HD 7: Health care, tax issues dominate three-way race

Name: Frank Garner

Age: 58

Family: Married to wife Teresa for 40 years, three grown children

Occupation: Security consultant

Background: Raised in Kalispell, graduate Flathead High School and Flathead Valley Community College. Former Kalispell police chief, worked as hospital security chief and now works privately in consulting.

Contact: frankgarnerhd7@gmail.com

Name: Nicholas “Nick” Ramlow

Age: 37

Family: A 5-year-old son

Occupation: President of Nicholas Ramlow Construction LLC and founder of the Sheriff Assistance Program that allows sheriffs to “draw from a volunteer pool when needed.”

Background: A Marine Corps veteran who graduated from Marine Corps Engineering School. Worked as an electrical systems technician before starting Nicholas Ramlow Construction LLC

Contact: n.ramlow@outlook.com

Name: Ross Frazier

Age: 33

Family: Single

Occupation: Purchasing expeditor

Background: Kalispell native. Graduated High School in Manhattan, Montana, as a National Merit Scholarship finalist. Participated in Congressional Student Leadership Council for International Relations in Washington, DC. Was a summer intern for Sen. Max Baucus. Earned a degree in economics from Willamette University with focus on environment economics, international relations, and Chinese studies. Post-grad studies include Mandarin Language Immersion at Fudan University, Shanghai, ESL teacher Beijing, CN.

Contact: rrossfrazier@gmail.com

Three candidates are vying for the House District 7 seat that represents Kalispell, with each individual bringing to the table a unique set of experiences and backgrounds that extend well beyond the political realm.

Incumbent Frank Garner, a Republican who has held the seat for three terms, will be joined on the Nov. 3 general election ballot by Libertarian Nicholas “Nick” Ramlow and Democrat Ross Frazier.

Garner, a former Kalispell police chief who now works privately in consulting, is running for re-election on the notion he will “fight for common sense solutions to Montana’s biggest issues.”

During his time as a legislator he has been a direct or primary sponsor on more than a dozen passed bills, including ones focused on balancing the state budget while still making significant infrastructure investments and improving access to life-saving medications.

Garner, 58, was raised in Kalispell, graduated from Flathead High School and later graduated from Flathead Valley Community College. He has been married to his wife, Teresa, for 40 years and they have three children.

Ramlow works independently as the president of his concrete construction business, Nicholas Ramlow Construction. The 37-year-old said his single most important policy platform is “to develop a system whereby the taxpayers of Kalispell, both Democrat and Republican, can, in practice, flip Uncle Sam the ‘bird’ and opt out of funding programs that they consider egregious.”

Ramlow, a father of one, said his background is mostly made up of “a series of experiential learning through hard knocks.” Prior to starting his company, he spent several years as an electrical systems technician and graduated with leadership honors from the Marine Corps Engineering School.

Ramlow’s background instilled in him the importance of self-preservation and independence — something he believes local communities should focus on enhancing as well. In support of this, he recently co-founded the People’s Rights group, a national organization focused on “uniting neighbors to defend their families, faith freedom and future,” according to its website.

Finally, Frazier brings a bit of a different background to the race than the other candidates — one that is decorated with political experience and foreign relations.

As a younger student, the Kalispell native participated in Congressional Student Leadership Council for International Relations and interned under former Montana Sen. Max Baucus. He earned a degree in economics from Willamette University with a focus on environment economics, international relations and Chinese studies. His post-graduate studies include mandarin language immersion at Fudan University in China.

The 33-year-old works as a purchasing expeditor and is focused on fighting for climate action, policing and criminal justice reform and affordable health care, among other policies.

ALL THREE candidates wish to see small businesses prosper. But the candidates differ across the board on issues surrounding health care, the state’s COVID-19 response, tax systems and budget spending.

Garner was a legislator in 2019 when Republicans and Democrats extended the state’s Medicaid expansion for six years, but with a new work requirement for non-exempt adults.

