Month: April 2022
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CIS Agreement Win For Montana Meat Processors, Ranchers
The Montana Farm Bureau was thrilled to learn that the Montana agreement for the Cooperative Interstate Shipping (CIS) program has been finalized by the United State Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service. Authorized in 2008 and launched by USDA in 2012, the CIS program permits selected state-inspected establishments that comply with federal inspection requirements…
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660 Investigations for COVID Fraud
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) released investigational statistics about COVID-related fraud investigations conducted by the agency over the past two years. The agency investigated 660 tax and money laundering cases related to COVID fraud, with alleged fraud in these cases totaling $1.8 billion. These cases included a broad range of criminal activity, including fraudulently obtained loans,…
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Some States Suspend Gas Taxes
Some states are suspending their gas taxes in order to make gasoline cheaper for their citizens. Georgia and Maryland are such examples, where taxes add 30 cents and more to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. California adds 67 cents. In Montana, as of Jan. 1, 2022, tax on a gallon of gas was…
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News Blackout Ignores Freedom Convoy Still in DC
By Evelyn Pyburn “It’s such a great expression of freedom,” said Sen. Steve Daines about the Freedom Convoy that remains in Washington DC in protest of government mandates. Sen. Daines made the remarks while visiting with a Montana trucker, Dennis Davies, who drove from Helena to Washington, D.C. as part of the convoy that organized…
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Montana Unemployment Drops even More!
Montana’s unemployment rate hit another record low in February, dropping to 2.6% for the month, down from January’s rate of 2.7%. Montana’s total employment and labor force continued to show strong growth in February, both setting new all-time highs. The struggle for employers to find employees may be more to do with the increase in…
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Montana Ranks First in Nation for Construction Jobs Gained
Montana gained nearly 4,000 construction jobs during the pandemic period dating from February 2020 to January of 2022. This equates to an 11.4 percent increase in the number of construction workers in the state, leading the nation according to a press release this week from the Associated General Contractors of America. While almost half of…
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Montana Highlights 04-01-22
Plowing of Glacier National Park’s roads has begun. Crews started on the east side of the pass on March 25 and the west side clearing of Going-to-the-Sun Road should begin during the first week in April. Backcountry reservations opened last week for the 2022 season. The founders of Alchemy Lounge on Kalispell’s First Avenue, owned…
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Montana Gets $43 million to Subsidize EV Charging Stations
Montana will be receiving $43 million of federal funds to subsidize the building of charging stations for electric vehicles along US Highways over five years. The funds are part of $7.5 billion that was included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Of that total, $5 billion will go to states under the National Electric…
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Montana ‘highly dependent’ on Income & Property Taxes
By Bob Pepalis,The Center Square Montana’s favorable ranking for low taxes doesn’t mean that property owners aren’t concerned with taxes, according to the head of the Montana Taxpayers Association. WalletHub recently ranked Montana third after Alaska and Delaware in its report on “States with the Highest and Lowest Tax Rates.” The state has a 7.11% median tax rate,…
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Let’s Stay with Messy & Inefficient
By Evelyn Pyburn No. No. No. In passing—while talking about engaging a private company to manage MetraPark, Commissioner Don Jones briefly pondered that maybe they should hire an administrator for county government. It was just a quick remark and how serious he was is unclear, but the idea is a very bad one. Appointing an…