Comments on: Montana Dealmaker Pushes Education Funding Makeover
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By inthemiddle on 02-03-13 @ 10:57 am
This bill has some merit but the way it ties future school funding to resource development should worry anyone who cares about conservation in the state of Montana. If this bill passes as it is
currently written the schools and those people who support them will be held hostage by the oil,
gas and coal lobbies. A better idea would be come up with a formula that funds schools properly no
matter what the economy is so that year in and year out we know that our kid’s education comes
first. There are many parts of the state budget that could be tied to resource development, roads for
example, in years where there is ample monies from resources we build roads and bridges, when
monies are short we curtail them. Don’t let our kid’s future be used as a form of blackmail so that
some large corporation can develop oil,gas and coal in enviromentally sensitive areas.
By Johnny on 02-04-13 @ 11:40 am
inthemiddle - That’s a bogus and inflammatory arguement. There are no hostages or blackmail. The state already receives these dollars. Now they are directed to schools and property tax relief. Maybe
you will be willing to write a check for the amount of your property tax relief back to the state or your
school if you don’t like it? There were only two opponents to the bill, one was the Montana
Environmental Information Center. Not exactly an inthemiddle organization!
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.