Three-way race will determine next state senator

The top vote-getter in the three-way Senate District 6 Republican primary race effectively will be the person to go to Helena next year, because there are no Democratic candidates in the race.

The contest is between Carmine Mowbray, the incumbent who was appointed to the seat last year, and challengers Rep. Janna Taylor, R-Proctor, and Polson area businessman Michael Larson.

Mowbray said she’s committed to the race out of an interest in public service.

“I’m very passionate about seeing improvements to Montana’s economy,” she said. “I’ve always valued public service and my 38 years of Montana business experience gave me experience that’s very relevant to serving my district in the Legislature.”

Montana’s regulatory climate is problematic for the private sector and Mowbray wants to do something about it.

“Business needs an advocate with the courage to resist regulations that strangle free enterprise,” she said. “Compared to other western states, Montana is the least attractive to business due to our regulatory environment. I want to see permitting that is more effective and less punitive to our resource industries and I would support legislation to reduce obstructionism.”

For example, she said she would support legislation that would require litigants to pay for court and attorney costs in cases they lose.

Mowbray sees considerable promise and statewide benefits from resource development in Eastern Montana.

“The state lands that have coal on them, that’s going to pour [revenue] right into our school system,” she said.

Mowbray said she also would like to see the state adopt a simpler tax system, particularly with property taxes.

The last reappraisal cycle was harmful to taxpayers, she said, and the Legislature passed seven bills to alleviate that harm — but most were vetoed by the governor.

One, for instance, would have required the Department of Revenue to include foreclosure properties as “comparables” in assigning values to similar properties.

She said the Legislature needs to continue pursuing a market-based way of assessing state cabin lease sites, “otherwise there will be more and more abandonments.”

She favors performance-based budgeting rather than “baseline budgeting” that allows for automatic agency spending increases from one year to the next.

She said the state’s $3.4 billion pension fund liabilities need to be addressed from several angles. New employees should perhaps be required to increase contributions, the retirement age may need to be raised and  a new system where new hires should be required to enter 401(k) type plans also should be considered.

Asked how she differs from the other candidates in the race, Mowbray said: “The main difference is I have 38 years of successful Montana business experience in timber, banking, printing, publishing and commercial property management.”

She added that she is one of the few legislators to decline state medical and retirement benefits. “I’m not doing this for personal gain.”

Janna Taylor is term-limited after representing her House district for eight years, a period in which she says she has learned the ropes to be effective in Helena.

“I’m running so that Montana can be a place where there are good jobs for our young people, where seniors and veterans and in fact all Montanans can thrive,” she said. “I’m interested in reducing taxes, especially property taxes.

She notes that she was part of the effort to kick back $237 million in property tax relief in 2007, and she said the Legislature should consider some form of property tax relief next year, possibly using a budget surplus that has grown to $440 million.

“We can use some of that surplus,” said Taylor, who also likes gubernatorial candidate Corey Stapleton’s idea of eliminating the state’s 95-mill levy, lowering property taxes across the board by  20 to 25 percent and replacing that money with increasing revenues from natural resource development.

She wants additional reforms to the state’s property reappraisal process, but she said significant reform will require a constitutional amendment.

Regarding the state’s pension fund liabilities, she said she was the only lawmaker to put forth a solution to the problem, but it died in the Senate. Since then, however, the governor has proposed a plan that includes elements of her legislation using revenues from resource development.

“I’m in favor of sensible resource development. I’m for the Keystone pipeline because of the on-ramp at Baker,” she said, referring to a facility that would allow Montana oil to access the pipeline.

Taylor wants to see a simplification of Montana’s regulatory process.

“A permit should mean go to work and not get a lawyer, and because of that I believe in tort reform,” she said, adding that she believes environmental litigants should have to pay if they lose in court.

“I’d like to reduce the business equipment tax and for corporate tax rates to be similar to those of our neighbors,” she said.

Taylor claims she is the “true conservative” in the race. She points out that Mowbray was one of only two Republican legislators to oppose a bill that would  tighten standards and prevent schools from adopting “radical sex education” curriculums.

Polson businessman Michael Larson says he is running precisely because the other two candidates are too conservative.

“The main concern is I feel that Senate District 6 and the Montana state Senate needs what is referred to as a sensible conservative senator,” he said. “My opponents are very conservative and I feel that the majority of citizens in my district, and the fact that we’re on an Indian reservation, we need a more moderate person to get the peoples’ business done.”

He said Gov. Schweitzer vetoed a record 79 bills that were part of a misguided GOP agenda.

“They just didn’t get things done. The Republicans had a great opportunity ... and they got stuck in this far-right, non-flexing ideology, and both of my opponents were part of that,” he said.

“That’s why I ran. I am a leader and I feel I’m the only one in this race to be labeled that: Somebody who can go to the left and right and gather information and use persuasive dialogue and get things done, and that was absent,” he added.

Larson said improving the state’s employment picture would be a certain priority.

“The most obvious need is to be able to manage and more unrestrictively use natural resources,” he said.

But Larson also believes that education is an important component in the economy.

“I’m really big on our trade schools, our community schools,” he said. “If you want good-paying jobs that’s probably your best return on investment ... The good part is most of those jobs won’t be exported. The people who come out of those schools will be meeting local employment demands.”

Larson said the state’s $440 million surplus is excessive, but “we shouldn’t shoot from the hip” in deciding what to do with it.

“We should look at things we weren’t able to fund,” he said.

Directing some of the surplus to the state retirement fund liabilities may be justified, he said.

“If we can use some of this money to help out with that obligation, we should take a look at that,” he said. “The number one thing is we have to remember whose money it is. It’s the taxpayers’ money. It’s not a slush fund.”

Because of his experience in owning and managing an office furniture business since 1985, Larson said he would be “a strong small business advocate.”

And he does not view his lack of legislative experience as a liability.

“The thing I have going for me is I haven’t been there,” he said.  “What’s needed in Helena is a true, passionate leader who can listen.”

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