A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

19 April 2018 — 1751 mdt

Follow-up on Initiative 185

The signature drive was announced today at a rally in Helena. The committee supporting it was registered with Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices as Healthy Montana for I-185 on 8 April 2018.

The committee’s treasurer is Dr. Steven Bailey, of Helena. The Deputy Treasurer is Tara Veazey, also of Helena, and an attorney who worked on health care in Gov. Bullock’s administration. The initiative is backed primarily, I believe, by hospitals who want the money from expanded Medicaid to keep flowing, and supported by the Democratic Party and its allies, who long ago abandoned all hope of winning a legislative majority. They’re confident, for reasons beyond my ken, that if voters approve I-185, the Republican controlled 2019 legislature will authorize spending the state’s share of expanded Medicaid.

The committee has a rudimentary website, healthymontana.org, whose domain name was registered with Google on 9 April 2018. There’s very little information on the website, not even a listing of the organizations supporting I-185. Readers might want to cut I-185’s proponents some slack on this. Although I-185’s been in the works since early 2017, that’s not much time to put together a website that makes a convincing case for a regressive tax.

I’ll be writing more on I-185, but I’ll close this post by presenting my position on it:

  1. I don’t smoke and I don’t like smoking. It’s an evil, filthy, habit. I don’t drink, either, although raising taxes on the poor has the potential to send me lunging for a slug of Wild Turkey.

  2. If asked, I’ll sign a petition to put I-185 on the ballot.

  3. If I-185 is on the ballot, I’ll vote for it. With a Visegrip on my nose.

  4. I won’t contribute a cent to the campaign. Let the well paid doctors and hospital executives do the donating.

  5. Taxing the poor is a filthy, evil, morally reprehensible, policy. Tobacco taxes fall most heavily on the poorest and least well educated among us. Efforts to help people kick their smoking habit should be funded by the progressive income tax.

  6. Expanded Medicaid in Montana is a bastardized program that levies a tax on the incomes of poor people, employs private health insurance, the worst possible form of health insurance and the greatest evil in America’s health care system. It is something to lament, not celebrate. Yes, it’s better than nothing — but “it’s better than nothing” is the argument made by people who’ve resigned themselves to defeat and a permanent minority political status.

Finally, trying to govern by citizens initiative is no substitute for electing a progressive — that means Democratic — majority to the legislature. Initiatives suck money and volunteers from legislative campaigns, and weaken the ability of progressives to make the case they should be put in charge of the government.