WOW! That was just amazing! Not just because he's an R, but because he said he didn't care about how this would make the housed people feel. People are suffering and I'm glad he wants to help.
That's the kind of attitude we need more of! I get sick and tired of these NIMBYists always getting their way cuz they whine the loudest and have more money, and meanwhile, more and more people are winding up on the streets with nowhere to go and no one to help. They're just basically left out there to die, and those who are causing it DON'T EVEN CARE!!!
He doesn't want to help anybody but the wealthy people who can afford the land and building expenses. Rentals don't help people. They keep families poor by paying for someone else's mortgages and providing generational wealth to those who already have it.
As a Montana native, I can attest that Montana is and always has been fiercely NIMBY. It got turbocharged when Covid happened and out-of-staters flocked to cheap property Montana to work remotely.
As a Montanan for over 30 years, I live in an area that WAS beautiful open hay fields and I used to get an elk practically right out my back door. That has all changed, especially since covid. Our children can no longer afford to work and live here so yea I am not a happy camper with "progress: and "change".
I live in one of these resort communities outside Bozeman. There is zero affordable housing, and what could be available is Airbnb or VRBO. Long standing community members are being forced to leave. Then there are no working class to keep our community going. Then Tourists and NIMBYs"s complain about why every business is closed, not realizing they are making it impossible for the working class to live and thrive here.
I lived there too and left. The real cause isn't people moving in - it is people that resist any change inside the state. The tourists have always been moving in and out. They aren't the ones telling Google to take their high wage jobs 'Back to the Gay Bay' (Kalispell) or burning new Holiday Inns down (Butte) - Butte, a town of 30K, didn't even have a fast food franchise because of the threats to them. The ones you see now are recent. THIS is why Montana lags in income. It's not the people moving there with money to spend. It's the people within the state saying 'NO' to opportunity that comes from outside.
Go to Great Falls or Butte where there are no 'transplant dollars' driving the economy and notice how absolutely dead and lifeless it is. I take drives through and nothing has really changed in 40 years, the houses are even the same colors. Same people inside. The state is dying. The outsiders bringing money in are basically the only thing keeping the lights on. Without them the whole state would be like Great Falls and Butte. Lifeless, economically dead communities with little hope. Missoula and Bozeman only thrive because of the schools and the mystique from movies and TV. I lived in Stevi, 'A River Runs Through It' and 'Yellowstone' is basically the economic driver for the town. Fantasy transplants are annoying but they are not the problem - it's income. Montana needs to be more like Texas in how they actively seek out employment and jobs for their folks. The 'GO AWAY!' signs aren't paying the bills.
@@jelliott8424 To be fair, it kind of makes sense with how our state is laid out, no? There’s barely any real cities, and the few “cities” there are do not account for a huge percentage of the population. The hundreds of small towns and thousands of ranches and farms across the state though? They hold the vast majority of all the wealth and economic power of this state. They also happen to be fiercely against progressivism and change, and are subsequently very conservative.
@@atm1947 There is terminally low population because there are no jobs to bring them in. Once upon a time Butte had jobs, the city peaked at 96,000 people and was bigger than Detroit. It's policies, not land. Montana does less than nothing to encourage jobs or income. California was empty until a gold rush brought people out. Texas was empty until oil was discovered and jobs were created. Montana was empty and still is because they refuse to accept that 'outsiders' are normal people.
@@atm1947 And I'm not sure what 'wealth' is held in small towns. I lived in Stevi and trust me, there was no wealth. No jobs. No income. The teachers there were fantastic because it was the highest paying job in town. Honestly, it was the only stable job in town. We had so little. Eventually we had to move to Butte so the old man could sell cars. Choices and opportunities are severely limited. Schools in Stevi were the best I ever attended, by far. They were two years ahead of bigger city schools. The shame is all those brilliant kids had to leave Montana to get a job.
On the question at the beginning of the segment regarding voting for a Republican... I used to vote for Republican incumbents for some local offices, if it was clear the office was being well run. In my state there are a number of local offices (county tax assessor, for one example) where partisanship is really quite irrelevant. The office's operation is highly constrained by state law such that the elected official is really just an office manager. A lot of the people holding those offices are just trying to get their twenty years in so they can qualify for the retirement benefit when they retire. There was no good reason for me to stand in the way if there were no obvious issues with the way the office was being run. All that changed after 2016. From that point on, I have considered a candidate's willingness to have the (R) printed after their name on the ballot to be wearing the stain of Trumpism as a badge of honor. I won't vote for that.
I voted for Ron Paul in 2008 primaries because I wanted his anti-war voice on the debate floor. If you live in a GOP area and you aren't participating in the elections that matter, you're wasting your voice. Vote for the moderate in the GOP primary, etc.
@@35mm21 I agree that primary votes in an open primary state are different. I'm speaking to the general election circumstance, though... The vote that actually puts someone in office.
I have to say it's refreshing to hear a Republican talk about this issue in terms of fellow human beings who are suffering and in need of help and not like the rest of them who talk about people who are homeless as if they are all lazy criminal nuisances who are lost causes that need to be swept away in order to keep the bubbles that the entitled people live in who vote for them in intact.
Yeah most Republican leaders would say those people living in campers or crammed into too few bedrooms just need to work harder and get off welfare. This guy totally gets it. It's a housing shortage and they need to get rid of Exclusionary Zoning so that families no longer have to needlessly suffer.
Re: voting for republicans. This year, for the local primary, I ignored party affiliations and went to my newspaper to read voting histories, platforms, and experience/education of the several candidates who were running for various offices. I chose a woman who sounded very smart, experienced, compassionate, and sensible. Turns out she won about 2% of the primary vote . Turns out she was not her party’s recommended candidate. For the general, I read the same information on my local US representative candidates. I found out one lied to hide her 100% anti-abortion bent. The other one was a deadly bore and couldn’t hide it. The liar won in the general election.
@@jp6869Yep. Republicans and Dems are agreeing on this for similar reasons. Republicans see this as an economic issue with social side effects. Democrats see it as a social problem with economic underpinnings.. and they're both kinda right. This passed with strong support from both sides...
Stop pretending woke creeps push economic issues. You don't. Even when it comes to housing, the woke position is to cry about big corporations and "gentification" instead of building more housing.
You don’t seem to appear to know what the term “woke” means. If he was trying to be woke, he would absolutely inject identity politics vociferously into it.
