ShootOnline, an online news site for the movie production industry, gave a glowing review of the Big Sky on the Big Screen Act in an article published today.  The Schweitzer administration originated this incentive program in 2005 in an effort to lure film companies to Montana.  In 2007, the legislature, with the support of the governor, made the deal even sweeter.

That's all fine and good, but what about using tax incentives to lure other industries to Montana?  Governor Schweitzer and his legislative Democrats killed a spate of business-tax proposals, including significant cuts to property taxes and the business equipment tax.  There seems to be some faulty logic here; if giving tax incentives leads to more movies filmed in Montana, won't parallel tax cuts lead to investment in other business?

According to the US Census Bureau, Montana ranks 47th in the nation in median household income, ranking below all our neighboring states: Wyoming 23rd, Idaho 26th, South Dakota 35th, and North Dakota 40th.  Part of the reason that Montana lags behind is our uncompetitive tax system, including the antiquated business equipment tax.  Bringing investment from film companies is fine, but shouldn't we be looking for ways to improve the economic climate for Montana's other, more-permanent industries?

Despite years of funding increases for education, including the huge increase from the 2002 special session (which our understated governor labeled "historic), Montana's education system still ranks low compared with other states.  The AP reports today that "the nonpartisan National Council on Teacher Quality gave Montana mostly failing marks in all six areas studied" in a recent report from that group.  State OPI Superintendent, Linda McCulloch, was aloof in her response, questioning the report's credibility rather than addressing the problems.

In McCulloch's defense, Montana does rank high in other categories, including student test scores.  However, under her watch, beginning teacher pay has continued to rank among the lowest in the nation, which has hit rural schools particularly hard.  (The Gazette has a separate story today on the impact that teacher pay is having on rural schools.)

Hmmm, so why if we've increased ed funding by so much in recent years does beginning teacher pay stay so low?  Could it be that to make our starting pay competitive with other states we'd be taking away the primary hot-button issue that the teacher's union has been rallying around for years?

The chairman of the interim legislative Revenue and Transportation Committee (RAT) has traditionally switched from party to party and chamber to chamber.  The last chairman was a Senate Democrat, so this interim's chairman should be a House Republican.  House Taxation Committee Chairman Bob Lake (R-Hamilton) was in line to take over as chairman, but at RAT's June 21 meeting, Democrats blocked his election to the chair.

It's no surprise that Democrats would transition their partisan gamesmanship from the session to the interim, but the whole scheme smacks of pettiness.  Legislative Democrats launched an unprecedented assault on taxpayer rights during the last session, much of it coordinated by the state Department of Revenue, and all indications point to this antagonistic attitude continuing into the election cycle.  But for them to use a usually diplomatic interim committee as a platform to make a political stand is an indication that all the talk of bipartisanship is just empty rhetoric.

The AP reported on 6/23 that "Schweitzer's office said Friday that he has not had a constituency account for months."  That came in response to an appeal from Secretary of State Brad Johnson for Schweitzer to follow his example of fully disclosing all constituency account activity.

Schweitzer hasn't had a constituency account for months?  That's certainly a new revelation.  So what happened to all that money?  Where did the tens of thousands of dollars go that Schweitzer had squirreled away in his personal slush fund?  After the governor's inaugural ball in 2005, it was widely reported that a large surplus of money was diverted over to a constituency account, but that money has never been accounted for.  Now we find out that it's apparently all been spent.

Inquiring minds want to know, don't they?

Though Gov. Schweitzer has been overly generous to the agenda of Montana's most-extreme environmental groups, they're still apt to grumble that the governor isn't green enough.  The primary cause of their angst is the governor's incessant talk of coal to liquids, despite the fact that the governor has taken no action to bring a CTL production to Montana beyond all that talk.  Lately, even the enviros are picking up on the fact that the gov is big on rhetoric but light on action. 

This week's Economist has a short sidebar outlining alternative energy in Montana.  The surprising part came at the end, "Greens seemed pleased with (Schweitzer's) efforts in other areas, even if, they say, he is sometimes more bluster than action."

Haven't we heard that before? 

So who's running?  That was the question on everybody's lips during last weekend's MT GOP convention.  Mike Lange is running for sure, and he'll most-likely go after Baucus.  However, two other potential candidates created some buzz among conventioneers: Bob Keenan, who has been a suspect for months now, and a newcomer, Kurt Bushman.

On the gubernatorial front, giveitback.com founder Steve Daines had a very enthusiastic reception, however, he remains uncommitted to running.

Two-time OPI candidate Bob Anderson was at the convention and made the rounds, though he too has not determined whether he'll run or not.

