House hopefuls differ over education, taxes

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

In the race for House District 5 this fall, voters have a clear choice between Republican incumbent George Everett and Democratic challenger Linda Jaquette when it comes to school funding.

And voters may decide between Everett's stance to soften the hit from property taxes or Jaquette's intent to make taxes fair and equitable.

"We need some way to alleviate the property taxes," Everett said. The Kalispell legislator suggested relief through a tax credit for families' medical insurance or increased deductibility.

He also supports an acquisition-based system of figuring property taxes. Taxes rising one or two percent "would be allowable, but 10 or 20 percent is just too much … That kills owners with recreational properties," he said.

"I'd even support a sales tax. If most out-of-staters and new Montanans want to make Montana a recreation or zoo state, we've lost our tax base. So we need a sales tax," he said, but it should be rebated to those who pay Montana income taxes.

The biggest concerns in his district, he said, are affordable housing and high property taxes.

"Young people just can't afford to live here. When you take away development rights or turn property into open spaces, you take away land," Everett said.

He advocated dedicating portions of open state lands to affordable housing. On such parcels as the 13,000 acres near Whitefish, he would "take some of that and let the younger people and older (fixed-income) people live there."

Jaquette, a Columbia Falls-area homeowner in her second run for office, conceded taxes are "a necessary evil," but wants to ensure everybody pays his or her fair share.

She supports Gov. Schweitzer's plan to rebate some of the half-billion-dollar state budget surplus to the people of Montana instead of out-of-staters, and his plans to use $100 million of it to reduce the teachers retirement system deficit.

But she also would invest in local business, including alternative energy sources, agriculture and tourism.

"Let's grow Montana businesses instead of bringing in out-of-state business. We need to support small businesses," she said, with such programs as health insurance for those with five or fewer employees.

Jaquette also would raise the minimum wage so workers can support families.

She opposes CI-97 - a ballot measure that, before being declared invalid in this election, would cap state spending.

"It would hamstring us," she said, citing reports of disastrous results from a similar measure in Colorado. "And it's already in our Montana Constitution that we have to balance the budget."

Everett supports CI-97.

"The last session increased the budget by the largest amount in history. We just don't need that," he said. "Half of the Montana budget is funded through federal subsidies, and the federal government is in deep debt so you've got to expect that money will run out eventually."

On education funding, Everett advocates pulling in the reins on state spending for both the university system and local public schools, saying they need to show more restraint themselves. He does not support the Republican proposal for increased tuition funding for higher education.

"I believe that there has to be some kind of reform within the system," he said. "I believe right now we are at 45th or 47th in the nation on per-capita income. More money does not constitute a better education. They say education will bring us more economic growth. It just doesn't seem to be doing that."

Likewise, with what he said is 85 to 95 percent of K-12 school budgets going to wages and benefits despite decreasing enrollments, that system needs reform instead of more money. Competition through vouchers for private schooling could pressure public schools into improving, he said.

Jaquette, however, says the state should make education one of its highest priorities for investing in the future.

"We need teachers to take care of" students, she said. "Our children are our most valuable resource and we need to keep them here."

Education, taxes, the economy, even hunting and fishing, all are wrapped into her district's biggest issue, she said - growth overall.

Citizens must "turn off the TV and go do something" to affect grass-roots issues, she said.

"People need to get involved at the community level," said Jaquette, who has been heavily involved with zoning issues near her own property. "Things trickle up as well as trickle down. People need to invest in their own future … And I think it starts at the individual level with zoning."

She plans "to learn more when I get [to the Legislature], be well informed, to listen to what my constituents want, to put that ahead of what I want."

And she plans to follow through with action.

"Accountability is a big thing to me," Jaquette said. "I expect a lot from people I elect, and I'm willing to give it."

Everett is working with public-defender laws to get civil hearings for the indigent, with natural-resource issues in legislative committee and "basically less government," he said.

He's pro-life, he said, and believes in moral responsibility.

"I believe in the individual and the person's dignity and freedom … I believe in free enterprise and fiscal responsibility, but I also believe in personal responsibility, so I believe in taking care of the needy but [by giving] a hand up rather than a handout," Everett said.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com