I live in Montana and we have literally some of the worst housing markets in the nation. Like average house costing 10x the average household income or more in some cities. Things are honestly super fucking bad here on that front.
Also sadly he's still a Republican and voted for SB99 and SB458 which would ban gendering affirming care for trans youth and define trans people out of existence in MT by making everyone exclusively based around birth sex. So sadly while he's correct on this point I could never support him. Sadly that's what ya gotta expect with that R next to the name.
Unfortunately, it seems like everyone here in MT blames this problem on out-of-staters as a whole, rather than the land developers and investors. And it’s been going on for years, if not decades… housing in Bozeman has been unaffordable for a long time, well before the pandemic.
Yup. And I'll wager that a good majority of the land owners and investors are republican. And who is buying their property -- the buyers these same people like to whine about? By their own claims, it's out-of-staters. Golly gee. Seems like they should quit whining and maybe not sell to those hated out-of-staters. What's that? They'd lose money? Ah! Now we see what's at the crux of their hypocrisy.
I agree, it's not the out-of-staters fault because they didn't create the policies. Exclusionary Zoning is a policy choice that bans low cost housing and the residents continually vote to uphold this policy. So the NIMBYs have nobody to blame but themselves.
@@slartibartfast1268 Yep. And our wonderful body slammer of a governor is one of those out of staters. Granted, he’s been here for a long time, but business/tech ghouls like him helped make this mess. And then there’s the ranchers…
It's the fault of Montana residents who have thumbed their noses at the world for 75 years. It's attracting people who want to take advantage of the cheap real estate created by a terminal lack of wages.
It really boggled me when I was growing up. The house I've lived in since a baby may be small (and has only one bathroom), but I can't think of ever leaving it or selling it unless I'm on my way out as a living organism. Capitalism is a parasitic system that needs to be severely restrained, if not outright abolished.
And the worst part is that housing can be an investment, if you’re investing in building equity to keep moving from one house to another. But it’s become incredibly prevalent to just purchase a home and hoard it and wait for the value to go up. A stagnant market where people build equity to get a better house every five years and taking that equity with them is gone. It doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s horrible, because starter homes shouldn’t only be rented out. If my parents were only able to rent starter homes, we never would’ve made it out of poverty.
Wow, he won’t last long if the RNC has anything to do with it. Respect & kudos. This guy has a heart that hasn’t been wrapped in that DC greed. I hope the people of Montana will support him - even if he has to be Independent.
Nah, most(maybe all) republicans voted with him. Plus both the GOP/Dem Party know that you have to argue the case that the committee members need to hear, not the one that the person testifying wants to talk about.
Bozeman Montana is at a crossroads right now. It has busses, trails, some (still limited) bike infrastructure, and a pleasant downtown with local businesses. Its also starting to grow lots of horrible car centric subdivisions, but it hasn't gotten to the late stage where it turns into a tax hole and means the town cannot afford to make changes. Our local government, and many people who live here, really want to make higher density and a walkable city work. But there is a LOT of NIMBYs who are... mis-guided. Sure, maybe it would be better if the town stayed like it was 30 years ago or whatever, but its doubled in that time, and will double again in the next 20 years no matter what. The question is how will it look: a nighmare of stroads and traffic problems, or walkable, friendly neighborhoods with local stores, at the cost of a few "eyesore" apartment buildings instead of exclusively single family homes.
That's because they chose the worst possible spot for it. Historic farmland at the head of Flathead Lake, in a dike that used to be the main channel of the Flathead River.
I am a senior white male and life long Democrat who would have voted for several Republican politicians in the 1960s, e.g. Nelson Rockefeller, Lowell Weicker, Jacob Javits, and others. had I the opportunity. Thankfully I never had that opportunity and thus have never voted for a Republican. I think that fact will get me into heaven.
There's a trend in the past few years with young people getting absolutely fed up with the conservative NIMBY policies enacted by boomers and gen X in the late 1900s. It's moving slowly, but it's fantastic to see. State governments overriding local NIMBY jurisdictions that don't want anyone to be able to move near them unless they're rich, and don't want any transit or green energy projects built near them. Zoning laws in the US were overwhelmingly created for segregationist purposes. Very few zoning rules pertain to actual dangers like limiting industrial chemical emissions or other industrial harms in dense residential areas. Most zoning rules are purely to keep poor people away from rich people and preserve "neighborhood character". Their impact is reducing the density of US urban areas, requiring by law that cities can only really expand by growing out sideways with sprawl that makes mass transit systems less viable, car dependency worse, and commute times and emissions worse. Urban "renewal" projects and urban freeways were pretty explicitly created for racial segregation. We need to rip a lot of that out.
Most gen Xers were 30 or under in the late 1990s. THEY weren't enacting anything at that age; at best they were doing the admin. The boomers had the control. I don't think it's very well understood exactly how fiercely controlling the boomers were at that time, in all aspects of life. Obviously they had power because they were in the right age group, but it was their attitude too. They'd grown up rebelling against "the system" and felt they'd created some great new world and by god, they were the only ones fit to run it. With the economic stresses of the 90s and the corresponding high unemployment, they were able to staff their companies and institutions with exactly the yes men and disciples they wanted, just because they had the luxury of being able to reject everyone else. They had the self-righteous satisfaction of having fought tradition, but the same arrogance their fathers had displayed when it came to wielding their power.
The energy in this post passes the vibe check. These demons have hobbled our country for their own petty desires. We did it their way and it's broke. Time to fix it.
@@Jen-cc9xk good point, a lot of the Gen X contribution to this problem has been in fighting to preserve the status quo. The zoning codes that limit apartment buildings and mixed-use construction in urban areas were mostly created by the prior two generations, the projects that bulldozed urban housing and mixed-use retail/residential districts were created by the prior two generations, but since then Gen Xers have largely been working to keep all those policies and infrastructure decisions in place instead of changing/improving them. Just look at any local government public hearing on a housing proposal, and who is in the audience. Or when a transit system wants to expand service or even just add benches to train and bus stops, who are the people against it? Zoning boards and local government land use authority has been abused for too long and they need to have some of their authority removed on the issues of housing, mass transit, and renewable energy. And the states and federal governments need to reallocate funding from freeway expansion projects to light rail and regional rail projects instead.
Alot of actual gen x experience is waiting for later generations to grow up and become politically active, because boomers outnumber gen X by a landslide of over two to one. Millennial kids almost match boomer numbers, we need your votes to make any changes... Oh and every generation has rich people that support the status quo, don't blame other generations, blame the class divide created by the rich.
