Skees, Hammerquist vie for open Whitefish seat

Editor’s note: Early voting for the general election begins Monday, Oct. 4, the first day that absentee ballots will be available. Election Day is Nov. 2.

In House District 4 — a Democratic stronghold for the past six years — Republican Derek Skees of Kalispell and Democrat Will Hammerquist of Whitefish face off for the seat held by Democrat Mike Jopek.

Jopek is not running for re-election.

House District 4 includes the city of Whitefish up to Glenwood Road on its north side. It’s bordered to the south by the Kalispell Elementary School District line and includes a portion of the Whitefish Stage Road and Montana 40 area west of Half Moon Road.

Skees, vice president of R. Porch Construction, doesn’t live in House District 4 but does business in Whitefish.

“I have a million dollars of business going on in this district,” he said, noting that he buys the majority of his building materials in Whitefish and half of his work force and many of his subcontractors live in the district.

If Skees could sell the spec home he was forced into when the recession hit, he would move to Whitefish, he added.

The race offers voters “two diametrically opposed viewpoints,” Skees said. In his eyes, his opponent represents the state’s view of how to solve problems while he comes at issues from a private-sector, conservative tack.

He’s got a plan worked out to deal with what he deems “deficit spending” by the current administration.

“The state is spending $20 million to $30 million more per month than it takes in,” Skees said, based on information he gleaned from the legislative budget office. “It’s obvious we’ll be in the hole.”

He advocates eliminating the state’s current bookkeeping system in favor of more modern accounting practices that would simplify the process and make it more transparent. He would eliminate a budgeting mechanism that essentially creates slush funds for state departments and also would do away with baseline spending, a system that forces departments into a kind of use-it-or-lose-it system.

“The key to good government is to have it work like a business,” Skees said.

He favors privatization and believes the state budget has to be trimmed by 40 percent because it has ballooned that much in the last decade even though Montana’s population has remained at just under one million people.

“The bottom line is government is too big,” he said.

Skees doesn’t favor legislative intervention in the medical marijuana ballot initiative that Montana voters approved in 2004.

“We should do it as a referendum and put it back to the people,” he said. “I’m not trying to pass a hot potato, but the Legislature doesn’t have the right to step on the sovereignty of the people of Montana.”

Skees said he doesn’t want more DUI laws on the books but instead wants existing laws more stringently enforced.

He would address the property tax reappraisal problem by rolling back appraisals to two or three appraisal periods ago.

Then legislation should be passed to prevent the state from seizing property if property owners can’t pay their taxes, he suggested, adding that homeowners could work out payment plans with the state.

He would support a sales tax because it’s an all-inclusive, impartial tax, but under three conditions: All other taxes would need to be abolished; the size of state government would need to be reduced before setting a tax rate; and the tax rate could only be changed by a ballot initiative, he said.

Skees would eliminate the business equipment tax.

He has worked at a grass-roots level in the Republican party since 1998.

“Aggressive, bold, dynamic things need to be done,” Skees stated. “The status quo won’t make it.”

Hammerquist’s view of state spending is opposite of Skees’ stand.

He pointed out that Montana is one of only two states in the U.S. that’s in the black.

“For the past eight years Montana has been a prudent fiscal manager,” he said. “We’ve got a good track record.”

That’s not to say budgeting won’t be tight in the coming years, Hammerquist acknowledged, but he believes a balanced budget “is a task we can accomplish.”

He would like to see $250 million in the state’s reserve again.

He won’t support a budget that cuts funding for education, though, and wants more money moved into scholarships and classrooms rather than into school administration.

Hammerquist, who tapped into the political arena at a young age, sees room for streamlining state government.

The Department of Corrections is one area where cuts could be made by “bending the arch” from full-blown incarceration to more cost-effective programs for offenders such as house-arrest monitors, he said.

Hammerquist has developed a “Reinvest in Montana” program that would use the $800 million coal tax trust fund to partner with Montana-based financial institutions to provide business credits to Montana businesses. He supports a two-year suspension of the business equipment tax but doesn’t believe it should be eliminated because it would place an unfair tax burden on homeowners.

He would like to boost start-up businesses by refocusing existing programs such as Made in Montana and encourage more small-business training.

Hammerquist wrote his senior thesis at MSU on the Montana state budget and is a staunch believer in bipartisan budget principles.

Regarding a statewide sales tax, he said that based on past legislative sessions it doesn’t seem to be a feasible option. He would support expanded local-option taxes, though, and pointed to the benefits Whitefish has reaped from its 2 percent resort tax.

The medical marijuana issue needs to be dealt with in the coming legislative session and Hammerquist is intrigued by Maine’s program to split the state into regions and then assign one licensed nonprofit provider for each region.

During his time as director of member services for the Montana Contractors’ Association, he pushed for the open container law that took effect in 2005. He’s impressed with a drunk-driving program used in South Dakota that’s being tried in Montana’s Lewis & Clark County, in which DUI offenders are required to get daily sobriety checks.

“They’ve seen dramatic results,” he said, adding that a vehicle ignition interlock requirement even for first-time offenders would be a good idea.

Hammerquist said he’s got a good track record of “getting things done” in Montana. Specifically, he pointed to his work to include Haskill Basin and Whitefish Mountain Resort in legislation to protect the headwaters of the North Fork, and his work to help get the Military Family Relief Act passed.

“I feel I have the experience and perspective to be effective in this position,” he said. “I’m a better voice for Whitefish.”

Derek Skees

Republican

Age: 42

Family: Wife, Ronalee; two sons, a daughter, two grandchildren.

Occupation: Vice president of R. Porch Construction

Background: Graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1986. Associate’s degree in history plus additional college credits at University of Central Florida. Became youngest manager in district in Florida for UPS where he worked until 1998 when he returned to Montana. Member of Whitefish Rotary, Assembly of God Church, Toastmasters. Active with Tea Party movement, committee chairman of constitution study committee of Freedom Action Rally.

Website: www.derekskees.com

Will Hammerquist

Democrat

Age: 30

Family: Fiancee, Rebecca Edwards

Occupation: Glacier program manager for National Parks Conservation Association

Background: 1998 Flathead High School graduate; 2000 Flathead Valley Community College graduate; degree in political science from Montana State University; director of member services for Montana Contractors’ Association 2003-04; Yellowstone County field director for Schweitzer/Bohlinger gubernatorial campaign in 2004; policy adviser for Office of Lieutenant Governor, 2005-07; spent semester in Guatemala working at faith-based orphanage in 2001; volunteer for Glacier Institute.

Website: www.willhammerquist.com

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