Mike Jopek

Whitefish

Full time farmer. Three decades growing garlic and local food on our small family farm near the 49th parallel north. Montana columnist for Flathead Beacon

Featured in: Favicon

flatheadbeacon.com Favicon

missoulacurrent.com Favicon

bozemandailychronicle.com Favicon

laureloutlook.com Favicon

bigforkeagle.com Favicon

lewistownnews.com

Articles

Ginger Ale or Cold Smoke

1 week ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

Sure a lot of cars out there again. Slow season must be over. Memorial Day weekend and all. The snow is about gone from the face of The Big. People have clearly arrived. Maybe they never left. I was in town, out on farm errands, and got overrun by the non-stop line of traffic. Left turn season is over. It’s hard to fathom where everyone was headed. Not that I much cared, it’s a public road, and all the license plates were sevens anyway, part-time local maybe, yet plenty of workers headed home.
Not for Sale - Flathead Beacon

3 weeks ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

Like an AMC Rambler in an ice storm, they’re driving the economy into the ditch, I scoffed to myself. Just look at your retirement. No don’t. It’ll just make you pig-biting-mad. We need the new Pope’s level of divine faith to keep believing that eggs prices or most real foods will get cheaper anytime soon, particularly with the nations’ import taxes shifting every other week. The chaos is sure to leave store shelves and home cupboards emptier. Life got outrageously expensive in the past few years.
Talking with Homeowners

1 month ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

The morning star was out. The moon but a finger nail on the eastern horizon. I was up early in route to Butte to meet old friends and chat with locals about homeowner taxes and why getting qualified for reappraisal relief would really matter come next year. The drive was longer than I recalled months ago when I agreed. What a big gorgeous place we live in, I remind myself, hardly leaving the farm these days. It’s spring and farm work is big this time of year.
Spirit of 76 - Flathead Beacon

1 month ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

State lawmakers are close to done, home soon explaining to locals where they’ve been all winter and what they did about the 2025 property tax reappraisal notices that’ll hit mailboxes come June. The 2023 state property tax increase on homes was huge and remains unfixed. Decades ago, Montana was patient with me and my House and Senate colleagues by answering boxfuls of questions about property tax reappraisal.
One Million Acres

2 months ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

Two decades earlier Brian Schweitzer, not yet a candidate for governor, raised his pocket-sized state Constitution in front of hundreds of locals gathered to voice concern at a public meeting about the sale of state public lands in the Flathead. The Judy Martz administration was in town peddling Spencer Mountain to a developer. The plans were drawn and public land owners were mad as hell. This was our land, said so right in our Constitution.
Hard of Hearing - Flathead Beacon

2 months ago | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

Maybe Montana politicians don’t hear well. Maybe they have no personal understanding of what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. Many make decisions based solely upon a weekly paycheck. Should we pay the rent, buy groceries, pay the power bills or insurance with this week’s paycheck? The truck’s been on empty all week. Nothing in Montana is getting cheaper. No minimum wage job pays enough to cover the median rent in Montana, never mind buying food.
The Jobs Lie - Flathead Beacon

Mar 5, 2025 | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

The morning woke as the sky turned a deep, dark blue. I stared at the fading stars and thought about the week prior. Montanans were getting fired, livelihoods stolen. Nearly 5,000 public lands employees in the West got fired without good cause. Voters chose the same guy to lead us who previously held the worst job record since the Great Depression. He subsequently put the richest man ever on a firing streak, stripping workers of their paychecks, livelihoods, and careers.
Eye-popping Numbers

Feb 19, 2025 | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

The headline in the Beacon read, “Steady Growth Expected to Continue in the Flathead Valley.” Economists expect steady local growth despite persistent inflation and high interest rates. High prices, inflation, or interest rates won’t stop newcomers from buying up Montana. Get in line locals, maybe costs ease someday and you can afford a home. Meanwhile, lawmakers seek to reduce top-end state income taxes to lure more migration to Montana. More growth, higher values equal more state property taxes.
Tricky Coyotes - Flathead Beacon

Feb 5, 2025 | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek

The Legislature is in Helena for another three months and your wallet is unsafe. Keep your freedoms secured, fairness is defined by Montana lawmakers. I was once sequestered in Helena gladhanding fellow lawmakers, isolated away for my hometown locals, and stuck debating with hundreds of lobbyists, day in and night out. I get the twisted sentiment people feel toward politics, especially now that I’m on the home side of the Capitol, back on the farm for so many years.
Hope is No Plan - Flathead Beacon

Jan 22, 2025 | flatheadbeacon.com | Mike Jopek |Kellyn Brown

Four of Whitefish’s best, our local firefighters are in California for a nearly three-week shift to fight the most destructive urban firestorms in American history. Our neighborhood heroes left our small town to help the tens of thousands of Americans suddenly homeless as firestorms ravage Los Angeles, devastating lives and putting everyone nearby in grave danger.