Nimbyism is healthy as possible in Blue America as well. NIMBYs are definitely not restricted to the Republican Party. MANY MANY wealthy liberal neighborhoods are just as guilty
fantastic! I can understand not wanting your one big investment that you'll be leaving to your children to decrease in value, but somethings got to give. Our entire way of life needs a overhaul.
Yeah, that's another thing they've got to stop: this speculative buying up of property, especially housing, by rich investment companies who buy in bulk then turn around and sell it at a profit, or rent it out at exorbitant rates that regular people can't afford - making it, of course, much easier to kick them out. And the homelessness issue grows ever worse with no end in sight.😤😞
@@johnmcgee636 I remember I was friends with a guy who would constantly complain about people moving to places like Montana or Idaho. His anxieties were because he was worried that Montana will become like Colorado lol he was such an ass, I stopped talking to him
I live in Montana and vote against Republicans in every election. Definitely in the minority in the state, but Dems were once stronger in Montana. I despise NIMBY and do appreciate this dude for spitting the truth, even if he's a Repub
Land value tax and upzoning would do a lot to fix America's problems. Sadly voters tend to like their neigbourhoods to remain in apsic and their house prices to keep rising, and then wonder why the younger generations can't afford to live anywhere decent.
Yeah, local governments limit home supply because home owning voters like seeing their home values go up. And homeowners will tend to be older than first time buyers.
I've heard Montana has a pretty high number of moderates and that split ticket voting is pretty common. Hence why Jon Tester was able to win in a state that voted largely for Trump. Same with Steve Bullock
Well damn. I really appreciate that messaging. Here's hoping he backs it up, because way too many people get ludicrous about _their_ property value; Affordable housing be damned.
In those towns like Bozeman they have to put a restriction on the deeds to make the homes required to be occupied 9 months of the year by the owner to keep out the second home buyers that leave it empty 8 months of the year
Moving from Nebraska to Kansas 2 years ago that last line is on point. The roads here are worse. The schools are not as good on average. A lot more economically depressed neighborhoods. I'll be moving back up to NE soon.
I was so confused about what NIMBY meant. Lol I was thinking it was something like how on the interwebz people say NBs (pronounced en-beez) for nonbinary. 🤦🏻♂️ “Not in my backyard” I finally got it.
I just sent Sen. Zolniko an email of support. We struggle in Montana with many wealthy people moving here as they price things out. Thank you for this coverage.
I’m prepping my statement for city a council meeting in Boise where we are just about to, hopefully, adopt a new zoning code next week. Thanks for the motivation!
A True Republican would advocate for letting the peasants die instead of "tarnishing" their neighbourhood with poor people. That Republican is playing it wrong! You're not supposed to care about anyone not rich.
Same for people talking about Medicare for all and how it would cause longer waits. I don't gaf if you have to wait an extra hour or two in the ER for your sprained ankle if it means someone with appendicitis will go get checked out before it bursts and they die.
It's hard to imagine anyone with actual understanding of issues and compassion being a Republican politicans or even voting Republican, but some do exist. Really makes me wonder what makes them affiliate/vote the way they do. What drives these people? It's confusing. I guess they must have an incredible amount of cognitive dissonance.
Having grown up arguing with a Republican parent, there is no consistent internal logic. It’s all post hoc justification of their feelings. Sometimes they happen to be correct, and Ill take what I can get
10 of the top10 wealthiest per capita Congressional districts... and 17 of the top 17... and 26 of the top 27... and 43 of the top 50... All vote DEMOCRAT.
People in more rural states (ie Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, etc.) sometimes run as Republicans because that's who they think they represent. But their policies conflict heavily with the RNC. I lived in Montana for a few years and the number of Republican voters who were really just left libertarians was bizarre
What is it with these "get off my property" mentality these libertarians harbor? Do they really hate people that much, or do they hate the "other" so much that they're willing to live in a rural area with no quick access to a hospital when they suffer a heart attack?
Perhaps but while I'm no fan of the Cheney family, Liz Cheney stayed on the correct side of the January 6th investigation. It cost her politically, she knew it would, she persisted.
Class is a better indicator of where your interests are, but not for what politics someone has. The guy in the video has some been the primary sponsor of some pretty sh-tty bills in the Montana Legislature, including repeatedly introducing a bill to "liberalize" aspects of the electricity market though luckily they have so far failed to pass.
Good for him!!! This is exactly what’s needed all over the country!!!! These NIMBY people are the worst!! We have them here that move in near an airport then want it shut down because of the noise. 🙄🤬
I switched from Democrat to Independent when Trump ran and I can honestly say that I have voted Republican for governor both times. Massachusetts had Charlie Baker as governor for two terms and I for one was very proud of what he did for our state. Last election, I voted for Healey. Again, because of her track record and what she has done for MA at Baker's side.
being republican in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in the more populous states. Folks in rural states mostly want to be left alone, which also means not having people homeless, as that leads to more over site.
supply does not fix an issue where corporate buyers are buying and land banking housing. only regulations about who and whom is permitted to buy housing fixes the issue.
banks don't want houses. Houses are only investments if someone lives in them and constantly monitors them. Houses naturally lose value and they cost money to maintain.
They scream about the free market yet hate the free market the MOMENT its inconvenient. It's almost like they are full of it. Like my dad won't shut up about how he thinks baseball players make too much money. Supply and demand, chief!
It's no longer cheap to live in Montana, depending on where one lives. A H.S. classmate of mine recently wrote me that he's selling his property in Bozeman to move else where in Montana as his property taxes have inched up to 500% over the years. When I visited Bozeman some 17 years ago, I could hardly recognize it! I don't know about Billings where the Senator was from, but I could imagine he was talking about Helena (hell-ah-nah) where the Capitol is located. My grandparent's farm is nothing but a residental area. I also understand the governor is a non local billionaire, one can see where politics there are headed!
The worst situation here in MT is what the Senator was talking about in Bozeman. I’ve watch that neighboring community grow for decades, and it’s never been so bad. There’s absolutely no place for people to live who actually work for a living. Greed is happening to them. I could tell a hundred stories and provide thousands of examples, but it comes down to greed and a mass movement of people into that city. It’s working out very well for the rich but no one else. The promotional campaign worked a little too well. I wish they would stop. Let’s not forget that vacation rental s have taken over and forced a massive number of people from their homes. The vacation rental owners don’t even have to be there to kick people out and raise the cost 200-300%. We live in a time when the wealthy can buy a home with a click and at the same time put a family on the street. That’s what’s happening here in MT.
