Focusing on children

It's important to me that your voice is present at the legislature. All rural voters in Senate District 46 are invited to meet with me every other Wednesday at 7 p.m. via Zoom, and I encourage you to join us. Send me an email at ShannonforMontana@gmail.com and I'll be sure to get you the meeting link.

Next week we will be half way through the legislative session. This point in the session is known as Transmittal, which means all new bills must be through the Senate in time to be discussed and debated in the House before it can be voted on and head to the Governor's Office to be signed into law.

As kids learn in the School House Rock song "I'm Just a Bill," it's a tough journey for an idea to actually become a bill, then a bill to actually become law. But I know it's what you hired me to do and I'm here to work on good jobs for Montana's workers and a strong economy.

In the last two weeks we've spent a lot of time on taxes, discussing what is everyone's fair share. Serving on the Taxation Committee, I'm consistently reminded that no one likes a tax collector! Even so, we need to provide basic services like education, healthcare and emergency services.

I've been fighting the concept of "trickle down" economics: the notion of giving more tax cuts to the wealthy so, in theory, they'll have more money to hire lower income families. At this point in the session, it's clear to me that fighting these tax cuts for the wealthiest is a losing battle given the political makeup of the legislature.

I need to accept this for the time being as a basic philosophical difference. In my heart I oppose it-it feels like the rich just getting richer-and I'm diving deep into economic research that shows that kickbacks to the wealthiest do not solve problems for the poor. When these topics come up in the future, I will be ready to provide creative solutions to these debates.

Here's my thought on a step in the right direction: we invest in our families and our children. Who will be taking care of our elderly? Our children. Who will be our doctors, teachers, sheriffs, business owners and custodians? Our children. Who needs high quality childcare and preschool? Our children. And right now, with a COVID economy and people trying to work in safe environments, when they can get work, approximately 50% of families struggle to find any childcare, more and more moms and dads are staying at home or cutting back their hours.

I'm introducing a series of bills that will help provide childcare and preschool to support our working families, and I'll share more on these bills next week.

As always, feel free to call me at 406-274-3805 or email me at ShannonforMontana@gmail.com.