My plans if re-elected

In my previous letter, I talked about what we did in the last legislative session. For the next two letters, I wanted to talk about what I plan to do if re-elected to continue serving you in the Legislature.

First and foremost, we need to repair the damage to the State Budget from the Special Session. We need to repair the Health and Human services budget, that’s case management, that’s early intervention, disability services and Medicaid Reimbursement rates. We also need to repair the Higher Education budget.

The good news is that the Governor’s revenue estimate, which he used to call the Special Session, turned out to be nonsense. Revenue actually came in $1.2 million over what the Legislature estimated in the 2017 regular session, so we have the revenue we need to make a responsible, balanced budget that funds our essential services without needing to raise taxes on Montanans. In the regular session, we proved that we could put Montana’s budget on a sustainable path, slowing the growth of government without raising taxes. We need to carry those results forward.

Next, I have been talking with folks throughout the district and legislators throughout the state about how we can start to address the overwhelming tax burden here in Missoula County and across Montana. While I do not think we can get everything done next session, I think we can start by addressing one of the biggest problems with Missoula Democratic tax policy at the city and county level by providing property tax relief for Montana’s seniors.

This is a population that has contributed, through their taxes, to the growth in Montana throughout their entire lives and they face the most drastic consequences of Missoula’s current tax policy, often having to sell their homes because although their houses are paid off, their property taxes are as much as if not more than their mortgage payments were.

Property taxes typically make up 22 percent of state revenue. I think we can lower that to 20 percent without affecting essential services, providing real relief where it is needed most.

We also need to prevent Democrats in the legislature from raising taxes. In the 2017 session, my friends on the other side of the aisle brought more than 18 separate tax increases, many of which were increases to the Montana’s various sales taxes. I was proud to help lead the fight against these tax increases and we were able to stop every single one of them.

But Democrats plan to bring them all back again next session and we will have to have that fight all over again. Preventing these tax increases is a way that we can at least keep the tax burden on everyone else down while we work to provide relief to our seniors.

We also need to continue our work from the last legislative session when it comes to infrastructure. Helping to improve Montana public safety through improving our roads, bridges and schools in a deliberate way without causing a backlog of projects which then puts too much stress on our future budgets.