I'm beginning to think all of this is an underground operation by certain government entities (the NIMBY rethuglikkkans) is their implementing the Purge, as opposed to the franchise in which, in that series, one day of the year, for 24 hours, murder was made legal. It's disgusting.
In addition to nimbys, you need to address investors. Especially, airBnB. If it’s not a primary residence, tax the crap out of it. If it sits vacant, slap a big, fat tax on it. So many houses sit empty just because some investor is holding onto it like a share of stock.
I have read SB 245 and Zolnikov (state senate representative from Billings) may be advocating for mixed use building, but this bill does not on its face address affordable housing. It allows any municipality (over 7,000 people) with a zoning code that housing must be added to that local commercial zoning allowances. This bill will provide opportunity for urban developers to provide more housing, but without the critical step of AMI controlled development, it will take a long time for expanding housing stock to reach low income residents through trickle down housing mechanisms. The larger towns already provide the agility to include residential units in most commercial zones (Bozeman and Missoula). There is consider pushback from local municipalities, who are concerned about loss of local control. Further, this is the same republican held state legislature who in 2021's repelled local authorities from inclusionary zoning, and a republican governor who blocked a state matching program for LIHTC. This is a step, but needs to be a small one of many as it addresses a tiny portion of the affordable housing need and does not address it with the urgency needed to get the poorest in our communities housed properly.
The problem is NOT building more housing, the problem is Organizations buying homes by the hundreds and pricing people out. There needs to be a cap on how much property an entity can own and a MASSIVE federal TAX on property ownership above a certain number.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: *We do not have a housing shortage in the U.S.* Depending on the source, we have anywhere from 2 to 6 vacant units per unhoused person. Tearing up land that we should be rewilding and using to grow food solves nothing if local governments are too spineless to stand up to speculators just itching to sweep in. Adverse possession is the way forward. Don't know what it is? Look it up and figure out how it can work in your community.
That's BS. First of al houses typically sit vacant for a few months between owners. I'm not letting some rando live in my investment property while I'm working on it and it wouldn't be legal anyway. Second of all many of those "units" are condemned or about to be or otherwise unfit for human occupation.
Adding supply won't help. They will be the most expensive as they are new. Price controls are needed as housing prices have far exceeded wage and inflation rates. And like Emma suggested, publicly funded housing.
i've a voted for one republican, he was my county judge executive, he raised our minimum wage before the fed did, put a smoking ban inside stores. super rad dude. ive not seen decent republican since then.
WOW! That was just amazing! Not just because he's an R, but because he said he didn't care about how this would make the housed people feel. People are suffering and I'm glad he wants to help.
That's the kind of attitude we need more of! I get sick and tired of these NIMBYists always getting their way cuz they whine the loudest and have more money, and meanwhile, more and more people are winding up on the streets with nowhere to go and no one to help. They're just basically left out there to die, and those who are causing it DON'T EVEN CARE!!!
He's almost normal.
He doesn't want to help anybody but the wealthy people who can afford the land and building expenses. Rentals don't help people. They keep families poor by paying for someone else's mortgages and providing generational wealth to those who already have it.
@@andrewnau433 true that.
This might be kind of crude, but being honest, he might be the first Republican I'd actually wanna f***
I am sick on nimby. I am also sick of both parties. Build duplexes and apartments. People are living in garages.
As a Montana native, I can attest that Montana is and always has been fiercely NIMBY. It got turbocharged when Covid happened and out-of-staters flocked to cheap property Montana to work remotely.
And undoubtedly, so many of those out-of-staters were NIMBY-ers too.
That's sad. I bet they all think they're "good Christians" too, while they turn a deaf ear to the cries of their unhoused fellow citizens.
Montanan here as well buddy and I can attest to this. If you werent born here, you are somewhat hated. This state hates change
As a Montanan for over 30 years, I live in an area that WAS beautiful open hay fields and I used to get an elk practically right out my back door. That has all changed, especially since covid. Our children can no longer afford to work and live here so yea I am not a happy camper with "progress: and "change".
@@MtHockey thank you for proving our point
A politician willing to tell "the people" that they are wrong when they actually are?! Sad that this is a radical concept.
I live in one of these resort communities outside Bozeman. There is zero affordable housing, and what could be available is Airbnb or VRBO. Long standing community members are being forced to leave. Then there are no working class to keep our community going. Then Tourists and NIMBYs"s complain about why every business is closed, not realizing they are making it impossible for the working class to live and thrive here.
I lived there too and left. The real cause isn't people moving in - it is people that resist any change inside the state.
The tourists have always been moving in and out. They aren't the ones telling Google to take their high wage jobs 'Back to the Gay Bay' (Kalispell) or burning new Holiday Inns down (Butte) - Butte, a town of 30K, didn't even have a fast food franchise because of the threats to them. The ones you see now are recent.
THIS is why Montana lags in income. It's not the people moving there with money to spend. It's the people within the state saying 'NO' to opportunity that comes from outside.
Go to Great Falls or Butte where there are no 'transplant dollars' driving the economy and notice how absolutely dead and lifeless it is. I take drives through and nothing has really changed in 40 years, the houses are even the same colors. Same people inside. The state is dying.
The outsiders bringing money in are basically the only thing keeping the lights on. Without them the whole state would be like Great Falls and Butte. Lifeless, economically dead communities with little hope. Missoula and Bozeman only thrive because of the schools and the mystique from movies and TV.
I lived in Stevi, 'A River Runs Through It' and 'Yellowstone' is basically the economic driver for the town. Fantasy transplants are annoying but they are not the problem - it's income.
Montana needs to be more like Texas in how they actively seek out employment and jobs for their folks. The 'GO AWAY!' signs aren't paying the bills.
@@jelliott8424 To be fair, it kind of makes sense with how our state is laid out, no?
There’s barely any real cities, and the few “cities” there are do not account for a huge percentage of the population. The hundreds of small towns and thousands of ranches and farms across the state though? They hold the vast majority of all the wealth and economic power of this state. They also happen to be fiercely against progressivism and change, and are subsequently very conservative.
@@atm1947 There is terminally low population because there are no jobs to bring them in.
