Freedom Caucus refused to advance governor’s agenda

As elected Senators, we believe it’s our job to do two things: Deliver on the promises we made to our constituents and do our job to the best of our abilities. That means showing up day in and day out, throughout the entire legislative session, so we can make the best decisions possible for Montana. 

Sadly, some senators in our party decided they didn’t want to provide real, immediate property tax relief for Montanans. So what did they do? They stopped showing up. 

For the last two weeks of the session, a key legislative committee in charge of important tax reform and infrastructure investment failed to meet. The last two weeks of session are the most critical time to get important priorities like a balanced budget and tax reform across the finish line, and they refused. 

We fought hard all session to advance the governor’s priorities for real property tax relief, substantive income tax reform and infrastructure assistance for local governments and schools. The chair of Senate Finance and Claims, alongside his Freedom Caucus cronies, decided that the best way to defeat that agenda was to just do nothing. They need to answer for why they worked so hard to keep real, immediate tax relief from making it to a final vote. 

Because we were committed to delivering on our promises, we used a “blast” motion to overcome their irresponsible behavior. This motion allowed us to take bills stalled in committee and place them directly on the Senate floor for a vote. That was the only way we could save the governor's conservative budget from Freedom Caucus mayhem. 

We blasted the governor's property tax proposal, the governor's proposal to assist local governments with bridges, housing and roads, and the governor's proposal to further reduce your property tax bill by assisting with school infrastructure projects. Curious why each of these blast motions got more Democrat votes than Freedom Caucus votes? It’s because the Freedom Caucus repeatedly refused to advance the governor’s agenda and give Montanan homeowners real property tax relief. 

What’s even worse is that Freedom Caucus members have been misleading the public. They claim we overspent, when in reality our final budget is both fiscally conservative and balanced. These lies are the only way they can defend their irresponsible behavior and argue that Montanans shouldn’t have property tax relief. Don’t believe them.  

As the gavel fell on the last day of the session, we walked away proud that we achieved our goals of delivering on our promise to provide property tax relief for all Montanans, and we did so despite many attempts to stymie the governor’s proposals. We refused to leave them trapped and left to die by the Freedom Caucus. Going forward, you can trust us to live up to the promises we make to our constituents and always vote for conservative values and priorities. 

Sens. Josh Kassmier, Gregg Hunter, Gayle Lammers, Denley Loge, Wendy McKamey, Shelley Vance, Russ Tempel and Bruce Gillespie.