Meet the candidate: Lyn Bennett, Republican for HD-5

Lyn Bennett

Party: Republican

Family: Married with three children.

Occupation: Registered Nurse working in high-risk obstetrics, newborn nursery, neonatal care, and maternal-fetal medicine.

Community involvement: I am currently serving as the president of Glacier Country Pachyderm. A part of our mission is to promote active citizen involvement and education in government and politics. I am also on the board of the local Flathead Republican Woman’s group. I enjoy helping with activities for Youth and volunteering for various activities across the Flathead Valley.

What are the top issues you would like to see addressed in the next legislative session?

Property taxes and policies to keep taxes from increasing. I plan to work with other legislators in order to protect the community from being taxed out of their private property. Property taxes are akin to mortgages that only grow and can become so burdensome that home ownership can become impossible to achieve or maintain. With the increased prices of gas, food, and utilities it is hard for the middle class to thrive. The increase in property taxes also leads to an increase in rental properties and perpetuates housing that is not affordable.

Some ideas for lowering property taxes are to use a portion of the bed tax which could be returned to the cities and counties where it is collected and used for property tax reduction. We could look at taxing wind and solar in the same way as coal and use those dollars to lower property tax.

Obtainable housing is an important issue to address. Gov. Greg Gianforte’s housing tax force is a good resource for possible solutions. Some ideas are too fast-track the permit process, lowering impact fees, allow for accessory dwelling units, and relax some of the excessive local zoning and regulations.

I am for protecting our students and helping them excel by protecting their parents’ rights.

I am for safe communities, and for supporting our police and law enforcement.

I will work for policies that increase access to our public lands, promote common sense conservations, and ensure public lands work for the benefit of local communities.

I will honor and promote pro-veteran legislation.

I am pro Second Amendment.

I am for creating a cleaner environment through energy independence.