House District 6

By LYNNETTE HINTZE/Daily Inter Lake

House District 6 voters may feel a little sense of deja vu on Nov. 4. Two of the three candidates vying for that seat ran against each other two years ago. And the third candidate is taking his fourth run at a legislative seat.

Incumbent Bill Beck, R-Whitefish, is seeking re-election. He's running against Democrat Scott Wheeler of West Valley, who challenged him in 2006, and Constitution Party candidate Timothy Martin of rural Whitefish.

Martin ran unsuccessfully for representative in 2000, 2002 and 2004 in House Districts 7 and 77 and since has moved to House District 6.

House District 6 includes the area north and west of Whitefish to the Lincoln County line. It also includes rural areas west of Kalispell and north of Marion.

BECK SAID property taxes and education seem to be the biggest hot-button issues as he knocks on doors in his rural district.

"I've made it a point to go to all the schools in my district," he said. "And the feedback has helped me. They want more local control and I think it's doable. It's a matter of OPI [Office of Public Instruction] letting up a little."

Beck believes the funding system for education needs an overhaul.

"Schools run local levy elections and that shouldn't be," he said. "The funding formula needs to be fixed."

He opposed all-day kindergarten funding not because he was against it, but because he wanted the $29 million allocated instead to classrooms across the board.

Beck said experience from working in various capacities for the District of Columbia for more than two decades has given him the foundation to understand the kinds of problems Montana faces. As a first-term representative he served on the House Appropriations, Joint House and Senate Budget and Legislative Audit committees, along with the Information & Technology Board.

"It's given me insight as to what's going on," he said.

Beck supports legislation that returns surpluses to Montana households and said he'll work on legislation for property-tax reform and relief.

"I'd still look at a permanent property-tax reduction like we tried to get through last time," he said, adding that he wants to make sure property can be passed to family members without extreme taxes.

He favors abolishing the business equipment tax.

"Anything we can do to make Montana more business-friendly, we should do," he said.

Beck, a Navy veteran, is a big supporter of veterans issues. He's been working for years with the Save Old Main Association to get the Old Main building preserved at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls and was the driving force behind an effort to reroof the historic building.

He would like to see it converted to a veterans clinic and pharmacy so that some veteran services provided at Fort Harrison could be moved to the Flathead.

Beck voted against expanding the Children's Health Insurance Plan because there were close to 800 vacancies in the existing program.

"Let's fill what we have first and let's make it equitable to everyone," he said.

WHEELER said he brings the kind of leadership to the table that's needed to move the state forward.

"I didn't see a willingness to work hard and in a cooperative manner across the aisle" during the last legislative session, he said, referring to the bipartisan bickering that defined the 2007 session.

Wheeler spent 30 years "trying to solve practical problems in the Army," and would apply that experience to represent House District 6. He has knocked on 1,300 doors so far to talk with voters.

He favors capping property taxes and would support an initiative similar to California's Proposition 13, which capped property-tax increases at 1 percent per year. Montanans shouldn't be forced out of their homes by rising taxes, he said.

Wheeler said there are fundamental differences between him and Beck. Beck voted against increasing the Children's Health Insurance Plan; Wheeler supported the expansion, saying "it's very much a working family's program.

"It helps small businesses if workers' children have health care," he added, pointing out that the federal government covers 80 percent of the cost.

Wheeler wants to eliminate the business equipment tax because it hinders businesses from investing in equipment and thus limits the increase of high-paying jobs in the state.

It's critical for the state to assume full responsibility for funding education, Wheeler said.

"In the 1990s, the state shifted a large part of its obligation to support education to school districts," he said. "This increased local property taxes."

Progress has been made in education-funding reforms, but it still needs tinkering "in a polite, sane way," he said.

Wheeler predicts gravel pits will continue to be a big issue in the next legislative session. He said he's not against gravel pits, but laws must ensure that neighborhood plans can be followed. One law proposed but not passed during the last session would have required 50 percent of landowners to agree to petition gravel-pit proposals for redress.

"That would've made it impossible to have neighborhood plans," he said. "They were narrowing the rights of property owners.

Wheeler said he would defend citizens' rights to access lakes and rivers and wants laws to fully protect Montana's waters, aquifers and clean air.

Martin said his message this time around echoes what he's said the three other times he ran for the Legislature on the Constitution Party ticket. His No. 1 objective is to curb government spending.

"That's the main reason I'm running - to stop the spending. I won't vote on any increase in taxes, no matter what. Spending is out of control and it's time for some relief.

"The two-party system has failed us. It doesn't matter which one's in control; the Republicans are even bigger spenders than the Democrats. We have to get back to a constitutionally limited government, with limited spending. Someone has to put the brakes on."

Martin doesn't believe the government should be involved in social welfare programs. For example, he doesn't support the Children's Health Insurance Plan. Health care is "gobbling up" the state budget, he maintained.

Social welfare programs should be left to charities and church organizations, Martin said.

"Sooner or later these matching-fund programs will dry up," he said, leaving those who have come to depend on them in the lurch.

"If we can cut some of these social programs, we could reduce taxes to the point that businesses would flood into the state," he said.

Martin would repeal the property tax and replace it with a sales tax.

"I don't like the idea of the state having a lien on my property," he said. "If I don't pay it [the property tax], then the state takes away my property. It happens all the time. I think a sales tax is inherently fairer.

Martin said one way to provide adequate funding for education is by consolidating some of the state's 457 school districts. By reducing the administrative costs of running so many districts, the state could afford to pay teachers more and compete for quality teachers with neighboring states that pay much more.

He believes his tenacity is well-suited to being a legislator.

"I'd be the squeaky wheel," he said. "I'm also pigheaded. I won't bend."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com