House District 5

By JOHN STANG/Daily inter Lake

Montana's House District 5's two legislative candidates differ on taxing philosophies - more along nuanced positions rather than flat-out for them or against them.

House District 5 includes the Central Flathead Valley area between Columbia Falls and Kalispell. Rep. George Everett, R-Kalispell, is not running for re-election due to term limits.

Republican Keith Regier of Kalispell wants to trim corporate taxes, arguing less taxes will boost business and job growth. He also wants to lower employers' payments to the state workers compensation program to make Montana more competitive in attracting businesses.

Meanwhile, Democrat Jake Pannell of Columbia Falls believes a state sales tax should be explored - with caveats that this tax would be limited as well as tied to a decrease in property taxes. He argued this will decrease the tax burden on homeowners.

Pannell also supports an extra tax to support statewide 911 coordination efforts - as long as they are funded by a combination of federal, state and local sources. Montana's individual 911 centers should be set up so all meet the same state standards, he contended.

Last session, the Montana House Republicans, with a slight majority, adopted a blanket no-new-taxes stance that stalled budget talks - rightly or wrongly, depending on one's outlook on the state's finances and specific tax-supported programs.

Both Pannell and Regier oppose creating of a local option tax in which individual counties and cities would be allowed to charge limited sales taxes on some items and services within their boundaries.

The Kalispell City Council and Montana League of Cities and Towns plan to push for a local option tax in the upcoming legislative session, arguing this choice is needed for individual local governments to help balance their budgets. Whitefish already as a resort tax that does this same thing and Bigfork is exploring the benefits of a resort tax.

But Regier and Pannell argue such a set-up likely would result in Montanans paying an extra tax in one spot, and not paying it literally across the street in another jurisdiction - contending that would be unfair.

Regier also contended that a local option tax would add to already-high property taxes.

On school funding, Regier believes more money should be allocated to education and teacher salaries, while the Legislature should look at trimming state jobs added in the past couple of years.

Both candidates believe that the school funding formulas need to be re-examined and possibly overhauled.

And both Regier and Pannell believe more should be done to develop Montana's oil and coal sectors to provide more money in order to improve the state economy.

"Doing nothing [on coal and oil] is only going to compound problems, and we've been doing nothing for too long," Regier said.

Pannell said people complain to him the most about high fuel prices - "the biggest economic killer in Montana."

"There is no quick fix [to the state's economy. … in the short term, we need to start drilling. If choosing between the environment and getting fuel costs down, people are going to go with gas prices," Pannell said.

Also on the economy, Regier supports converting Montana into a "right-to-work" state, in which unions and employers would be not be allowed to make union membership or dues-paying part of a condition of employment.

Pannell has discussed with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester a proposal to provide low-income houses for veterans in which state land would be set aside.

The low-income houses would be built possibly with some self-help work, which also would boost the timber and construction industries, he said.

Pannell speculated if Montana gets such a program under way, it could be copied by other states.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com