To address Ellsworth
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Editor,
Regarding Montana State Senator Jason Ellsworth’s op-ed in the Valley Journal of Feb. 22. First of all, with regards to his statement regarding “Joe Biden’s inflation,” this is ignorant. A lot of things totally outside of the president’s control contribute to inflation. Although Mr. Putin blames the war in Ukraine on the west, it is one of the causes of inflation. Most disasterous world events have an effect on the global economy, sorry, not Biden’s fault. Did you know that the big oil companies made billions in profits this past year? Nobody, much less President Biden, made oil/gas prices go up. Think supply and demand and OPEC. 2022 profits for Exxon were almost $56 billion, Chevron doubled their 2021 profits and profited $35 billion. Big oil had their most profitable year ever in 2022. Pharmaceuticals made big profits in 2022. Post pandemic economic recovery (think spending) helped fuel inflation. President Biden did not call up local gas stations and tell them to put their prices up. By you buying their gas and be willing to pay their prices you helped fuel inflation. When your kid is willing to pay triple the original cost for a concert ticket, prices go up. Economics 101.
Briefly, with regards to various tax relief bills – a one time income tax rebate (HB192) may help you get caught up on your credit card debt or one car payment, but long term it’s a drop in the bucket. When Montana has a budget surplus, use it for long term infrastructure fixes, solving issues at the state hospital in Warm Springs and the like. Giving it all back to taxpayers only is good for getting votes and not much else. Investing in education, including pre-k, childcare and health is a much better investment than a meager tax rebate. It’s a long term/into the future investment for the people of Montana. The best financial relief for Montanans is investing in its citizens so they can become educated, healthy and productive, and able to take care of themselves and afford their taxes.
Vicky Maclean
Ronan