Once upon a time Butte had jobs, the city peaked at 96,000 people and was bigger than Detroit.
It's policies, not land. Montana does less than nothing to encourage jobs or income. California was empty until a gold rush brought people out. Texas was empty until oil was discovered and jobs were created.
Montana was empty and still is because they refuse to accept that 'outsiders' are normal people.
@@atm1947 And I'm not sure what 'wealth' is held in small towns. I lived in Stevi and trust me, there was no wealth. No jobs. No income.
The teachers there were fantastic because it was the highest paying job in town. Honestly, it was the only stable job in town.
We had so little. Eventually we had to move to Butte so the old man could sell cars. Choices and opportunities are severely limited.
Schools in Stevi were the best I ever attended, by far. They were two years ahead of bigger city schools. The shame is all those brilliant kids had to leave Montana to get a job.
On the question at the beginning of the segment regarding voting for a Republican... I used to vote for Republican incumbents for some local offices, if it was clear the office was being well run. In my state there are a number of local offices (county tax assessor, for one example) where partisanship is really quite irrelevant. The office's operation is highly constrained by state law such that the elected official is really just an office manager. A lot of the people holding those offices are just trying to get their twenty years in so they can qualify for the retirement benefit when they retire. There was no good reason for me to stand in the way if there were no obvious issues with the way the office was being run.
All that changed after 2016. From that point on, I have considered a candidate's willingness to have the (R) printed after their name on the ballot to be wearing the stain of Trumpism as a badge of honor. I won't vote for that.
The era of a responsible conservative in government are more or less over.
I voted for Ron Paul in 2008 primaries because I wanted his anti-war voice on the debate floor.
If you live in a GOP area and you aren't participating in the elections that matter, you're wasting your voice. Vote for the moderate in the GOP primary, etc.
@@35mm21 I agree that primary votes in an open primary state are different. I'm speaking to the general election circumstance, though... The vote that actually puts someone in office.
@@bobbun9630 doesn't need to be an open primary state. Most states it's very easy to change your registration as often as you want
I think that's a bit unfair actually. Perhaps NEW Republicans after 2016 your logic applies.
I have to say it's refreshing to hear a Republican talk about this issue in terms of fellow human beings who are suffering and in need of help and not like the rest of them who talk about people who are homeless as if they are all lazy criminal nuisances who are lost causes that need to be swept away in order to keep the bubbles that the entitled people live in who vote for them in intact.
Yeah most Republican leaders would say those people living in campers or crammed into too few bedrooms just need to work harder and get off welfare. This guy totally gets it. It's a housing shortage and they need to get rid of Exclusionary Zoning so that families no longer have to needlessly suffer.
Won’t affordable housing also sweep the homeless out of existence?
@@qjtvaddict Yes because they will get homes so there will no longer be homelessness.
Re: voting for republicans. This year, for the local primary, I ignored party affiliations and went to my newspaper to read voting histories, platforms, and experience/education of the several candidates who were running for various offices. I chose a woman who sounded very smart, experienced, compassionate, and sensible. Turns out she won about 2% of the primary vote . Turns out she was not her party’s recommended candidate.
For the general, I read the same information on my local US representative candidates. I found out one lied to hide her 100% anti-abortion bent. The other one was a deadly bore and couldn’t hide it. The liar won in the general election.
“People are freezing in campers.”
Republican goes woke. 🤯
"Woke" refers to culture war controversies like trans rights. The housing shortage and skyrocketing rents are economic issues.
@@jp6869 Oh yeah because it’s not minorities freezing in their campers. That’s why it’s not woke.
@@jp6869Yep. Republicans and Dems are agreeing on this for similar reasons. Republicans see this as an economic issue with social side effects. Democrats see it as a social problem with economic underpinnings.. and they're both kinda right. This passed with strong support from both sides...
Stop pretending woke creeps push economic issues. You don't. Even when it comes to housing, the woke position is to cry about big corporations and "gentification" instead of building more housing.
You don’t seem to appear to know what the term “woke” means.
If he was trying to be woke, he would absolutely inject identity politics vociferously into it.
I live in Montana and we have literally some of the worst housing markets in the nation. Like average house costing 10x the average household income or more in some cities. Things are honestly super fucking bad here on that front.
Also sadly he's still a Republican and voted for SB99 and SB458 which would ban gendering affirming care for trans youth and define trans people out of existence in MT by making everyone exclusively based around birth sex. So sadly while he's correct on this point I could never support him. Sadly that's what ya gotta expect with that R next to the name.
Unfortunately, it seems like everyone here in MT blames this problem on out-of-staters as a whole, rather than the land developers and investors. And it’s been going on for years, if not decades… housing in Bozeman has been unaffordable for a long time, well before the pandemic.
Yup. And I'll wager that a good majority of the land owners and investors are republican. And who is buying their property -- the buyers these same people like to whine about? By their own claims, it's out-of-staters. Golly gee. Seems like they should quit whining and maybe not sell to those hated out-of-staters. What's that? They'd lose money? Ah! Now we see what's at the crux of their hypocrisy.
I agree, it's not the out-of-staters fault because they didn't create the policies. Exclusionary Zoning is a policy choice that bans low cost housing and the residents continually vote to uphold this policy. So the NIMBYs have nobody to blame but themselves.
@@slartibartfast1268 Yep. And our wonderful body slammer of a governor is one of those out of staters. Granted, he’s been here for a long time, but business/tech ghouls like him helped make this mess. And then there’s the ranchers…
It's the fault of Montana residents who have thumbed their noses at the world for 75 years.
It's attracting people who want to take advantage of the cheap real estate created by a terminal lack of wages.
Same thing in Washington state. They blame out-of-staters for bad city planning. There are also a lot of Nimbys around greater Seattle.
Omg, I applaud him here. NIMBYs need to go. Especially if they’re not helping society and act like the Karen’s of real estate and housing.
I say this as a homeowner that previously bought into the whole “you have to buy a house as an investment“.
Housing as an investment is evil.
It really boggled me when I was growing up. The house I've lived in since a baby may be small (and has only one bathroom), but I can't think of ever leaving it or selling it unless I'm on my way out as a living organism.
Capitalism is a parasitic system that needs to be severely restrained, if not outright abolished.
And the worst part is that housing can be an investment, if you’re investing in building equity to keep moving from one house to another. But it’s become incredibly prevalent to just purchase a home and hoard it and wait for the value to go up. A stagnant market where people build equity to get a better house every five years and taking that equity with them is gone. It doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s horrible, because starter homes shouldn’t only be rented out.
