11 April 2018 — 1708 mdt
Wednesday roundup
Notes on Kathleen Williams and healthcare, possible National Park Service misconduct, Flathead electricity rates, and a mean-spirited school board.
Is the environmental review process for Sperry Chalet a sham?
Is the political fix in to rebuild the chalet, which burned down during last summer’s Sprague Fire? I suspect the answers are Yes, and Yes. Shortly after the 2 April deadline for submitting scoping comments on alternatives, Glacier National Park announced the decision date for its environmental review was being advanced from September to May, ostensibly to allow installing additional bracing on the still standing stone walls.
In other words, the NPS, under tremendous pressure from the concessionaire, SecDOI Ryan Zinke, fans of the chalet that include Republican high rollers, wants to start rebuilding the chalet as soon as the snow melts. The decision to rebuild has been made, and within the NPS never has been in doubt. Powerful people want a new chalet. No one in the NPS is going to jeopardize his career by bucking the juggernaut. No environmental group is likely to expend resources fighting the rush to rebuild. And while grizzly bears may not be pleased with the disruption of their habitat, they won’t have the firepower or allies to fight back effectively.
Construction will be expensive and possibly environmentally damaging. Within the old stone walls, there will be an entirely new structure that must meet modern standards for safety and sanitation. I suspect an economic analysis would reveal a need for enormous subsidies, high three-digit nightly rates; possibly both. But nothing is likely to derail this boondoggle. In two or three years, tourists will ride hayburners up the trail that stinks in the hot August sun to spend a pampered night in a building that shouldn’t be there, thinking all the while they’re getting a great wilderness experience.
The Flathead Electric Cooperative is raising rates again
According to Light Reading, FEC’s residential rates are going up again because of (1) “[The] Escalating costs of fish and wildlife programs,” and (2) “Declining surplus power sales due to lower market prices.”
Flathead Electric has seen the addition of over 10,000 new services in the last 10 years, yet has kept employee levels static. In addition, our improved safety culture has dramatically reduced FEC’s workers’ compensation rates. The Co-op is pleased to report that due to these and other operational efficiencies, the rate increase is lower than anticipated. It includes a $0.50 increase in the monthly basic charge for residential members. The rate increase, which will be reflected on electric bills issued on or after June 1, 2018, will raise the average residential members’ monthly bill by $0.98.
One way of keeping employee levels static is outsourcing functions to contractors. Light Reading sheds no light on whether FEC is outsourcing, and if it is, how much it’s outsourcing.
The basic charge for residential customers is increasing from $23.21 to $23.71 per month. As usual, FEC is not disclosing the new rates in advance, preferring to spring the bad news when it delivers the bill for May. Why keeping this information from the public is thought a good business practice, or a good way to treat people, escapes my understanding.
At the current residential rate for 0–600 kWhrs/month, the base rate is the equivalent of 358 kWhrs. In actuality, customers pay for their first 358 kWhrs twice, making the rate deeply and infuriatingly regressive. If I ran FEC, I would eliminate the basic charge.
Helena school board stays sick attempt to sic collection agency on poor families
Faced with a $100,000 shortfall in its school lunch program, the school board in Helena last week decided to use private collection agencies to squeeze the money out of the parents of students whose lunch accounts were in arrears. To the amount owed would be added collection agency fees, possible adverse court judgments, and sullied credit ratings — and of course the targets of the collection agencies would be harassed with all the tricks that bill collectors employ.
Yesterday, in a move wise but overdue, the school district decided to hold off turning loose the dogs of collection.
Meanwhile, Helena’s tax and dun prone school board is going forward with a levy to raise regressive taxes to increase salaries for school staff and faculty.
Situations such as this occur across the nation with disturbing frequency because most schools have stupid policies on school lunches. Although it’s a long and well established fact that students with empty stomaches learn little, most school still expect students to buy or bring their own lunch. Although there are programs to subsidize the meals of impoverished students, taking advantage of those programs isn’t always easy, and in the case of students without proper immigration documents, applying for help carries the risk of being fingered for deportation.
The solution is simple. Provide breakfast and lunch for all students, and pay for the program through progressive taxes.
Meanwhile, were I a voter in Helena, I would be voting for new school board members and militating for a new superintendent. This fiasco, like the one in Montana City last year (post 1, post 2) never should have occurred.
Does Democratic congressional hopeful Kathleen Williams believe health care is a right?
If she does, she’s not saying so. Yesterday she released a five-page white paper on health care that does not contain the word “right,” that disses single-payer health care in a manner reminiscent of Hillary Clinton, and seems to assume that if elected to Congress, she’ll be in the minority.
Current direct-to-single-payer proposals are too far-reaching and expensive to pass a Republican House, Senate, and President. However, Kathleen’s Medicare reform would reduce costs across the board and largely pay for itself. It would also be a significant evolution of the federal role in health insurance, draw millions of people onto a true public option, and — most importantly — spark a national, grassroots dialogue about the future of healthcare in America. People aged 55 to 64, some of the most vocal voters and activists in the nation, would become a new, powerful voice for a public option.
Throughout Kathleen’s career, she has never made promises that she could not deliver to her constituents. Advocates for single payer must be able to explain how they will win the necessary votes and finances for the transition. Kathleen cannot, and will not, promise single payer health care in 2018. She can, however, promise to work on bipartisan, meaningful legislation that will reduce costs, expand access, and make the healthcare system work for everyday Montanans while laying the groundwork for broader systematic changes.
By contrast, John Heenan, whom I’ve endorsed, says:
John believes healthcare is a right, and he supports affordable healthcare for everyone, and would vote for Medicare for All.
Nothing in Heenan’s platform precludes his voting for improvements to the Affordable Care Act as intermediate steps to finally adopting an everyone covered for everything, zero copay, federal single-payer system financed by progressive taxes. But by saying we should steer by the bright star of single-payer, he lets us know what should be at our journey’s end. Williams, by contrast, advances no clear vision of the promised land, identifies no star by which to navigate. Instead, she embraces complexity, and not just complexity but gratuitous complexity, spouts the gospel of bipartisanship, which these days means caving-in to Republican demands, and dashes hope of real reform.
But there’s a chance she could win the Democratic nomination. She’s trying to appeal to Hillary Clinton Democrats.She’s running a gender identity campaign, presenting herself as the reincarnation of Jeannette Rankin, clearly hoping that Democratic women will vote for her in a gesture of gender solidarity. That’s not a bad strategy for the primary, but it’s a losing strategy for the general election. Honoring Rankin by voting for Williams is the best way to ensure that Greg Gianforte will win a second term.
William’s principal competitors for the nomination, Heenan, and Grant Kier, appeal more to Bernie Sanders Democrats and Obama Democrats respectively. The other three candidates, Jared Pettinato, Jon Meyer, and Lynda Moss, are not gaining traction.
I will vote for the Democratic nominee for Congress. But if that nominee is Williams, I’ll do so with a heavy heart, knowing that she’s not likely to win, and that if she wins, she’ll caucus with the Hillaryites and the enemies of single-payer health care who haven’t the wisdom, decency, or courage, to shout “Health care is a right!”