Rising property taxes

-The median Montana residential property owner will pay about 21% more on their taxes this year than they did last year, with typical increases ranging between 11% and 35%, according to a Montana Free Press analysis of revenue department data.

Increasing size of government and its spending

-The Legislative Fiscal Division of Montana listed more than 200 bills introduced in 2023 that would impact the state's General Fund. This spending totals 5.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money. That's about $250 million more than lawmakers can approve without going into debt.

Push for central bank digital currency and the end of financial privacy

-According to Statista, as of June 2023, 11 countries have adopted central bank digital currencies with 53 more being in advanced planning stages and 46 researching the topic. Our own central bank, the Federal Reserve has openly discussed such options.

Fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money:

• Federal Level:

  -Senator Rand Paul's most recent Festivus Report highlighted $900,000,000,000 of waste, including an NIH grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill, millions to Dr. Fauci's NIH monkey farm, millions going to promote tourism in Egypt, $200 million to ‘struggling artists’ like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne, and millions to study black and yellow labrador retrievers getting hot on walks in the summer, just to name a few...

• State Level:

  -The State of Montana Generated a surplus of tax dollars in 2023. To be specific, 2.5 billion dollars more than "normal," according to the government's own records. And wouldn't you know it, many in congress felt the need to create new bills to help spend our tax money. To be fair, some voices in our legislature demanded that money be given back to the taxpayer. But many looked for ways to spend it, according to Montana Free Press.

Inflation

-According to the Mises Institute, from 2020 to 2022, the Federal Reserve increased its balance sheet from $4 trillion to nearly $9 trillion. Our federal government oversaw this and that is why we are facing incredible inflation problems.

Affordable Housing

-At the start of 2020, the value of a typical home in Montana was $282,277. According to Zillow, it is now $453,567, a leap of 60% in price. Housing shortages across our state have also driven prices up due to the laws of supply and demand.

Education

-According to the Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, nearly 1/3 of Americans cannot name all three branches of our government. Likewise, only 5% of the U.S. adults surveyed correctly name all five First Amendment rights. If you don't know what your rights are, how would you know if someone violated them?