Page 23 - Flathead Beacon // 12.9.15

HELENA
4. NorthWestern Underestimates Tax Hike After $900M Dam Buy
NorthWestern Energy o cials said on Dec. 7 they won’t appeal a nearly $23 million increase in this year’s Montana property taxes that the company had underestimated by several million dol- lars. Instead, its customers will foot most of the bill.
Public Service Commission members questioned NorthWestern and Depart- ment of Revenue o cials about the tax increase, expressing frustration about the amount and the utility’s ability to simply pass it on to its customers.
The increase is primarily a result of NorthWestern’s $900 million purchase of 11 hydroelectric dams last year from PPL Montana. The dams boosted the NorthWestern’s assets and drove up its stock price, which factor into how the utility’s taxes are calculated, Revenue Director Mike Kadas said.
“NorthWestern paid considerably more than what we had valued that prop- erty at under PPL ownership,” Kadas said.
Under PPL, the department had val- ued the dams at between $500 million and $600 million, Commissioner Roger Koopman said.
The revenue department originally gured the amount NorthWestern owed in property taxes this year is $137 mil- lion, compared with $99 million paid in 20014. The nal amount was reduced to $122 million after utility and agency o - cials met.
NorthWestern had budgeted for a $17 million property-tax increase, attorney John Alke said. That’s about $5 million below the nal amount.
NorthWestern’s customers will pay for between 60 percent and 76 percent of the tax increase. That will amount to about a 4.5 percent increase in the typical elec- tricity customer’s bill and a 4.9 percent average increase for natural gas custom- ers, Alke said.
HELENA
5. Medicaid Expansion Enrollment at
10K Weeks Before Rollout
After an initial rush, the rate of people signing up for the state’s Medicaid expan- sion program has slowed as health care o cials prepare for next month’s rollout.
Federal health o cials approved Mon- tana’s program last month, making the state the 30th to expand Medicaid to the working poor under President Barack Obama’s A ordable Care Act.
Federal approval was needed because the state’s program will require recipi- ents to pay premiums and co-payments, and the program will be administered by an outside company.
About 5,500 people signed up during the rst week of November, when enroll- ment opened. Since then, an additional 5,000 people have enrolled, Jessica Rhoades of the state Department of Pub- lic Health and Human Services told the committee overseeing the expansion last week.
Department director Richard Opper said the initial rush showed “a pent-up
need” for the program. Now, o cials across the state are working to sign up more of the estimated 70,000 people who are eligible. “There are people working nonstop on this,” Opper said.
Montana’s program is the only one in the nation that will be administered by an outside company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana.
BOZEMAN
6. Montana State Introduces New
Football Coach Je Choate
New Montana State football coach Je Choate says his philosophy focuses on character, accountability and toughness.
“The high standards of personal con- duct and academic success that are estab- lished at this university are going to con- tinue,” Choate said on Nov. 7 at his intro- ductory news conference.
Choate comes to MSU after two sea- sons as defensive line coach and special teams coordinator at Washington. He also was an assistant to Chris Petersen at Boise State and has been an assistant at Florida, but said his one season with Eastern Illinois made him realize the FCS is what college football is supposed to be.
“The beautiful thing about coaching at the FCS level is there is some perspec- tive,” he said. “At Montana State we can really keep the student rst. When they look back in 15 years, it’s not going to be the things they did ... the thing they’ll remember is who they become as a result of this experience.”
He said he would continue to enhance MSU’s reputation as a strong program in the classroom, in the community and on the eld and he respects the rivalry with “the team over the hill.”
“My objective here is to build a team to win,” while also preparing the stu- dent-athletes for their life after college, Choate said.
Choate listed Butte natives Mick Den- nehy and Mick Delaney — his coaches at Montana Western — as mentors. Den- nehy and Delaney both served as assis- tants at Montana State and later head coaches at Montana.
BILLINGS
7. U.S. Senate Panel Delays Vote on
Blackfeet Water Agreement
A U.S. Senate committee vote on a bill to nalize a water rights settlement with the Blackfeet American Indian tribe has been postponed until early next year.
A spokesman for bill sponsor Sen. Jon Tester of Montana says a vote scheduled last week was put o to allow for contin- ued negotiations between the tribe and the Interior Department.
The proposed Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement Act would establish the tribe’s right to water within its northwestern Montana reservation. It’s co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
A prior version of the bill introduced two years ago was opposed by the Obama administration, in part over concerns with its $420 million price tag.
The settlement has been in works for more than three decades. It was approved by the Montana Legislature in 2009.
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DECEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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