If my parents were only able to rent starter homes, we never would’ve made it out of poverty.
We need an ANTI NIMBY party and anti landlord party
What about anti-lobbying party?
@@sayantanmazumdar3 I found the NIMBY trying to distract us and change the subject.
Wow, he won’t last long if the RNC has anything to do with it. Respect & kudos. This guy has a heart that hasn’t been wrapped in that DC greed. I hope the people of Montana will support him - even if he has to be Independent.
I HOPE THE NEXT DEMOCRATIC SENATOR DEFEATING RYAN ZINKE
If he makes a big enough show about doing the right thing, that mightn't matter.
The argument had some elements of empathy for the poor, but was probably more campaign empathy for the developers.
Nah, most(maybe all) republicans voted with him. Plus both the GOP/Dem Party know that you have to argue the case that the committee members need to hear, not the one that the person testifying wants to talk about.
Bozeman Montana is at a crossroads right now. It has busses, trails, some (still limited) bike infrastructure, and a pleasant downtown with local businesses. Its also starting to grow lots of horrible car centric subdivisions, but it hasn't gotten to the late stage where it turns into a tax hole and means the town cannot afford to make changes.
Our local government, and many people who live here, really want to make higher density and a walkable city work. But there is a LOT of NIMBYs who are... mis-guided. Sure, maybe it would be better if the town stayed like it was 30 years ago or whatever, but its doubled in that time, and will double again in the next 20 years no matter what. The question is how will it look: a nighmare of stroads and traffic problems, or walkable, friendly neighborhoods with local stores, at the cost of a few "eyesore" apartment buildings instead of exclusively single family homes.
We can't even build public projects like water treatment in Flathead County.
It's called "Flathead" for a reason I guess. 😀
Yea besides the the new by-pass in Kalispell I honestly can’t think of the last public building project here
Too many flatheads ?
That's because they chose the worst possible spot for it. Historic farmland at the head of Flathead Lake, in a dike that used to be the main channel of the Flathead River.
I live in Bozeman in a slum with 4 kids because the housing market is a joke.
4 kids...4 fathers...everyone else's fault.
@Ryan Lawrence when you judge something without knowing the situation it makes you a fool.
@@ryanlawrence8930 4 fathers?
I am a senior white male and life long Democrat who would have voted for several Republican politicians in the 1960s, e.g. Nelson Rockefeller, Lowell Weicker, Jacob Javits, and others. had I the opportunity. Thankfully I never had that opportunity and thus have never voted for a Republican. I think that fact will get me into heaven.
You would have? What even made you consider?
@@Saturnia2014 Rockerfeller was one of the greatest liberals of his generation. Check it out.
I am a libertarian. I oppose zoning laws and NIMBY sentiment.
There's a trend in the past few years with young people getting absolutely fed up with the conservative NIMBY policies enacted by boomers and gen X in the late 1900s. It's moving slowly, but it's fantastic to see. State governments overriding local NIMBY jurisdictions that don't want anyone to be able to move near them unless they're rich, and don't want any transit or green energy projects built near them. Zoning laws in the US were overwhelmingly created for segregationist purposes. Very few zoning rules pertain to actual dangers like limiting industrial chemical emissions or other industrial harms in dense residential areas. Most zoning rules are purely to keep poor people away from rich people and preserve "neighborhood character". Their impact is reducing the density of US urban areas, requiring by law that cities can only really expand by growing out sideways with sprawl that makes mass transit systems less viable, car dependency worse, and commute times and emissions worse. Urban "renewal" projects and urban freeways were pretty explicitly created for racial segregation. We need to rip a lot of that out.
Most gen Xers were 30 or under in the late 1990s. THEY weren't enacting anything at that age; at best they were doing the admin. The boomers had the control. I don't think it's very well understood exactly how fiercely controlling the boomers were at that time, in all aspects of life. Obviously they had power because they were in the right age group, but it was their attitude too. They'd grown up rebelling against "the system" and felt they'd created some great new world and by god, they were the only ones fit to run it. With the economic stresses of the 90s and the corresponding high unemployment, they were able to staff their companies and institutions with exactly the yes men and disciples they wanted, just because they had the luxury of being able to reject everyone else. They had the self-righteous satisfaction of having fought tradition, but the same arrogance their fathers had displayed when it came to wielding their power.
The energy in this post passes the vibe check. These demons have hobbled our country for their own petty desires. We did it their way and it's broke. Time to fix it.
@@Jen-cc9xk good point, a lot of the Gen X contribution to this problem has been in fighting to preserve the status quo. The zoning codes that limit apartment buildings and mixed-use construction in urban areas were mostly created by the prior two generations, the projects that bulldozed urban housing and mixed-use retail/residential districts were created by the prior two generations, but since then Gen Xers have largely been working to keep all those policies and infrastructure decisions in place instead of changing/improving them. Just look at any local government public hearing on a housing proposal, and who is in the audience. Or when a transit system wants to expand service or even just add benches to train and bus stops, who are the people against it?
Zoning boards and local government land use authority has been abused for too long and they need to have some of their authority removed on the issues of housing, mass transit, and renewable energy. And the states and federal governments need to reallocate funding from freeway expansion projects to light rail and regional rail projects instead.
Alot of actual gen x experience is waiting for later generations to grow up and become politically active, because boomers outnumber gen X by a landslide of over two to one. Millennial kids almost match boomer numbers, we need your votes to make any changes...
Oh and every generation has rich people that support the status quo, don't blame other generations, blame the class divide created by the rich.
Not all boomers are republicans you know. Does no good to generalize in this way.
Nimbyism is healthy as possible in Blue America as well. NIMBYs are definitely not restricted to the Republican Party. MANY MANY wealthy liberal neighborhoods are just as guilty
It’s not a contest.
Extremely rich people own ridiculous amounts of western Montana.
Amen!
fantastic! I can understand not wanting your one big investment that you'll be leaving to your children to decrease in value, but somethings got to give. Our entire way of life needs a overhaul.
Yeah, property values should NOT be seen as more important than a person's life! I don't care whether you know that person or not!!
Climate speculators are buying up Montana land like crazy also. Can't imagine THAT will have any effect on the landscape...
