Here’s a fun fact: Missoula is the only major city in Montana that does not own its water system. Mountain Water is owned by the Carlyle Group, a $35 billion private equity firm that purchased the utility in 2011. One condition of the sale was that Carlyle would entertain purchase offers from the city in good faith, but it has since rejected all of them—possibly as a result of ideological objections to public ownership among its executives. Under Mayor John Engen, the city has tried to buy Mountain Water for the last year, only to meet vigorous resistance from The Carlyle Group, which has simultaneously arranged to sell to Algonquin Power. It’s a tangled web, and last week the city took Carlyle to court for condemnation proceedings—a process originally projected to cost $400,000, whose combined legal fees now stand at $2 million.

That’s okay, though, because Mountain Water is a deal at any price. That’s been the city line all year, but last week an expert witness hired by same testified that the system could need as much as $95 million in capital improvements to meet industry standards. That’s more than the total purchase price we offered Carlyle last year. The more Missoula argues in court that Carlyle has mismanaged Mountain Water, the less it seems like a great idea to buy it. That’s the gist of my column in this week’s Missoula Independent, which is some hardcore local stuff but still of interest to those of you who like to see how small-town politics work. Basically, how it works is that the most charismatic dude in the city comes up with a plan, and we follow him into what is hopefully an elysian future. Or it’s a public debt dystopia—we’ll find out when we get there.

I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but all manner of crazy stuff is happening around here. From my flight to Vegas at 5am tomorrow through the novel chapter I’m supposed to finish for Write Club to the power outage in my apartment, it rains and therefore pours. Combat! blog is busier than a one-armed man in a puppet show, so it’s a good thing we’ve got publications in other outlets to amuse you. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has already noted this week’s column about the giant peace sign vandals carved into the hills north of Missoula, inadvertently destroying a unique species of wildflower. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, karaoke at the bowling alley is the social contract in action. You can see off-key dilettantes or the sheer miraculous unlikelihood of the human voice—it’s up to you. I, for one, choose wonder. Not today, though—today I choose nothing but sedulous work, so that I might enjoy deferred fun this weekend. There will be no Combat! blog tomorrow. I’ll be on a plane. But you’ve got nigh on 2,000 words to amuse you over at the Indy, and if that doesn’t interest you, you can always read a little Black Walnut. We’ll be back Monday with more patience and a tan.

It’s Monday, and I’ve got a job of work to do before I can even think about such frivolities as Combat! blog. Obviously I’m shirking, because here I am thinking about it now. But in minutes I will hurl myself back into productive composition again, with nary an internet to distract me. There is no Combat! blog today, paradoxically because I am a professional writer. While I get that paper, how about you read this rad cowboy story by Stephen King, published in the New Yorker and brought to my attention by Ben al-Fowlkes. If you have extra time, you should consider the arbitrary distinction we were taught to make between genre and literary fiction, when “literary” is obviously just another genre. That’s a whole nother blog post for a whole nother time, though, and that time is not here yet. Maybe it will arrive tomorrow.

 

Back in 2010, after more than a year of cutthroat legislative maneuvering, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. Part of that law was a provision to expand Medicaid coverage to households whose income was within 138% of the poverty level. Funding for this expansion would come entirely from the federal government until 2020, after which states would pick up 10% of the tab. In Montana, Medicaid expansion would insure 70,0000 people and bring $5 billion into the state over the next five years.

Two years ago, a bill to accept this federal money and insurance failed in the state Senate by one miscast vote. The Montana legislature meets every two years, so proponents of Medicaid expansion had time to organize before their next opportunity. Last Friday, dozens of supporters addressed the House Health and Human Services Committee for more than six hours, after which the committee voted “do not pass” on the Healthy Montana Act along party lines.

The bill will now require a 60-vote supermajority to reach the State House floor. Rep. Art Wittich (R–Belgrade) has used his chairmanship to ensure that a proposal from the Governor to comply with federal law—a proposal that enjoyed near-majority support in the last legislative session and has been endorsed by health care providers, bankers and politicians across the state—will not even be debated in the House. He must be very certain he’s right. I wrote about it in this week’s column for the Missoula Independent, which I urge you to read and then forward to him. The representative from Belgrade is active on Twitter at @ArtWittich. Drop him a respectful line and suggest that he reconsider his position. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.