Workforce woes vex local businesses

Local business owners and state representatives met with the Montana Chamber of Commerce Wednesday afternoon to discuss how to reinforce Flathead Valley businesses.

The Bigfork meeting at Glacier Bank was part of the state Chamber’s 20-stop tour around Montana to learn about what businesses need.

Heather Burnham with the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce said the village had an extended tourist season this summer. But, she said Bigfork is facing the same issue weighing on businesses across the state.

“There’s a lack of a workforce, and people leaving and people not wanting to do the jobs that we need to fill,” she said.

State Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, said a lack of workers concerns him as a representative and as the owner of The Bigfork Inn.

“I just put three Jamaican girls on an airplane to go back to Jamaica because I can’t find any American kids that want to wash dishes in the summer,” Keenan said. “We’re chasing away business in my restaurant because I don’t have the employees to take care of the people.”

The meeting came a day after a jobs report by the state’s Department of Labor and Industry predicted a “looming worker shortage.” The department predicted that in the next decade, there will be at least 120,000 retirements among the state’s baby-boomer population.

Overall, only 4,500 workers will be added to the economy each year — roughly half the workers needed to fuel the 2015 growth of roughly 9,200 jobs, according to the report.

As a result, job growth will be slowed as businesses search to fill positions.

WEBB Brown, the state chamber president and chief executive officer, said the organization had formed a strategic plan to work toward filling in some of the gaps Montana businesses face.

He said past plans have shifted every two years in preparation for next year’s state legislative session. He said Invision 26 is a 10-year plan that aims to use government resources and community collaboration to meet business needs.

He said through roughly 322 bill drafts for the 2017 session, the state Chamber hopes to assist workforce development, reduce the cost of business in Montana and develop infrastructure.

“As we travel around the state … many times we see the most common sign in storefront windows is not ‘opened’ or ‘closed’, it’s ‘help wanted,’” Brown said.

The Chamber is looking at bills that support communication between schools and businesses to ensure future Montana generations are trained to fill workforce gaps across the state.

He said the strategic plan also includes an annual assessment of workforce needs from business owners.

Brown said infrastructure proposals brought before the Legislature will go beyond buildings and include more money directed toward roads and bridges to connect isolated or hard-to-reach trades.

He said the Chamber also hopes to reduce business pressure by trying to eliminate the business equipment tax.

KEENAN said it would be a hard session to eliminate taxes.

At the end of the last legislative session, the ending fund balance for the state’s $10 billion fiscal-year 2017 budget was projected to be $314 million — an amount that now has been cut by $166 million. That means the upcoming Legislature will face a balancing act, Keenan said.

“You’re promoting eliminating the business equipment tax, which will take $170 million out of the general fund. Where is that money going to come from?” Keenan asked Brown.

Some participants in the room said the money could be found in excessive or redundant state spending.

State Rep. Randy Brodehl, R-Kalispell, said the Chamber has to outline bills early. He said last session, the Chamber produced an infrastructure bill too late in the 90-day process, which caused resistance from a Legislature balancing a budget.

“The executive directors have already presented their budgets this year … they’re already racing into this,” he said.

Brodehl, whose district includes Evergreen and northeast Kalispell, also owns a cabinet shop in Kalispell. He said it’s important to create business bills that blend laws with the intent of executive leadership.

“If we don’t, we’ll be right back where we are — 70 bills that are vetoed and no traction on good business law,” Brodehl said. “As a business owner, I watch it, I see it everyday and I come into this session thinking this is a make-or-break for us, for small businesses.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.