Yeah, that's another thing they've got to stop: this speculative buying up of property, especially housing, by rich investment companies who buy in bulk then turn around and sell it at a profit, or rent it out at exorbitant rates that regular people can't afford - making it, of course, much easier to kick them out. And the homelessness issue grows ever worse with no end in sight.😤😞
WHEN Billings, Helena, Bozeman & Butte look like Denver, Colorado.....then i'd say YAY.....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
@@johnmcgee636 I remember I was friends with a guy who would constantly complain about people moving to places like Montana or Idaho. His anxieties were because he was worried that Montana will become like Colorado lol he was such an ass, I stopped talking to him
Hoosier here, we unfortunately have more than our fair share of unopposed spots on our ballots.
I live in Montana and vote against Republicans in every election. Definitely in the minority in the state, but Dems were once stronger in Montana. I despise NIMBY and do appreciate this dude for spitting the truth, even if he's a Repub
Bill Clinton won Montana in 1992
Land value tax and upzoning would do a lot to fix America's problems. Sadly voters tend to like their neigbourhoods to remain in apsic and their house prices to keep rising, and then wonder why the younger generations can't afford to live anywhere decent.
Yeah, local governments limit home supply because home owning voters like seeing their home values go up. And homeowners will tend to be older than first time buyers.
Oh, he's the state senator of Billings - blue collar, but moderate (blue areas are Bozeman, Missoula, Whitefish)
I've heard Montana has a pretty high number of moderates and that split ticket voting is pretty common. Hence why Jon Tester was able to win in a state that voted largely for Trump. Same with Steve Bullock
Are pigs flying... do I actually agree with a Republican. HOLY ISH IS THAT COMPASSION I HEAR...
Well damn. I really appreciate that messaging. Here's hoping he backs it up, because way too many people get ludicrous about _their_ property value; Affordable housing be damned.
In those towns like Bozeman they have to put a restriction on the deeds to make the homes required to be occupied 9 months of the year by the owner to keep out the second home buyers that leave it empty 8 months of the year
It's pronounced like the name Helen with the ah sound. Not Heleana. Just thought I'd throw that out there for future reference.
Moving from Nebraska to Kansas 2 years ago that last line is on point. The roads here are worse. The schools are not as good on average. A lot more economically depressed neighborhoods. I'll be moving back up to NE soon.
I was so confused about what NIMBY meant. Lol I was thinking it was something like how on the interwebz people say NBs (pronounced en-beez) for nonbinary. 🤦🏻♂️ “Not in my backyard” I finally got it.
I just sent Sen. Zolniko an email of support. We struggle in Montana with many wealthy people moving here as they price things out. Thank you for this coverage.
montana gang represent. also hell-uh-nuh.
I’m prepping my statement for city a council meeting in Boise where we are just about to, hopefully, adopt a new zoning code next week. Thanks for the motivation!
A True Republican would advocate for letting the peasants die instead of "tarnishing" their neighbourhood with poor people. That Republican is playing it wrong! You're not supposed to care about anyone not rich.
Same for people talking about Medicare for all and how it would cause longer waits. I don't gaf if you have to wait an extra hour or two in the ER for your sprained ankle if it means someone with appendicitis will go get checked out before it bursts and they die.
It's hard to imagine anyone with actual understanding of issues and compassion being a Republican politicans or even voting Republican, but some do exist. Really makes me wonder what makes them affiliate/vote the way they do. What drives these people? It's confusing. I guess they must have an incredible amount of cognitive dissonance.
Its usually in deeply red states where running as a democrat would automatically make that person politically unviable.
Having grown up arguing with a Republican parent, there is no consistent internal logic. It’s all post hoc justification of their feelings. Sometimes they happen to be correct, and Ill take what I can get
10 of the top10 wealthiest per capita Congressional districts... and 17 of the top 17... and 26 of the top 27... and 43 of the top 50...
All vote DEMOCRAT.
@@lzmunchcongratulations, that is a textbook example of projection.
@@basedtruthpiller7140
AS if any rational person would ever believe anything you say.
People in more rural states (ie Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, etc.) sometimes run as Republicans because that's who they think they represent. But their policies conflict heavily with the RNC. I lived in Montana for a few years and the number of Republican voters who were really just left libertarians was bizarre
What is it with these "get off my property" mentality these libertarians harbor? Do they really hate people that much, or do they hate the "other" so much that they're willing to live in a rural area with no quick access to a hospital when they suffer a heart attack?
Salute to you Sir
Excellent.
Cool to see fellow Montanans in TMR comments.
Willing to bet on how soon there will be an interview with him saying the exact opposite.
Yep. Where do you think we got that idea from?
@@basedtruthpiller7140 ?! RUA Dick?
Perhaps but while I'm no fan of the Cheney family, Liz Cheney stayed on the correct side of the January 6th investigation. It cost her politically, she knew it would, she persisted.
Let's hope not, but if he does stay like this,🤞 like they were saying on the video, he'll probably have to change sides.
@@basedtruthpiller7140 from the cesspit that is your family reunion orgy
Love the show. Left is best.
At the end of the day, class will always be a better determinant of politics than the party you claim to be in.
Class is a better indicator of where your interests are, but not for what politics someone has. The guy in the video has some been the primary sponsor of some pretty sh-tty bills in the Montana Legislature, including repeatedly introducing a bill to "liberalize" aspects of the electricity market though luckily they have so far failed to pass.
Based
Great job, Daniel.
Good for him!!! This is exactly what’s needed all over the country!!!!
These NIMBY people are the worst!!
We have them here that move in near an airport then want it shut down because of the noise. 🙄🤬
Remember what Trump said when he was running for office in 16 he was going to clean out the swamp he was the swamp he still is the swamp
Hell-en-ah -- but I did like how you pronounced it. Montana has always been a very interesting state for politics..
His cult won't keep him.
Owners of land subject society to more poverty than owners of capital. Land value tax solves this.
What?! A Republican with a heart? How did he squeak through?
I switched from Democrat to Independent when Trump ran and I can honestly say that I have voted Republican for governor both times. Massachusetts had Charlie Baker as governor for two terms and I for one was very proud of what he did for our state. Last election, I voted for Healey. Again, because of her track record and what she has done for MA at Baker's side.
being republican in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in the more populous states. Folks in rural states mostly want to be left alone, which also means not having people homeless, as that leads to more over site.
supply does not fix an issue where corporate buyers are buying and land banking housing. only regulations about who and whom is permitted to buy housing fixes the issue.
