“Smile everybody, we’re running the place,” said a Republican legislator from Bigfork on the day that his party elected their leadership for the 2023 Montana Legislature.
He was right. The session in 2023 would be made up of a Republican supermajority, with the Montana GOP holding over two-thirds of the seats in the House and the Senate, as well as the Governor’s office. They had the power to pass whatever legislation they wanted without a single Democratic vote. That also gave Republicans the entire historic $2.5 billion surplus to spend as they saw fit. Want to know how they did?
HB 221 reduced the tax collected on stock market profit. The richest 1% of people own over 90% of the stock market. Republicans passed that bill transferring $20 million of your taxpayer dollars every year to the richest Montanans. They did this instead of making sure every student in Montana schools can afford to eat during the day, which would have also cost about $20 million a year.
To go along with that handout to the ultra-rich, my Republican colleagues also raised taxes on the hardest-working and lowest-earning workers in the state. They passed SB 399, which established income tax on tips so that tipped Montanans pay even more in taxes. I introduced a bill to give a 14% raise to 50,000 of our state’s lowest-paid workers, but Republicans killed it on a party line vote.
On top of all of that, Republicans kicked over 120,000 people — a full 10 percent of our state — off their health insurance through Montana Medicaid and Healthy Montana Kids. Working families and small businesses rely on this coverage to keep folks in the workforce, so not only will this health care purge result in millions of dollars less in our economy and local hospitals, but in worse health care outcomes (like death or preventable disability) for Montanans.
We have the worst starting salary for teachers in the nation. Many of our rural schools cannot find teachers from Montana, or even from the United States. Schools across the state are looking at laying off teachers and other folks who work to educate our kids because the GOP failed to adequately fund our public schools.
I hope Montana homeowners have filled out the extra paperwork needed to get their two-time-only property tax refund check, because Republicans killed Democrats’ long-term property tax reduction for the middle class. By kicking the can down the road on property taxes, the GOP has made sure that homeowners and renters will be paying more, while giant corporations, like the state’s largest power company, get massive tax cuts.
Still miffed that the citizens of Montana passed recreational marijuana, Republicans passed laws making it harder for voters to pass laws by initiative.
Republicans blew through the $2.5 billion surplus. Our property taxes are way up. Working Montanans are increasingly paying more. Schools are cutting staff and programs. Our workers are moving. But at every chance, Republicans in the legislature sided with giant corporations over working families.
So, I again agree with my colleagues across the aisle. No matter how much they might try to shift the blame, Republicans are solely responsible for making this the most expensive Montana has ever been. So I happily give the Montana GOP full credit — for driving the ship directly into the rocks.
Let the news come to you
Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more.
