Letters to the editor April 4

Electoral College’s value to Montana

Jim Elliott’s view of the Electoral College is surprising, since Montana’s 1 million-plus population puts it No. 45 in ranking if Americans were to cast a popular vote for president. When it comes to what is of equal value, America’s constitutional model gives every state an equitable governing position in the Senate. The Electoral College represents, and helps to implement, that policy.

Elliott is correct that statewide offices call for a simple popular vote.” But the president serves as the CEO of the federation of states No other office crosses borders and speaks for the whole.

Calls for more “equal” representation ignore the obvious: POTUS stands for “President of the United States.” Every state holds two popular elections, primary and general, for president. State electoral votes give voice to the jurisdiction that speaks for those voters.

In the 2020 election a Montana voter cast one in 603,000 votes. If thrown into a massive national stew, that vote would have been one in 155 million votes. Just exactly how would that make anything, or anyone, more “equal”?

While Common Cause may support the national popular vote bills, 35 of the 50 sovereign state legislatures, including Montana, specifically oppose it. If the national popular vote were to take effect, it would face numerous court challenges.

The Electoral College builds a legal wall around every state for tabulating votes. Recall the 2020 election tabulation controversies in a handful of states. Thanks to the Electoral College, the 20 states that border the ones in question were unaffected by the disagreements.

— Roberta Schlechter, Portland, Ore.

Consequences of septage slurry

During a period of time while serving as the public health and safety for a county we were approached by several septage haulers requesting authorization to apply raw septage to agricultural lands. Some were proposing soil injection, but many wanted indiscriminate dumping on these designated lands. 

Our county had recently established the permitting and application of class A biosolid residues from King County Metro. There is a slew of materially legitimate concerns for class A biosolids that range from concerns over odors, long-term effects on soils, impacts on wildlife, sheet migration of groundwaters that may affect wells, streams and saturated soils. As our ordinance addressed those issues with limits on pathogens, ovum and bacteria -— backed up by strict application densities per acre and wide frontage setbacks from public access, streams (active and intermittent) and ponds, with timely incorporation into soils, those issues were ameliorated. 

Septage presents several similar concerns, however the very nature of septage slurry applied to croplands opens Pandora’s box for unintended consequences. Septage contains higher levels of nutrients that left exposed invite vermin, aviary and waterfowl visits, which in turn bring food chain predators that would be consuming the consumer’s. 

Then of course as the wet septage is spread the moisture levels increase in the soils that will transmit the oversaturation into ground waters by sheet migration along the easiest routes, making contaminations of ponds, streams and rivers. There is no question that septage disposal is a problem here to stay, however this fiscal fiasco is just kicking the can down the road as farmlands suitable are quickly disappearing through tax base grabs by planning and development. The same problem is facing the use of landfills as populations grow.

— Norman Nunnally, Columbia Falls

Road maintenance

 Will a win for county road maintenance result in a loss for wildlife?

Senate Bill 442, a high point of collaboration in the 2023 Legislature, saw support from 130 of our 150 lawmakers. This is quite a feat considering the division in our world, and a reminder that Montanans can still work together when allowed. Senator Lang’s SB 442 builds off the good work done in the 2021 relative session around recreational marijuana tax allocation in a way that benefits all Montanans: providing permanent property tax relief for disabled veterans and their spouses, public access road maintenance, and to fight drug addiction – while still keeping 20% for habitat protections plus new tools for habitat enhancement. 

Unfortunately, the bill has become embroiled in controversy due to poorly timed vetoes, and now, a clash between legislative leadership and everyone else.

But now, our legislators have a chance to override this veto.

The hang-up appears to be centered on the county road maintenance part of the funding since rural counties stand to gain a disproportionate amount of the revenue; but that’s the whole point. 

As a sportsman who resides in Kalispell, it’s important to me that our rural counties containing our large tracts of public land and block management areas — the places we all go hunting — get appropriate funding for road maintenance. When it rains, it’s not locals in eastern Montana out tearing up roads. It’s the people like me that come from Kalispell, Missoula, Bozeman, etc. That’s why I’m OK with tax revenue going to help improve roads in rural counties: we all benefit from it.

Montanans have been perfectly clear that they want to see SB 442 become law, and western Montana lawmakers should vote for the veto poll override and most importantly, return their ballot on time.

— Ian Wargo, Kalispell