Education, healthcare are key to creating jobs

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

Senate District 2 candidate Brittany MacLean says she will stand up for families and protect Montana values if elected to the Legislature.

A Montana native, MacLean defeated Gil Jordan, of Coram, in the June primary by 1,266 to 1,119. Born in Missoula, MacLean's family moved to White-fish when she was in second grade.

Her mother, Delores Hol-land, founded Mother's Good Food Store with Bonnie Closson. It later relocated and is now Third Street Market. Her father recently retired from BNSF Railway.

MacLean graduated from high school here in 1988 and completed a degree in liberal arts and women's studies in Missoula. She went on to get her master's in nonprofit management and urban policy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

While there, MacLean worked with Native American artists, helping them create a strategic plan. She also worked with the Community Works organization, which bused lower-income children to under-used areas of the city where various art productions were held, such as dance performances.

"This was the only chance these underprivileged children had to see these kinds of art productions," she said.

After college, MacLean headed north to Alaska, where her four children were born. MacLean's husband, Kenny Kasselder, died in a climbing accident on Mount Hood in November 2004. While in Juneau, she co-founded a community family and health center.

"We provided healthcare and parenting support and information to pregnant women and families regardless of their ability to pay," she said.

The Juneau Family Health and Birth Center started out with five people but grew to 15. It served 3,000 to 5,000 people across Southeast Alaska.

"We were a nonprofit that was able to leverage federal prevention grants," she said. "It was a smart investment — he helped reduce costs for juvenile justice and public mental health."

MacLean said that with family assistance and community support, she's been campaigning hard across the huge Senate District 2, which includes Whitefish and Columbia Falls, as well as the Canyon and North Fork. A lot of that work involves knocking on doors.

"From personal conversations, I've discovered one of the biggest issues is the economy," she said. "The main theme is that people care about being able to live and work and raise a family here."

MacLean said there's a need for affordable housing and worker training. One way to improve the job market is to promote renewable energy here in Montana.

"This is a great opportunity — wind energy, for example, can create lots of new jobs," she said.

That combined with solid support for education — K-12, college and worker training — will create the solid base needed for a strong economy, she said. MacLean also wants to support small businesses.

"I learned about small business through my mother, who ran a store here," she said.

MacLean supports raising the exemption on the business-equipment tax and help small businesses provide health insurance to their workers through programs like Insure Montana, a state-organized insurance pooling program. But she doesn't support tax breaks for large corporations.

The state projects another large budget surplus, and MacLean wants to see it used to make smart investments.

"We need to spend it on education, healthcare and to support small businesses," she said. "But we also need to save money for future emergencies and tighter budgets later."

MacLean said she opposes raising taxes, but she wants to see something done about shifting the burden on property taxes — particularly for education. She said funding for public education has increased by 27 percent since the school districts filed their suit against the state.

"Nobody likes lawsuits, but it got us to talking about what quality education is," she said. "Money is part of that, but it's complicated, and there's still more to do. We need to find out why kids are dropping out. We need innovative approaches to education."

Healthcare costs can be brought down by prevention, MacLean said. A more proactive role can help, but the number of uninsured children in Montana has increased from 19 to 29 percent. So she supports Initiative 155, Healthy Montana Kids, which will use insurance premium money, not taxes, for children. She also wants to improve accessibility and affordability for dental care.

"We need a forward-thinking Montanan in the Senate," she said.