Gubernatorial hopeful aims to transform Montana

Republican gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone says “a radical political transformation” is necessary to bring about meaningful changes for Montana, and he contends that his main opponents are about “business as usual” for the state.

Livingstone and his running mate, state Sen. Ryan Zinke of Whitefish, told the Daily Inter Lake editorial board this week that if elected they would be “stepping on some toes” and may not be very popular in their first couple of years with entrenched interests that thrive on the status quo.

Both Livingstone and Zinke paint a dire picture of the state’s economic health, saying that Montana’s business climate needs to be reshaped to turn things around.

“I’m fearful for our country and our state,” Zinke said.

LIvingstone, a successful businessman and author from Helena, pointed out that Montana currently has the 47th-lowest per-capita income in the nation, a telling economic indicator.

“We should be one of the richest states rather than one of the poorest states in the country,” he said.

Like the four other GOP candidates who have filed for the governor’s race, Livingstone said the Treasure State’s natural resources are so abundant that Montana should be in a position similar to Wyoming and North Dakota, but it isn’t because of a “job-killing regulatory environment” and constant resistance from environmental groups in developing natural resources.

“We do not need the state to be run by 200-plus elitist environmental groups,” he said, citing efforts to block development of the state’s Otter Creek coal tracts in southeast Montana as an example.

Zinke said the business climate in general should be far more competitive with surrounding states, and he believes that Montana’s Labor laws are archaic, stretching back decades to when there were conflicts between big mining companies and labor unions.

The state’s business equipment tax, for example, may have been appropriate for big industrial companies but now the state’s economy is driven by small businesses with expensive high-tech equipment.

“To pay an equipment tax on a $150,000 machine is a big deal” for those companies, said Zinke, a businessman and retired Navy SEAL commander.

Livingstone also sees a need to push back against a federal government that has hurt the state with policies ranging from wolf recovery to the recent denial of permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project he says would create 2,400 jobs in Montana.

“We have to, in my judgment, stand up to federal encroachment,” he said.

Livingstone said development of oil resources in Eastern Montana will happen, and the state needs a governor who will get in front of the problems that will come with that development, especially infrastructure impacts on Eastern Montana communities.

To do that, the state must advance development to capture revenues that will help those communities.

The state needs “energy development and the real revenues that come with it,” he said.

While former Montana Congressman Rick Hill is often referred to as the Republican frontrunner, Livingstone maintains that Hill’s appeal has not changed from when he entered the race and that he is hardly a lock in a multi-candidate field.

He made it clear that he regards Hill as an “the establishment” candidate who will be adverse to meaningful change, and that he considers himself and Zinke to be “blue collar Republicans.”

“We are going against the establishment, and I think the establishment on both sides has lost purpose,” Zinke said. “If you are comfortable with the way it is, then we’re not your candidates.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.