Duane Grimes is giving serious consideration to running for Auditor again after a strong showing against incumbent John Morrison in 2004.

Already-announced AG candidates Tim Fox and Lee Bruner both had a strong presence at the convention, and are already running an extremely amicable race.  We'll see if the same congeniality is evident in the Dem primary.

And finally, the GOP Legislative Campaign Committee reported that it already has two-thirds of its targeted legislative districts filled. 

The most recent political party campaign finance reports were released last week, and the Montana Democratic Party has a slight lead over their counterparts.  However, for the most recent period, the MT GOP raised over 3 times as much as the MDP - the MT GOP raised $27,460 over the period (May 1 - May 31), compared to a paltry $7,464 for the MDP.

The MT GOP reported an ending cash on hand of $115k, but with no debt.  The Democrats reported a COH of $179k, but with $44k in debt, or $134k in cash after debt.

Another interesting part of the report is that the MT GOP is raising a lot more money from individual donors.  As of May 31, the MT GOP had raised $129k from individuals, compared with only $75k from individuals for the MDP.  The reverse was true for PAC contributions - the MDP has raised $48k from PACs, compared with only $3k in PAC contributions for the MT GOP.  MDP has also received $14k from its national party committees; the MT GOP has received no transfers.

The two parties seem to be following a trend from the previous election cycle where the MT GOP is dependent on in-state, small-contribution donors and the MDP is dependent on PAC contributions and transfers from its national party affiliates and from out-of-state, large-contribution donors.  To put it in perspective, in 2004, the MDP raised $691k from only 458 donors, compared with the MT GOP raising $650k from 7,324 donors.

The Montana GOP held their annual convention this last weekend in Helena and had quite the time. Republicans gathered from each corner of the state to elect their new Chairman Erik Iverson and bring forth a plan to pick up "gains" in the next (2008) election cycle. Interestingly enough many questions remained unanswered as to where the party stands.

It was interesting to see the party members with such diverse ideologies come together to talk about where our party is headed. We had a showing of the strong conservatives such as Sales and Koopman all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum with log cabin Republicans such as the Jones Brothers who sided with the Schweitzer administration that latterly led to Montana's taxpayers receiving the shaft on tax relief.

Rising questions as to, "What is the Party's message?" and "Who is this young gun (Iverson) and what is his plan?" still remain flowing in murky water. Yet Iverson managed to drop a fiery speech that rallied Republican delegates to their feet, but in the end, no candidates emerged from the convention with announcements to challenge Gov. Brian Schweitzer nor Sen. Max Baucus.

The infamous Mike Lange who is better known for his arrogance and political incorrectness which ultimately led to his party firing him at the end of the Special Session, has been hinting for quite sometime about running for one of the two posts. Whatever he decides, the MDP would be happy to hear his announcement considering the lack of support from Lange's own party(http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/24/montana_top/a01062407_01.txt).

Whatever the final outcome of the convention, Republicans should feel more secure knowing that at the very least, they have a newly elected leader who has been around the block a few times in his life and as some would say, "This isn't his first rodeo."

MTinsight has learned that the last GOP convention John Bohlinger attended was in 1997.  Bohlinger switched parties in 2004, and has since attended Democratic state conventions, but this year is the first that he's shown any "interest" in convening with the GOP.  This proof just confirms what we already know, the whole issue was a shamless publicity stunt gauged to embarass the GOP.

Why does this mainstream media allow the Democrats to get away with these stunts?  Bohlinger has done absoluntely nothing to bring a Republican perspective to the Schweitzer administration - he's gone willingly along with every single action they've taken.  When was the last time you can recall Bohlinger speaking out against any liberal policy initiated by his boss.  He's failed to act as a liason between the GOP and Democrats - in the former camp he's viewed as a traitor, by the latter his only value is as one of Schweitzer's political novelties, kind of a bow-tied version of Jag.  Yet another chink in the bipartisan facade erected by Schweitzer.

The Quality Education Coalition (MQEC) was conspicuously silent during this year's legislative session, but now that the session is over they're amping up their media campaign once again.  Their first salvo was an editorial by Montana School Boards Association exec Lance Melton, which surfaced in the Gazette on May 19.  Another editorial, this one by Alan Nicholson and John Board, has been circulating of late and today appeared in the Gazette.

So why wait until after the session?  That all boils down to a rumored deal cut between the Schweitzer administration and the teacher's union in which the education lobby.  It seems that MT Education Assoc. boss Eric Feaver agreed to curtail all criticism until after the legislature had safely left town.  What the teacher's lobby is getting in return is yet to be seen.

You can expect a full-scale resurfacing of the MQEC in coming months, including gentle reminders that their school funding lawsuit still looms large.