“While we wait for federal reforms to the Affordable Care Act, we must use the tools we are given to ensure Montana has the resources to provide access to health care for Montanans with limited financial resources,” said Garner, who supported Medicaid reform legislation. “The former Medicaid system provided a perverse incentive to people that sometimes encouraged them to make less money in order to receive health-care coverage.”

Frazier said he fully supports both Medicaid and Medicare and “any other policy that would expand quality health care for Montanans.” With many businesses either employing workers who qualify for Medicaid or providing health-care insurance to them, he said “it’s clear the system needs to change.” Also, he has a particular interest in addressing health challenges for youth.

Ramlow, however, is a critic of the lawmakers’ 2019 decision. He said a proposal for Medicaid expansion is essentially a proposal to “support taking resources from a healthy young population in the workforce” and then transfer those funds to “an industry that has [been] propped up under Medicaid expansion.”

Also on the topic of health care, when asked if the state has used its federal CARES Act dollars for COVID-19 aid and relief properly, Ramlow said Montana should instead have used the funds to investigate whether COVID-19 is manmade. And should that investigation find the virus is “derived from institutional malpractice,” then CARES Act resources “should be used to bankrupt the institutions responsible.”

Garner, on the other hand, said he believes more of the CARES Act funds should “be focused on promoting small business success and growth,” and that officials “should dedicate resources toward positively reinforcing health practices in our schools and across the communities.”

Frazier said the spending has been appropriate thus far, emphasizing that “while other states now struggle in the absence of further federal support, ours [Montana’s] is still well-funded.”

LOOKING FORWARD, state and local tax policies are expected to be a top priority among legislators for the 2021 session. The current tax structure leans largely on revenues from oil, gas, mineral and timber production.

While Ramlow said he would not support a state sales tax, he does believe the state should revise its tax structure. He emphasized individuals need to be “empowered with free agency” and the ability to opt out of funding programs they do not agree with.

“We need to relieve businesses of the burden of being unpaid tax collectors and transfer that responsibility to its proper station, the individual,” Ramlow said.

Frazier would also not support a state sales tax until options had been exhausted.

“There are so many other ways we can expand our state revenue without levying a sales tax,” he said. As a few examples Frazier suggested legalizing and taxing marijuana and repealing “massive and unnecessary tax breaks for top earners in Montana from the 2003 session.”

Meanwhile, Garner takes issue with the state relying “increasingly on property tax to fund local governments and income tax to fund state government.” He said the state is capable of managing responsible, environmentally sound resources extraction, while still promoting alternative energy solutions and added “we must look for balance in our revenues that does not increase our total tax burden or promote growth in government.”

ALSO ON the fiscal front, when asked about the state’s budget spending priorities, Garner said while he believes Montana is in a relatively healthy financial position in terms of the state budget, there will likely be reductions in state revenues in the upcoming session that will challenge certain priorities among lawmakers. Montana will be required to tighten its budget belt, he said, in the same way many Montanans have had to amid the current economic environment.

“As a three-term legislator I know this is not the year to have to learn on the job and it will require people with the experience and knowledge necessary to make hard decisions in our limited 90-day session,” Garner said.

As for Ramlow’s take on the state's budget spending priorities, he said what Montana spends money on is of less concern to him than how it derives its resources in the first place.

“With an individual’s ability to opt out of funding programs they consider egregious, what the state should or should not spend money on becomes self-correcting by the many individuals acting independently and according to their own tastes and preferences,” Ramlow said.

Finally, Frazier described the budget as being “completely backwards.”

He said he would push to increase state funding for climate mitigation programs, 21st-century infrastructure including rural broadband, public higher education, mental health and more. At the same time, he would focus on ending “needless tax breaks and credits to ‘bad-actor’ multinational companies” and costly subsidies to fossil fuel and mining interests.

“It’s time we make our government work for us,” Frazier said.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com