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Kalispell is considering making tax increment finance funds available to workforce affordable housing projects.
In order to do so, the city’s Downtown Urban Renewal Plan and its West Side/Core Area Urban Renewal Plan must be updated to include workforce housing projects as eligible for TIF funds. The Kalispell Planning Board on Tuesday will consider amendments to those plans that make that change. The planning board meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 201 First Avenue East. Kalispell uses TIF funds within the boundaries of both plans as part of the “overall strategy to meet its needs of promoting economic development, improving area employment opportunities, improving area housing opportunities, and expanding the community’s tax base.”
16 young people are suing Montana over energy policies they say are contributing to climate change by prioritizing fossil fuel sources.
Their lawsuit asserts that Montana — by fostering fossil fuel as its primary energy resource — is contributing to a deteriorating climate and violating the children’s right to a clean and healthful environment guaranteed in the state’s Constitution. By doing so, the lawsuit alleges, Montana is interfering with the children’s health, safety, and happiness. “The state’s reliance on fossil fuels, its energy policy, its continued development of fossil fuel extraction has all led to exasperated effects of climate change,” Gibson-Snyder said. “It’s a betrayal by the government.”
Thanks to a new national suicide hotline number going into effect on July 16, hope will be closer than ever for those in the state struggling with mental health, according to Montana officials who spoke at a press event on Tuesday.
The new 988 Lifeline comes from the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020. Gov. Gianforte sponsored the bill when he was Montana’s representative in the U.S. House. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in Montana, and the state has the third highest suicide rate in the nation. The Montana fact sheet from AFSP also states, “74.91% of communities did not have enough mental health providers to serve residents in 2021, according to federal guidelines.”