Matt Rosendale, a Montana candidate for U.S. Congress, released a new ad this week which shows him pretending to shoot down a government drone. Not only is he seen shooting down a fake government-owned drone, he goes on to say:
The federal government is too big and too powerful. More taxes and regulation put Montana families out of work.
I'm not sure when the last time Matt Rosendale looked at the Montana state budget, but federal dollars account for
almost half of the entire state budget:
The state’s Legislative Fiscal Division recently released its final analysis of the budget passed by the legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, which shows that in addition to again growing the state budget by double digit percentages, federal dollars now account for over 46 percent of spending in the main budget bill, HB 2.
Although Montanans have a long tradition of considering themselves independent, these budget numbers highlight a long-running trend of the state taking huge sums from the federal government.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
In fact, Montana receives $1.77 for every $1.00 that it pays into the government. And that's not all:
In addition to receiving a disproportionate amount of federal money, Montana also uses several taxes to shift tax burdens onto out-of-state visitors and tourists. While the state is one of the few without a general sales tax, it does levy a seven percent lodging tax on hotel visitors.
In addition, a handful of smaller communities in the state — like Whitefish and West Yellowstone — also levy additional resort taxes of two to three percent on some goods and services. Communities must meet certain guidelines established by the state in order to be allowed to charge the resort tax.
So, the federal money that runs the national parks and generates huge financial gains for the state, also generates millions in tax revenue on the backs of visitors.
Does Matt Rosendale or any Montana Republican really want big government out of Montana? Seems like that would be worst-case scenario for all residents of Montana.