District 7 candidates looking at Montana's future

Democratic candidate Lynn Stanley is challenging Republican incumbent Frank Garner in the House District 7 race.

While the candidates may disagree on the issues, both are concerned about the future of Montana and its residents.

“I worry about the future of the state and the future of our kids. I want my kids to have the same opportunities I have,” Garner said about why he is running for another term.

Garner, 54, currently works as chief of security for Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

This is not the first time Stanley, who is retired from a publishing career, has run for office. Stanley, 68, campaigned for House District 8 in 2014, but ultimately lost. Her main reason for running again is to represent working families and bring forward issues in Helena that affect their lives.

“I believe it’s important we carry the Democratic message out there for people to hear [that we are] supporting our community and supporting the most vulnerable in our community,” she said.

Stanley believes Montana is in good shape, but with a few wrinkles.

“I think for a state of only 1 million people ­— and with all of this land — we are in a pretty good fiscal condition,” Stanley said. “Our state is rated one of the most fiscally prudent. We come out every session with a balanced budget and a rainy day fund.”

She said the “wrinkle” is that coal, oil and gas production is down, affecting the state’s revenue streams.

“Individual taxpayer revenue is up, which means people are working and wages are growing. I think there’s both good news and challenging news on our fiscal horizon,” she said.

Garner painted a different picture. He said the budget will be tight next session.

“So if we’re going to do our job delivering services we have to contain costs, and we better do a good job of diversifying where that income comes from,” Garner said.

Garner said one untapped source for generating revenue is visitors and tourists using Montana’s services and infrastructure, but was against implementing a sales tax.

Both Garner and Stanley cited drugs and drug-related crimes as another challenge to tackle in the next session.

“I think we need more and better mental health and drug treatment, rather than bigger jails for more and more people,” Stanley said.

Delivering additional services to a growing aging population is a “huge challenge” facing the state, Garner said.

“Crime from substance abuse takes away from resources to help that aging population,” Garner said.

As far as improvements to address property taxes in western Montana, it’s a matter of simplification according to Garner.

“We have an unbelievably complex property tax system and it has got to be simplified,” Garner said.

Stanley’s focus would be on improving the property tax system so that it is sustainable for residents of different income levels — particularly the working and middle classes.

“We live in a place where there’s considerable pressure from people outside the area who want to come in and they’re able to pay higher prices and it’s market driven here,” Stanley said.

Raising the state minimum wage was another issue where the candidates differed.

Stanley said she would consider raising the minimum wage in stages as a realistic way for large and small businesses to attract and maintain a labor force. Garner said he wouldn’t consider raising the state minimum wage because “the market does a good job determining what those costs should be.”

Both candidates thought the state should maintain a “rainy day” fund. Garner said $100 million to $150 million is an appropriate amount to maintain and the rest should be returned to taxpayers.

Each candidate thought the reason an infrastructure bill failed last session was primarily because of the way it would have been funded through a mix of bonds and cash. Stanley said she is in favor of funding coming from a mix of bonds and cash and believed this is where Republicans and Democrats differed.

Garner said he voted in favor of the infrastructure bill because “I thought it was the best bill we could produce. Our inability to pass one the past two sessions, as a state, is not going to help our infrastructure needs.”

In the area of education, Stanley is a proponent of Gov. Steve Bullock’s proposed state-funded “preschool for all” program.

“There are studies and studies in Montana that show reading level at third grade correlates with having attended pre-K, and high school graduation rates correlate to pre-k attendance,” Stanley said, noting that it’s a voluntary program.

Garner doesn’t think there is enough data to support that a state-funded preschool program provides a return on investment. Garner said he’d rather invest the money in upper grade levels.

The conversation about whether or not to transfer federal lands to state control continues in Montana. Garner is a proponent with certain guarantees and Stanley opposes the idea primarily for financial reasons.

“I’d rather talk to someone in the grocery store about how we manage our public lands than someone in Washington where they don’t know where Kalispell is,” Garner said. “Having said that, we need two things. First, assurance those lands would stay public; I’m not interested in selling. And second, we do a comprehensive financial analysis on what the costs and benefits are.”

Stanley said having the state manage more lands would have repercussions in regard to the state budget and public access.

“I think that would be another weight on our state budget we just can’t afford. I think well-founded fears would result in some privatization and selling off in order to maintain the rest and that’s a threat to public access,” Stanley said. “I believe that all citizens throughout the United States have invested in our federal lands and they really belong to everybody.”

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.