The Montana Main Street blog recently expressed concerns over developments in the Montana Supreme Court over worker's compensation insurance.  In a nutshell, two justices, Patricia Cotter and Jim Nelson, make it very clear in a May opinion in Brady v. PPL that they believe the current worker's compensation law to be unconstitutional.  The impacts of overturning this law would be devastating to Montana, as Montana Main Street goes on to explain--the part they left out is the apparent inappropriate influence occurring in court decisions.

The trial lawyer representing Brady in this case is Billings attorney Cliff Edwards.  According to public documents obtained from the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, in 2004, Edwards contributed a total of $50,000 to a political action committee funded entirely by trial lawyers.  That committee contributed a total of $328,171 to Justice Jim Nelson's re-election campaign.  In essence, Cliff Edwards found a legal way to circumvent campaign finance laws to contribute $50,000 to Jim Nelson (at that time the legal amount an individual could contribute to a supreme court candidate was $250.)  It may be legal, but it sure ain't ethical.

Some could make the argument that Nelson was oblivious to this $50,000 contribution because it was made indirectly.  However, the 2005 legislature considered legislation (killed by Democrats on a party-line vote) to address big-money influence over the Supreme Court.  The publicity that bill received would have made it virtually impossible for Nelson to remain oblivious to Edwards' $50,000 contribution.

Campaign finance laws are intended to prevent "corruption or the appearance of corruption."  Edwards and Nelson so cavalierly ignoring even the spirit of the law should be shocking to all Montanans.  At the very least, Nelson should recuse himself from cases involving Edwards or any other attorneys complicit in funding the $325k expenditure on behalf of Nelson in 2004.  Simple ethics dictate as much.

It's usually not our policy to print press releases verbatim, but since Jennifer McKee and the AP reporters have done such a poor job of reporting on the brucellosis crisis, and since the Roy Brown campaign has provided such a succinct plan for preventing the further spread of brucellosis, we thought we'd bend the rules just this once.

This isn't anything Roy Brown came up with, it's all stuff from the Interagency Bison Management Plan, which has been ignored by the Schweitzer administration.  What a novel idea: implement the plan designed to prevent brucellosis.  The initial (and incredibly ridiculous) reaction from Schweitzer to point the finger at the Montana Stockgrowers Association stands out starkly against Roy Brown's proposal below.  This is the type of leadership we deserve from our elected leaders:
 

Brown Calls For More Steps To Protect Montana Cattle

IBMP Measures and New Proactive Steps Needed To Protect Montana

Billings – Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Roy Brown yesterday announced the first steps in his plan to protect Montana cattle and work to eradicate brucellosis from its last remaining sanctuary in Yellowstone National Park, drawing a sharp distinction between his position and the actions taken by the Schweitzer administration.

“We know that Montana cattle didn’t break in to Yellowstone National Park and get infected. Montana needs to be proactive to protect ourselves and our ranchers who now face millions of dollars in cost increases just to continue doing business as usual,” said Brown. “It’s time we got serious about brucellosis, and unfortunately, all we’ve seen from Governor Schweitzer is finger-pointing and more rhetoric with no results.”

Brown outlined six initial steps he would implement on day one of his administration, all of which fall under the Interagency Bison Management Plan which has been largely ignored by the Schweitzer administration. Those steps include:

1. Capturing and testing bison leaving YNP to determine disease status
2. Allow no more than 100 negative test bison out of YNP
3. Prevent untested pregnant bison from roaming and calving outside of YNP
4. Haze bison back into YNP following dates outlined in the IBMP
5. Increased efforts to vaccinate bison
6. Restrict bison from moving outside of Zone 2

In addition, Brown called for more proactive measures to address the threat of elk spreading brucellosis to Montana cattle, including better tracking and vaccination efforts focused on elk. “Governor Schweitzer has ignored this problem and now is pointing fingers instead of implementing solutions,” said Brown. “As Montana’s next Governor, I’ll bring together the brightest minds to enact common-sense steps that will protect Montana cattle and our ranching industry, instead of just ignoring the issue and hoping for the best."

