Lieser seeks re-election

Democrat Ed Lieser wants to continue representing Whitefish in Helena.

Lieser was first elected in 2012 to represent House District 4 in the Montana House of Representatives. Due to redistricting, Lieser is seeking re-election for House District 5.

Lieser said he spent much of his first term learning the ropes in Helena. He hopes to return again to put that knowledge in action.

“I spent a fair amount of time figuring out the system and getting to know the other Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “I learned a lot that will make me more effective — I owe it to those who supported me to run again.”

The forester spent several years in the Tally Lake Ranger District on the Flathead National Forest before retiring in 2008 after a 30-year career. Much of his assignments in his first term fit in with his skill set. He served on the natural resources committee, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks committee and the taxation committee.

Lieser holds a degree in natural resource management from the University of Minnesota and served in the U.S. Navy Reserves. He has served on a number of volunteer boards, including the Whitefish Fire Service Area, Whitefish Legacy Partners and Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

As a freshman legislator, Lieser sponsored 15 bills and served on several committees.

“Frankly, I was naïve about what I could accomplish,” Lieser said of his first term. “This time I’ll be more selective about the bills I sponsor.”

If elected, Lieser again plans to sponsor a bill that would set up septic tank inspections prior to the sale of a property. The bill, which did not pass in the last session, would have given local governments the option to adopt the inspection guidelines as a way to protect water quality.

Lieser said the issue is important locally after a Whitefish Lake Institute study revealed septic contamination in Whitefish Lake, likely the result of failing septic tanks.

“There is similar situations happening in Flathead County, Mineral County and Ravalli County,” he said. “This is an issue in a lot of Western Montana and there is no regulation right now to protect the water.”

In the area of natural resources, Lieser is against the idea of transferring federal land to state control.

The Environmental Quality Council earlier this month approved a report on federal land management problems in the state after removing language that mentioned the transfer of federal lands to the state. Lieser serves on the legislative panel and the committee that created the draft report and says he supported removal of the language.

“I was opposed to that from day one,” he said. “It’s not in the best interest of the citizens to transfer the land.”

The report provides recommendations to the 2015 Legislature on federal land management. Lieser said there is a perception that federal lands are being mismanaged in the state, but those agencies such as the Forest Service, Park Service and Bureau of Land Management continue to operate with reduced budgets and lower staff levels.

The solution, he said, is not to transfer federal land to state control. The state would then become responsible for managing those lands, hiring a workforce to do so, and would be responsible for the financial burden from future wildfires, all of which would result in an increase in taxes.

“Even if the state didn’t take the National Park Service or wilderness areas,” he said, “that still leaves 15 million acres to manage. That’s a colossal number of acres and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage.”

If the lands where transferred, then the state could sell the property. Pointing to the efforts of the Whitefish Legacy Partners to preserve state land for recreation, Lieser notes that a transfer would open up a lot more land to the same type of scenario.

“Sooner or later, those state lands will likely be sold,” he said. “Tally Lake is on forest land and that is likely to be sold. Those are my fears.”

Instead, Lieser would like to see local groups and state agencies work with the federal government to improve management of federal lands.

“The future I see is, as the forest service continues to struggle, is to have more community involvement — from the county, state and interest groups,” he said. “That’s the more reasonable solution.”

Lieser said he supports the proposed water compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The 2013 Legislature tabled the compact without which the tribes will have to go to court to assert their claims on 10,000 water rights outline in the 1855 Treaty of Hellgate. Under the compact, the tribes would surrender nearly all claims outside the reservation.

Lieser said because of the complexity of the compact, it was good to have more time to review the agreement, which he supports.

The compact will protect water rights for municipalities, improve irrigation water systems to minimize water loss and insure irrigators water rights, he noted.

“The tribes have given up a lot and negotiated in good faith,” he said. “This is a really good deal and the Legislature needs to pass it to avoid litigation.”

In the last election, Lieser said he would support a sales tax. However, this time around he said he is in favor of a local option tax because it allows individual communities to decide whether or not a tax is appropriate.

“We need to allow more communities to adopt a tax, not only those in resort communities,” he said. “There’s so many advantages to it, including giving property tax relief. It allows us to distribute some of the cost impact to visitors who are here creating that impact.”

On Medicaid, Lieser said he fully supports the expansion of the program in the state.

“We need some kind of health care insurance for everybody,” he said. “Whether that’s Medicaid or going to the marketplace.”

Lieser says school funding falls into two categories — university and K-12 education.

At the university level he would like to see tuition frozen for another two years because of the amount of debt students leave with after gradation.

“It’s still very expensive to attend college when fees, books and cost of living are included,” he said “I have two kids that just got out of college and they are struggling with debt. That can become an impediment to buy a home, which can then impact the economy.”

On K-12 education, Lieser said the state “has a ways to go” as schools look to provide a 21 Century education.

Specifically on teacher retirement, Lieser referred to changes passed by the 2013 Legislature to address the state’s struggling public-employee pension systems. One law, reduced the annual cost-of-living raises for retired teachers.

“We need to abide by the contract we made with teachers and make that benefit package whole again,” he said.

Montana voters this November will decide whether to continue to allow new voters to register on Election Day. Although a referendum on the ballot seeks to rescind same-day registration, Lieser anticipates the issue will likely come before the Legislature.

“I don’t want to see the Legislature restrict voter rights,” he said. “I believe voting is a sacred right.”