Public lands, business climate nucleus of HD3 race

The race for House District 3 features two candidates focused on creating living-wage jobs within the district, which stretches across the western half of Glacier National Park from the Canadian border past Essex. The district also contains Columbia Falls, which in the last year saw 200 jobs relocate to Evergreen and a Superfund site designation at the shuttered aluminum facility.

Democrat incumbent and Columbia Falls native Zac Perry is looking for re-election to his second term. He said the upcoming legislative session will likely gravitate around jobs and the economy.

“It seems to be on the forefront of everyone’s mind, being able to protect the living-wage jobs we have,” he said.

Perry was born and raised in Columbia Falls, and currently works at O’Brien’s Liquor and Wine and as a substitute teacher in the area school district. He’s a 2001 Notre Dame graduate with a degree in international relations.

Perry considers himself a blue-dog Democrat. If elected again he’d like to help make policies that bring more employers to the district. His next item of business is maintaining access to federal public land.

“It’s been a long part of our heritage and way of life,” he said. “It’s a big reason why a lot of folks live up here and raise a family.”

His opponent, Republican Taylor Rose, has never run for office but would hardly fit the category of newcomer with 10 years of political involvement. Rose worked the last legislative session as an assistant to the Senate majority and Montana GOP regional field director for Northwest Montana. He’s also worked as a Capitol Hill reporter for World Net Daily, a conservative online news source.

Rose was raised in Marion, graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia with a degree in international relations and recently moved from Marion to Columbia Falls. He currently works as a bartender in Kalispell.

“I love my home,” he said. “I know what’s going on in the rest of the country and how it pertains to Montana.”

Taylor has work with the group Youth for Western Civilization at Liberty University and authored the book, “Return of the Right: How the Conservative Movement is Taking Back Western Civilization.” Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Montana Human Rights Network assert ties between Rose and white nationalism ideology.

Rose refutes those claims as slander.

“These statements are inaccurate and not grounded in fact,” Rose said. “They’re grounded in the motivations by these leftist groups who slander those who disagree with them. I would demand for them to present evidence rather than slander and I’d rather get back to the issues and talk about those issues.”

Rose said refugee resettlement in Montana has accounted for a large percentage of the conversations he’s had with constituents when campaigning door to door. He said he opposes unvetted refugee resettlement and would rather focus resources on veterans’ needs.

“For the time being, no money to refugees. Other problems come first,” Rose said.

Rose comes into this year’s election with a few other specific items in mind. Much like his opponent, the first is bringing living-wage jobs to the area.

The next is in regard to public land access, which he said should be transferred to state control. While opponents of a federal land transfer say the state would have trouble funding land management, Rose contends the state could generate those funds by managing the land with proper mineral and timber extraction.

“People tell me that we couldn’t manage the land. That’s hilarious,” Rose said. “(Federal control) is bottom of the barrel management. We could do better.”

“I think it would be a huge tax burden for the people of Montana to manage a huge transfer of public lands,” Perry said. “It would certainly be reasonable for a small tract of land to see how that would work, but deciding to have a big transfer would be irresponsible and risky.”

Both Perry and Rose agree on creating a welcoming business environment in hopes of drawing new companies and retaining employers that are already here, like SmartLam, a Columbia Falls-based manufacturer of cross laminated timber. However, Rose and Perry differ on how they would achieve this goal.

“I think one of the obstacles for SmartLam was the business equipment tax,” Perry said. “If we could get rid of that tax altogether… You would have to figure out where to backfill, where to get that revenue you’re getting rid of. But that’s part of the discussion and I think that would keep them in the community and thriving.”

Rose said he would like to see the property tax phased out in Montana, and revenues instead generated by taxing business output.

“We should tax on the industry and take the burden off the working man,” Rose said. “If we had natural resources, we could be taxing that. But instead we’re passing the buck to working families.”

Perry also added mental-health access as a personal mission for the next legislative session if re-elected. In 2015, Montana’s suicide rate was double the U.S. average.

“Montana needs to make mental health one of its priorities,” Perry said. “As far as our health care infrastructure, strengthening access to mental health care and practitioners. There’s a lot of ways we can address that issue. It’s a matter of having that discussion and taking action rather than just talking about it.”

Rose said if elected, he would dive into wildlife management policy, looking to curtail the wolf and grizzly bear populations with more tags available at lower prices, and higher quotas set by the state.

“Constituents have told me that they’ve had puppies and dogs killed by wolves,” Rose said. “Outfitters are seeing changes in elk patterns. I’m not asking for the extermination of the wolf, but I am looking for restoration of balance that we don’t have right now.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.