5/23/2007

Over my head.

There is someone over at the Tribune forums who keeps posting links to this blog with reference to the coal plant. This person operates under the pseudonym "Watching MT."

Recently, this person posted a link to and the body of my post entitled "Is it really our money?" A bright fellow (gal?) named "shrub" offered a response:

"WatchingMT, I'm glad you were quoting someone else in your post, because who ever wrote that is clearly in way over their head. It reads like an opinion in search of an argument.

As I see it, the city's share going down is a good thing. It lowers our risk while still giving major customers access to a reasonably priced power supply.

That, to me, is the only reason the city should be involved in the coal plant. If we can leverage the plant to give a potential employer cheaper power, we should go for it. That power may be the difference in that company choosing Great Falls over other potential locations."

Um, yeah. I'm over my head. I am analyzing financial contributions numbers given to me by the City staff in light of the actual language of the Bylaws of SME, and some "shrub" talking out his or her a$$ knows where it's at. Ok.

And William "Shrub" Gates the Third is also fine with our 'ownership interest' bouncing around like the sphere in the old Red Ball game at Borries. And he or she is just fine with the chance that we might be paying 25% of the cost to buy 15% of the ownership. He or she thinks its just dandy that City of Great Falls taxpayers are going to subsidize the development costs of a power plant for a bunch of folks in Billings and Bozeman (not to mention the power costs of several giant corporations).

Because "hey!", we're going to "leverage" our investment of something between $108,000,000.00 and $170,000,000.00 to give a potential employer cheap power. (Never mind that for $108,000,000.00 we could pay 48 people $75,000.00 per year for thirty years, before including interest income). Never mind that our unemployment is rate is damn near effectively zero. Who cares where the money goes, as long as we can say it's for jobs.

You tell me who is in over their head. My guess is that the aptly named shrub works down at the West end of Central Avenue.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Posted this at the Trib

WatchingMT

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 6:43 am

Post subject: Weighed and found Wanting - sorely so!

Dear Shrub,

Your demonization as opposition to Geeguy's facts have been weighed in the measure and you are found sorely wanting.

1) Where is your legal and financial analysis based upon files of public record?

2) Where is your documentation of any legal and financial opinion you hold?

3) What have you done as a private citizen, at your own personal expense, to back up your analysis?

Montanans are not idiots. Montana taxpayers are sick and tired of coarse, bullified opinions without justifcation or documentation.

Taxpayers just want facts, which Geeguy continues to present from the "required by law" City Bureacrat's files. Until you do the same, your opinions, in comparison to his, are of little consequence.