Opinion

Editor, With regards to Terry Falk’s letter to the editor (Dec. 3) and his idea that about one-third of the state windfall could be spent on prisons: a little surfing on the internet tells me that out of state prisons charge Montana about $90 per day per inmate, the state pays about $83 per day to counties to house some of their inmates. The average cost to house a prisoner in the US for a year is $65,000. I have no doubt that our prisons need repairs and expansion, but how about looking at the costs and benefits of preventative programs … Head Start programs, job training, mental health programs and drug treatment? Head Start costs about $8500-$9000 to provide services annu...

Did you get your elk yet?  This rifle season has been mild, and elk and deer have been widely dispersed and hard to find.  Is changing climate influencing wildlife and hunting?  While our weather is variable from year to year, Montana has been warming and drying with increasing greenhouse g...

A recent flyer distributed to Lake County citizens contains significant misinformation regarding the Montana State Budget. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a special interest group based in Virginia, asserts that the State budget is “on fire.” This claim is unequivocally false. During the 2025 leg...

There are various possible responses.  Many people would invest a large majority of those funds into something or somebody that they trust. Generally speaking, this is referred to as sound financial literacy.  The state of Montana won the lottery in a sense by receiving an unexpected large windf...

The holidays are meant to be a joyous and celebratory time for the masses.  We jingle and we jangle. We carol and we herald. We send cards and decorate yards. We prep and we wrap. We elf on the shelf. We deck the halls and trim the tree with ornate balls. Our nights are bright with festive lights. We...

In 2023, an avalanche of out-of-state money drove home values through the roof. When the dust settled, roughly $270 million in property-tax burden had shifted onto regular Montana homeowners. A three-bedroom house in Billings was suddenly carrying a heavier relative load than the $30 million dollar mansions ...

Editor, Besides wondering how many of our citizens understand that our government is made up of three co-equal branches, in these troubled times, we may legitimately wonder if many in Congress recognize that truth. We can see why this might be so. The office of the presidency has, to date, always been ...

I don’t claim to be a master of many things. I’m rather more of a Jill of all trades. I’m simply interested in everything, which stops me from being an expert in anything.  Except for maybe two things. I like to think I’m rather a master of words. I’ve always loved wo...

Over the past 40 years, Montana’s property tax burden quietly shifted from natural resource extraction and industries to homeowners. From 2003 to 2023 alone, residential property as a percentage of the total taxable value went from 58% to 76%. From 2020 to 2024, residential values rose about 66% sta...

Over the past week, residents across Cascade County have been receiving their property tax bills. Thanks to the Homestead Exemption passed last legislative session, the news is good. Nearly 89% of Montana homeowners — about 375,000 households — are seeing reduced or flat property taxes. Here in G...