We should be at the Defcon 1 level of concern after hearing Brett Doney’s comments about our local economy. His analysis in this instance is very disturbing but not surprising. Not surprising to me because I’ve been watching what I call the ‘Glass Half Empty/Half Full Switcheroo” for a long time in this town. Here’s how it…
Showboating. Grandstanding. Those are the only words that readily come to mind to describe Great Falls Public Schools Superintendent Tammy Lacey’s tirade against the recently elected, Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction, Elsie Arntzen. According to the Tribune, Lacey “asked the superintendent whether she had plans to publicly fund preschool for the less fortunate children in the state, unlike Arntzen’s own…
As we reported a couple of days ago, and as the Tribune reported yesterday, the GFDA is recommending that: …Cascade County commissioners place a three-mill economic development levy before county voters this spring during a special election to generate $450,000 a year that can be used to create more jobs. It won’t be a large one: A…
Phil Faccenda made reference to it in his very good piece yesterday, and we have received a number of tips about it recently… but we’re still grappling with some of the comments made by Great Falls’ economic development chief, Brett Doney, at the Jan. 3 City Commission meeting. Most glaringly, Doney said that Great Falls lost “707 net jobs” in…
There are some interesting items in today’s GFDA Quarterly Investor Letter, and perhaps none more so than priority #2: 2) Put a 3-mill economic development levy before Cascade County voters on the special election ballot to replace Ryan Zinke. Passage of this small levy would generate about $450,000 a year to make Great Falls and Cascade County more competitive in…
Ask your average person on the street what they would like to see relative to economic development in Great Falls and there is a good chance they would say, “Red Lobster.” Then ask them if they would rather see a Red Lobster, or an expansion of the Calumet Refinery, and again they would probably answer,…
Rep. Jeremy Trebas’ bill to ban municipal cell phone bans died in its second reading Tuesday night by a 63-37 vote. Whether or not one agrees with the practice of singling out gabby drivers (versus, say, hungry drivers who snack behind the wheel, or any other type of distracted drivers), we argued that because virtually every other driving-related offense is codified…
Recently, the Tribune’s Peter Johnson wrote about Great Falls’ building boom; 2016 was the City’s strongest year for development since 2008. A lot of folks agree with the notion that Great Falls is on the uptick, while others point to a lack of good-paying jobs, low population growth, and drug abuse as significant community problems. We…
The Great Falls Tribune got its smarm on today in dissing Rep. Jeremy Trebas: Somebody might want to pick up the phone and remind Jeremy Trebas that as a Republican, he’s supposed to be for small government and local control. This type of rhetoric is always rich. The Trib’s editors are not Republicans. They’re just happy…
Montana House Rep. Kirk Wagoner, R-Montana City, wants to protect public employees who blow the whistle on government misconduct. He has introduced two bills, HB 202 and HB 208, “that would criminalize attempts by supervisors to retaliate against state employees who report corruption,” attorney and former Rep. Matthew Monforton, R-Bozeman writes. While Wagoner’s proposals — in lockstep…