Letters to the editor Jan. 22
Contest the compact
Objections to the preliminary decree CSKT Water Compact must be received by the Montana Water Court in Bozeman by Feb. 9. This is an opportunity for the general public to respond to the CSKT Compact (Preliminary Decree Process) that has passed the Montana Legislature and Congress.
The purpose of this judicial review is to determine if the CSKT Compact is fair and reasonable to those parties and the public interest who were not represented in the negotiations but have interests that could be materially injured by implementation of the compact. This is our chance to determine if our water rights would be adversely affected if the management was turned over to CSKT.
Based on our knowledge that agricultural water users living on private property within the Flathead Reservation had their water delivered late and stopped early last summer is evidence that the same thing could happen to us. I believe the flood last year that damaged our crops and houses was likely caused by lack of maintenance on the SKQ Dam on Flathead Lake.
We have no assurance in the preliminary decree that our water rights will be protected.
Also, the CSKT Compact covers more than just individual water rights. Water for future development from the headwaters of the Flathead River, Hungry Horse Dam and Flathead Lake may not be available if the compact is implemented.
To prepare for the Montana Water Court and defend your water rights start by visiting crazzyworld.org to get forms and information needed to file your objections to the preliminary decree.
For example: my water right is consistent with the state, federal and local laws which require purpose of water, amount, location, flow rate, when it is used, etc. None of this is required in the preliminary degree.
Montana is just giving our state-owned water for use by individuals to a separate nation that has its own constitution and laws. CSKT gets their water from the Mission Mountains and a water right on the Flathead River. My water rights will likely be crowded out and few, if any, new water rights will be issued in the future.
— Verdell Jackson, Kalispell
It's your money
Montana currently has over a $2 billion surplus even after a 2021 reduction of income taxes. Rather than using this excess taxpayer money to expand government, I want to see the return of this money back to you, the taxpayer. House Bill 192 is the means to do this.
House Bill 192 directs $650 million be returned to taxpayers with individual income tax rebates, based on 2021 Montana individual income tax return. A taxpayer filing individually or married but filing separately will receive $1,250. For a married couple filing together in 2021, the rebate will be $2,500.
I believe that by supporting HB 192, we can help Montanans receive immediate tax relief and alleviate some of the financial hardship taxpayers have been facing since 2020 while also limiting the growth of government. The money belongs to you, the taxpayer!
— Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell
Latin Mass
Without any intention of turning the Daily Inter Lake into a forum for intra-religious controversy please allow me a brief response to Nancy McGunagal’s letter to the editor which expressed distaste for the traditional Latin Mass and demonstrated a perhaps careless ignorance of the role Latin has played throughout the history of the Catholic Church as well as a lack of familiarity with Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Vatican II document on the Church’s liturgy which gave pride of place to Latin.
Her effusiveness over the pastoral nature of the Second Vatican Council and her love of the vernacular and the comparatively sterile protestanized prayers of the Novus Ordo Rite coincides with a dearth of priestly vocations (excepting within the Latin Mass communities), dismal catechesis, and a pope and hierarchy incapable of fulfilling one of their most basic roles, the admonishment of sinners. Such is what beggars the question.
— Michael Boharski, Kalispell