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Barack Obama  |
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Rob Kailey is a working schmuck with no ties or affiliations to any governmental or political organizations, save those of sympathy.
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initiative
Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 15:55:18 PM MST
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We haven't had much opportunity to discuss the Montana Realtors' effort to foreclose real estate transfer taxes through a Constitutional Amendment this November, but this should be taken for what it is -- an invitation to more speculation that leads to housing bubbles and a "Please Change the Fabric of Our State" invitation for fancy pants characters from California.
More interestingly, the campaign is apparently hiring out-of-state signature gatherers, which makes sense since Montana's unemployment rate is currently so low.
From an email I just got from Terry Minow of MEA-MFT: They're back!!! Paid, out of state signature gatherers were working this weekend in Helena. Melissa Case saw signature gatherers in front of VANNs IGA here in Helena. She visited with them and found out they were not from Montana, a violation of Montana state law. She also heard them mischaracterizing the ballot initiative they were asking people to sign.
How can you help?
- Please let me know if you see signature gatherers in your town.
- Talk to them, ask where they are from, and listen to their pitch. Don't challenge them-act like you are interested in signing-play along!
- If they are not from Montana, or are not explaining the initiative truthfully, take notes-date, place, time, location, and what they said, and let me know.
- Ask if they are getting some kind of bonus per signature.
- If you can take a photo, that would be good too.
As you know, we got three initiatives thrown off the ballot in 2006 due to signature gathering fraud. Thankfully we were able to work with the 2007 legislature to pass initiative reform that requires signature gatherers be Montana residents and banned paying on a per-signature basis.
The summary of the initiative is below. While there is no realty transfer tax now, it is dangerous to set tax policy through initiatives and constitutional amendments-take a look at California! I should note that I ran into some signature gatherers this morning on this very initiative. The team looked like they might be local, but I'd wager against it. There's something hilarious and deeply ironic about hiring a bunch of folks from out of state to pass tax policies helpful to people from out of state while spending lots of money talking about protecting Montanans. Maybe this whole thing is a front for that same outfit running the ads attacking Jon Tester on the imaginary bank bailout.
Either way, looks like we should all be ready for some big money to look to keep Montana as their personal playground.
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