Letters to the editor Oct. 5

Property tax rebate

With extended weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer has railed against the application process for Montana’s property tax rebate. So far, 180,000 Montanans figured it out. It took us five minutes. The check is in the bank.

And then his acolyte Monica Tranel chimed in, crying wolf about the upcoming “killer” jump in property taxes. In fiscally responsible Flathead County, both spending and property taxes are actually slated to drop.

These Democrats must take Montana voters for fools.

Rather than howling at the moon and wasting their time and our newsprint with laughable scare tactics which only insult our intelligence, perhaps they could focus instead on delivering an electable slate of candidates designed to not repeat their recent legislative super-minority debacle.

We would all be better off. And someone clearly has too much time on his hands.

— Andy Palchak, Kalispell

Defense funding

I appreciate Lola Zinke’s concern, disgust, for those who did not vote for the Republicans’ defense funding bill (Our heroes deserve better, Sept. 28)

However, this was a Republican bill. Republicans hold the majority in the House. They could and should have been able to pass the bill with no Democrats’ help. I doubt any Democrats were asked their opinions, or if the Republicans would have made any changes that would have made the bill more appealing to Democrats. (Democrats had many valid objections.)

I took offense that Mrs. Zinke called out Democrats and did not list our very own Matt Rosendale as one of the five Republicans who did not support the bill.

— Susan Repa, Bigfork