Absolutely correct!
banks don't want houses. Houses are only investments if someone lives in them and constantly monitors them. Houses naturally lose value and they cost money to maintain.
Good stuff.
They scream about the free market yet hate the free market the MOMENT its inconvenient. It's almost like they are full of it. Like my dad won't shut up about how he thinks baseball players make too much money. Supply and demand, chief!
He is probably taking "contributions" from the developer.
I mean, that is something you dont see... maybe ever
I live in Bozeman, at one point not a single house on the market was less than $1,000,000!
How come?
😲😲😲
Wow, an actual RINO.
Wait, aren’t there only three people living in Montana? Jeez, if you think you can’t spare the space there, you wanna try living somewhere like the UK
Montana has been growing rapidly over the past decade, driving up costs rapidly
I’m pretty liberal, but there’s tons of Republicans who I respect and vote for.
Empathy? In a Republican? Poor guy.
he will be recalled within the month. lol
That's what a RINO looks like: logical, sensible, intelligent, and compassionate. Definitely in the wrong party.
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day, it's still broken
Trump and The Cult will never do anything to help the poor
So as a Montanan we are full, hear Wyoming is nice, move along.
I think I've seen this guy on a strong towns livestream. It appears he is anti-trump and considers himself a libertarian.
The representative has my attention. Let's see if he can keep it
He's voted in favor of multiple anti LGBT bills this session if that changes your view.
@@CureSapphire The sad part is that the anti LGBT bills won't be the end of this man's career but the anti-NIMBY bills just might be.
Credit where credit is due I guess.
Before you pump his tires for building more housing check into whether developers and real estate interests fund him.
I think restricting the use of AirBNB and VRBO should be discussed as well.
It's no longer cheap to live in Montana, depending on where one lives. A H.S. classmate of mine recently wrote me that he's selling his property in Bozeman to move else where in Montana as his property taxes have inched up to 500% over the years. When I visited Bozeman some 17 years ago, I could hardly recognize it!
I don't know about Billings where the Senator was from, but I could imagine he was talking about Helena (hell-ah-nah) where the Capitol is located. My grandparent's farm is nothing but a residental area. I also understand the governor is a non local billionaire, one can see where politics there are headed!
Henry over there is loving this.
Something irrefutable while maintaining a conscience
This guy sounds exactly like Gabe from the Office! 😂
I actually thought Nimby was referencing Nimbin in Australia, not an acronym for Not In My Back Yard...
"He doesn't have much of a future in the republican party" So f**king true
The worst situation here in MT is what the Senator was talking about in Bozeman. I’ve watch that neighboring community grow for decades, and it’s never been so bad. There’s absolutely no place for people to live who actually work for a living. Greed is happening to them. I could tell a hundred stories and provide thousands of examples, but it comes down to greed and a mass movement of people into that city. It’s working out very well for the rich but no one else. The promotional campaign worked a little too well. I wish they would stop. Let’s not forget that vacation rental s have taken over and forced a massive number of people from their homes. The vacation rental owners don’t even have to be there to kick people out and raise the cost 200-300%. We live in a time when the wealthy can buy a home with a click and at the same time put a family on the street. That’s what’s happening here in MT.
I'm beginning to think all of this is an underground operation by certain government entities (the NIMBY rethuglikkkans) is their implementing the Purge, as opposed to the franchise in which, in that series, one day of the year, for 24 hours, murder was made legal.
It's disgusting.
Small note:
The capital is pronounced more like Hell-ih-nuh
I wish him the best. But yeahhhh he’s gonna wanna change parties lol
In addition to nimbys, you need to address investors. Especially, airBnB.
If it’s not a primary residence, tax the crap out of it.
If it sits vacant, slap a big, fat tax on it.
So many houses sit empty just because some investor is holding onto it like a share of stock.
Before you start loving this guy, check to see how many of his buddies are building contractors.
BINGO
does it matter? NIMBYs can go leave all around, if Contracters get paid for flipping the bird to NIMBYs, then that is a small price to pay.
Showing empathy? Not a Republican.
I have read SB 245 and Zolnikov (state senate representative from Billings) may be advocating for mixed use building, but this bill does not on its face address affordable housing. It allows any municipality (over 7,000 people) with a zoning code that housing must be added to that local commercial zoning allowances. This bill will provide opportunity for urban developers to provide more housing, but without the critical step of AMI controlled development, it will take a long time for expanding housing stock to reach low income residents through trickle down housing mechanisms.
The larger towns already provide the agility to include residential units in most commercial zones (Bozeman and Missoula). There is consider pushback from local municipalities, who are concerned about loss of local control. Further, this is the same republican held state legislature who in 2021's repelled local authorities from inclusionary zoning, and a republican governor who blocked a state matching program for LIHTC. This is a step, but needs to be a small one of many as it addresses a tiny portion of the affordable housing need and does not address it with the urgency needed to get the poorest in our communities housed properly.
The problem is NOT building more housing, the problem is Organizations buying homes by the hundreds and pricing people out. There needs to be a cap on how much property an entity can own and a MASSIVE federal TAX on property ownership above a certain number.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: *We do not have a housing shortage in the U.S.* Depending on the source, we have anywhere from 2 to 6 vacant units per unhoused person. Tearing up land that we should be rewilding and using to grow food solves nothing if local governments are too spineless to stand up to speculators just itching to sweep in. Adverse possession is the way forward. Don't know what it is? Look it up and figure out how it can work in your community.
That's BS. First of al houses typically sit vacant for a few months between owners. I'm not letting some rando live in my investment property while I'm working on it and it wouldn't be legal anyway. Second of all many of those "units" are condemned or about to be or otherwise unfit for human occupation.
Adding supply won't help. They will be the most expensive as they are new. Price controls are needed as housing prices have far exceeded wage and inflation rates. And like Emma suggested, publicly funded housing.
i've a voted for one republican, he was my county judge executive, he raised our minimum wage before the fed did, put a smoking ban inside stores. super rad dude. ive not seen decent republican since then.
You need elbow room. In MONTANA?!?!? I heard Wyoming and Alaska are bulging at the seams now too.
Kansas has food tax to take care of the roads and schools
A republican with the facts? Exhilarating
This guy is great ! This guy cares.
Well that is refreshing(we shall see how long it lasts & how far he is willing to go). Mitch Turtles used to pretend to care about people once too.
Helena, not Helayna!