Under the headline "Problems with Permitting," the Sidney Herald reported this week the North Dakota Pipeline Authority has announced that two oil refineries are in the works in western North Dakota.  The story goes on to lament the fact that  Montana's onerous regulator climate is preventing similar projects from getting off the ground on "the Montana side of the Bakken".

The story is an echo of what The Hardliner has been saying for months-Montana is missing opportunities to take advantage of energy development.  The Herald wrote:

"The question of why North Dakota has moved along at a quicker pace of developing their oil has been raised, however, the question must extend to all energy development. In addition to the possible refineries in North Dakota, currently American Lignite Energy is exploring building a coal-to-liquids plant. Great Northern Power Development, L.P. [GNPD] and Allied Syngas are working toward building a coal gasification plant in South Heart, N.D., with an expected starting construction date of late 2009/early 2010."

When asked why North Dakota was chosen over Montana for the refinery sites, GNPD consultant Bill Pascoe said, “If all the factors were the same, though, we would have still chosen North Dakota.  The reason for this is that business and regulations are more hospitable in North Dakota and this has primarily to do with the permitting process.”

The Montana legislature attempted to improve the regulatory climate in Montana in 2007 with HB 610, but that effort was defeated by Senate Democrats with the backing of Governor Schweitzer.  Since then, the Schwetizer administration has also blocked the Bull Mountain Coal project at Roundup and his Board of Environmental Review is well on their way to derailing the Highwood Generating Station in Great Falls.

The Sidney Herald gets the joke--what's wrong with the Lee Bureau? 

And I'll just do a preemptive here-please don't post a comment about how oil production has picked up under the Schweitzer administration and how we're producing more electricity now.  Oil production has increased as a direct result of cuts Republicans made to energy taxes in the 1990s and because the world oil prices have risen to a point that makes the more-expensive Bakken drilling make economic sense.  It's true that we are producing more electricity, which is a result of the wind energy projects that were started during the Martz administration. 

Rural Montana Political Action Committee.  That sounds like a benign enough organization; it sounds like it could even be beneficial in some parts of the state.  But apparently it's only beneficial if you happen to be a lesbian.

Rural Montana PAC was formed earlier this year by a who's who of environmentalist type folks--not exactly what you have in mind when you think of Alzada--with the purpose of "electing candidates who will improve the quality of life in rural Montana."  Rural Montana's executive director, Aaron Browning, is a veteran of the Idaho Democratic Party and the Northern Plains Resource Council, not exactly organizations with the best interest in mind for rural folks.

According to their latest PAC report, the only contributor of note to the PAC was the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which came in with a generous $8,000 contribution as of May 17 deadline.  The rumor around Helena is all that money is being spent on behalf of openly-lesbian Senate candidate Christine Kaufmann.

Isn't that interesting?  Now, there's nothing that would prohibit the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund from paying for their own independent expenditures in Montana, so why would they funnel money through a stealth environmental group?  What is it they're trying to hide? 

The Clean Water Restoration Act issue flared up again yesterday as Congressman Rehberg took Gov Schweitzer to task for his support of a bill that would have drastic impacts on Montana water rights.

The Gov has tried to "clarify" (read: reverse) his position on the Act by releasing a litany of excerpts from his verbal testimony before the US House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and the pro-Schweitzer blogs have been working overtime trying to create some cover fire for their boss.

But the facts make it pretty clear.  In his submitted testimony (which has been widely touted by environmental groups) Schweitzer makes it clear that he supports the legislation.  Further, Schweitzer wrote a letter to Congressman Rehberg last year requesting that he cosponsor it.

Sorry, but the "clarification" isn't fooling anyone.  What the Gov should do is recant his position and join the growing opposition to the legislation.

We didn't say anything when Bob Kelleher filed as a Republican for US Senate, er Parliament.  And we didn't say anything when we learned that Republican Shay Garnett was wanted by the authorities in Indiana for "stalking, harassment, and invasion of privacy", (he later pulled out of the race).

