GFPS Pushes Levy In Spite Of Soaring Unemployment Due To COVID-19
According to a tweet from Lee’s Holly Michels, unemployment in Montana has (predictably) skyrocketed, with 41,000 new claims filed in just Sunday and Monday of this week:
Of course, this trend will only continue. People are hurting right now, here and everywhere else.
Other Montana communities, like Bozeman and Belgrade, have opted to compassionately cancel or defer their school levy requests.
Our school district? Not a chance.
No, instead of pausing their addiction to taxes — for even one year, as we all grapple with a historically punishing economic collapse — our masters on The Hill remain hell-bent on levying a permanent tax on the rest of us so they can fatten their salaries while so many of us, hard at work just weeks ago, are now forced into joblessness and financial uncertainty.
It is staggering to witness just how little regard our school administrators and trustees have for the people who pay the bills, isn’t it?
Not to mention all the people who live on a fixed income. All of these so called “moderate” tax increases are like a death by a thousand cuts to these folks. The Rolling Stones song You Can’t Always Get What You Want, seems appropriate for the times we are going through. How many businesses will never reopen once Bullocks order is lifted? Then who will the burden shift to if this levy passes? That’s right, the property tax payers who are left standing. The board and administration need to temper their push for a tax increase until they see the fallout.
[…] your main concern is budget, and that’s understandable. With unemployment rates continuing to climb in most states, including Montana, people are looking for all sorts of ways to cut costs. That is, […]