’t even find “Empire Snowmobile,” the “Freemont County Advisory Board,” and “Montana Rivers” on google. Try it!

4. I’ve been told no one from the Montana Stockgrowers Association took part in Dennis Rehberg’s call, despite the mention in Reherg’s release. I’ve also been told there was a specific reason behind that (yoo hoo, reporters, that’s a hint!)

5. The Buffalo Field Campaign? Really? If the Buffalo Field Campaign (hippie skirt-wearing white dudes with dreadlocks who cut down barbwire fences) is good enough for Rehberg’s list, then why weren’t they invited to be on his call?

Dennis Rehberg has to be pretty sore this week. After all, the witness Senate Republicans invited to testify against Tester’s bill actually testified in support of it, telling Tester he “couldn’t have done a better job.” That’s what you call sloppy homework on their part. Our Congressman knows a thing or two about that.

Posted: August 7, 2010 at 10:41 pm

Press, Democrats got taken for a ride by a Pig

Often times I’ve served up criticism of the Montana press, for being apathetic, lazy, stupid, incompetent, corrupt, and, in some cases, conservative leaning due to right-wing corporate ownership. Well, here is another serving from that platter.

In late March, you might recall, Denny Rehberg announced in the press that he was “swearing off earmarks.” AP Reporter Matt Gouras presented the matter quite fairly. It was major news. Rehberg then set out on a campaign to remind voters that he does not believe in earmarks, or wasteful pork barrel spending generally.

It turns that two weeks after Rehberg got on the wagon and gave up earmarks, another news item quietly broke (or, at least, it was quiet in Montana). It was that the conservative group Citizens Against Government Waste had come out with its annual “Pig Book”, which ranks members of Congress based on how wasteful they are with taxpayer money, based on the number of earmarks they write.

And who do you think the Pig Book ranked as Number One Pig in Congress? You got it, Denny Rehberg, with the most earmarks (88) for fiscal year 2010 in the entire House of Representatives.

It went unreported by the Montana press and, I might add, unnoticed by all of Rehberg’s Democratic opponents and the entire universe of Democratic staffers, operatives and politicians in Montana who all should be seeing to it that Rehberg is held responsible for the incredible amount of bullshit that he delivers.

When the Pig Book news came and went without a single blip in Montana, it must have delighted the Congressman. Had the Press followed up, they’d have figured out that when the Congressman made his declaration about earmarks, he was not only a pig, but a cat, who had swallowed a canary, and had a few bits of yellow feathers stuck in that greasy mustache of his.

UPDATE: Dan Testa is the first Montana reporter to have the story. Like Mr. Gouras on the earmark story, Mr. Testa presents the information fairly. Go check it out, he’s got Rehberg’s take on whether his temporary earmark ban will even do anything.