As Montana looks to gear up for another legislative session, I’d imagine newly elected lawmakers will be looking for all sorts of ways to spend the money flowing out of the Bakken oil field communities, despite the needs that exist in the Bakken communities themselves.
Maybe the 2013 session of the Montana Legislature could fund a new indoor surf park in Helena…why not? They’re building one with taxpayer dollars in Williston, North Dakota, as Rob Port with SayAnythingBlog.com reports:
Back in 2011, voters in Williston, North Dakota, cast their ballots in favor of a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the cities parks. Keep in mind that Williston is in the heart of the Bakken oil boom, and that sales tax revenues in the city have grown dramatically as a result.
Committing that amount of revenue to parks in a city where growing road, sewer and water infrastructure to keep up population growth has been a challenge has always seemed a little insane to me…Williston is building, with funds from this sales tax increase, what is being described as the largest municipal water park in the nation complete with an indoor surfing facility.
In other political entertainment news, I was really hoping Senator Baucus had the opportunity to have dinner with Steve Harvey, but it turns out he was actually out wining and dining with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner according to The Washington Post.
Tim Geithner and Max Baucus dining at Palena Tuesday night with their wives. Table in the back. Turns out they were celebrating the Montana senator’s 71st birthday.
Would you like some tax hikes with your sea bass?
Photo of Palena from TripAdvisor.com:
