Holmquist backs lower taxes, property rights

Pam Holmquist’s campaign message is straightforward: she’s a conservative who believes in less government, lower taxes and fewer regulations.

The longtime Evergreen businesswoman is the Republican candidate for Flathead County commissioner. She’s challenging Democratic incumbent Joe Brenneman.

“I am uniquely qualified for this position because I am uniquely affected by the county’s ability to thrive,” she said. “What separates me is 32 years of experience running a business.”

Her ability to “crunch” a budget in both good times and bad, and save money in the good times to get through the lean times is one of her best assets in being a commissioner, she maintained.

“You know what it means to hire and you know what it means to fire. You know the real pain of having to lay off employees who are trying to support families of their own.”

Jobs will be a major issue for the Flathead Valley in the coming years, she said.

Holmquist said she believes the county needs to be courting new business and supporting existing businesses. She would create a coalition of commissioners, mayors and legislators to represent collective interests in lowering taxes and bringing jobs here.

Specifically, Holmquist wants to see the Port Authority — officially known as the Flathead County Economic Development Authority — take a more aggressive role in job creation.

The authority is financially supported through a two-mill tax levy and currently has more than $1 million to invest in future economic development opportunities.

County government should do whatever it can to support the business community, even if it’s simply a spotlight on various local businesses on the county website each month, she said.

“I believe that private-sector jobs will dig us out of a recession,” Holmquist stated.

The county budget is high on Holmquist’s priority list. She wants to review budget documents to determine why the budget was $49.1 million in 2004 and $81.3 million for the current fiscal year. Holmquist also wants to keep the county out of expensive lawsuits.

“My opponent talks about how good the county budget is, but just think about how much better it would be if we weren’t paying so much for costly litigation,” she said.

The $1 million North Shore Ranch settlement is a prime example, Holmquist said, of a case where a faulty decision by the commissioners cost the county big-time.

“You eliminate risk when you follow the rules,” she said.

The budget will dictate what can be done to improve county roads, she said.

With more than 1,100 miles of county-maintained roads, there’s no way to pave or curb dust on all of them. But the cost-sharing program seems to be working well, she said, and rural special improvement districts could be a tool, provided there’s neighborhood buy-in.

Roads are a big issue with county residents, but so are property rights, Holmquist has found in her door-to-door campaign.

From those comments she has developed a “property owners bill of rights” she would like to see incorporated into the county growth policy when it comes up for review in 2012.

“I would make sure that we have individual and community buy-in on any regulations we put on a property,” Holmquist stated.

She has been following the negotiations that have been ongoing since March for planning control of the Whitefish two-mile area known as the “doughnut.”

“These people living in the doughnut need representation and the fact that anyone would take it from them is wrong,” she said. “I support Commissioner Dupont’s effort in trying to clean up the mess and find a solution.”

Dupont worked with a committee that developed a compromise that gives the county veto power over any new laws initiated by Whitefish that affect the doughnut.

Protecting water quality in the Flathead has been an important issue for Holmquist for years, evidenced by her 14 years of service on the Evergreen County Sewer and Water District board.

And it’s not just about quality, she noted; it’s also about water quantity and preserving water rights so they “aren’t undermined by the federal government or Indian tribes,” she said.

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