But enough is enough.  We feel compelled to say something lest the Republican Party be completely overrun with loons running for office.

The latest example is the discovery that we have an alien chaser running as a Republican for Attorney General.  Unfortunately, we're not talking about the type of aliens who sneak over the Mexican border; we're talking about the little, green variety.  You know: flying saucers, Roswell, warp speed, Alf, etc.

It seems that when Lee Bruner isn't running for Attorney General, he spends his free time participating in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  Lee's been participating in this alien hunt since at least 1999.  So far it appears that he's not made contact.

This is a general plea to Erik Iverson, Jake Eaton, and all the rest of the leadership at the MT GOP--please, in future elections do a better job of screening your prospective candidates.  We know you can't control who files for office, but the least you could do is point out to some of these kooks the fact that some of their undesirable, eccentric, or outright strange habits could come to light and portray the entire party poorly.

Gov Schweitzer's tendency to stretch the truth is well know, but now he's stretching time too.  The Trib has a great story today on the ongoing investigation into the apparently-illegal public service announcement the Gov did for "National Ag Month."  The trouble is, there is no "National Ag Month."  There's a National Ag Day, and a National Ag Week, but no such thing as National Ag Month.

What's worse, this stretch of the imagination (and time) wasn't a mistake--Schwetizer intentionally invented National Ag Month in order to be able to run the illegal PSA for a longer period of time!  Here's an excerpt of the email that the Schweitzer comm team sent along to radio stations with the mp3 file attached: "National Ag Day is the first day of spring.  We broadened the concept a little to allow for longer air time."

It's pretty obvious from that statement alone Schweitzer wanted maximum exposure from these PSA's, and not maximum exposure for a fictitious appreciation month.  If that doesn't violate the PSA moratorium for elected officials running for office, we don't know what would.

Stateline.org recently released a preliminary handicapping for state legislative elections, and they're predicting that Republicans will re-take control of the Montana Senate.  They have the House as a toss-up. 

Conventional wisdom would have it that an incumbent governor with a plus-50 approval rating would be able to build upon a legislative majority.  Could it be the say-everything-do-nothing brand of "leadership" Gov. Schweitzer has provided his Democratic Party is starting to catch up with him?

Democratic State Senator Steve Gallus (Butte) may have acted improperly as a result of a conflict of interest between his job working for a private corrections company and his position on the Senate Corrections and Public Safety Committee, according to a recent article by the Big Horn County News.  (A pdf version of the story is also included as it appears the BH County News does not archive its stories).  The private corrections company Gallus works for, Community Counseling and Correctional Services Inc. (CCCS), could be a competitor for state contracts with other private corrections companies.

While it is not yet apparent that Gallus may have influenced any contract awards, the Legislative Auditor's Office is investigating the situation. 

A new study by the Tax Foundation has Montana scoring relatively poorly in corporate tax rates, especially in our five-state region.  The brief study examined the combined state and federal corporate tax burdens for each state and then compared them with the corporate tax burdens for other countries.  Montana was at the middle of the pack among the states, and narrowly behind Idaho and North Dakota in our region.  Wyoming and South Dakota do not impose income taxes on corporations or individuals.

According to the study's author, Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, "Competition for jobs and investment is fierce, and the US continues to fall further and further behind.  Our states should be the world's leaders in many things, but the high taxation should not be one of them."

We think Mr. Hodge is right.  Governor Schweitzer obviously doesn't.  Despite record revenue surpluses (and contrary to the Gov's own misleading rhetoric) he raised taxes on business during the last legislative session and opposed common-sense property tax cuts for homeowners and businessowners alike.

I can already anticipate the responses coming, so let me answer you in advance.  No, I'm not going to count the $25 million repeal of the Water Adjudication fee as tax relief for business because Gov. Schweitzer is the one who signed that fee into law in the first place.  And no, you don't get to claim that somehow general fund expenditures into state retirement funds is tax relief for business.  And nope, you don't get to claim that you cut taxes for 16,000 small businesses (or whatever that number is) when all you really did was just shift the tax burden and raise taxes on medium and large businesses.