Regier, Hartman vie for Senate District 3 seat

The race for Senate District 3 features a race between Republican Keith Regier and Democrat Melissa Hartman.

The district includes the Whitefish and Big Mountain area, as well as the rural areas of West Valley, south to Kalispell, and north to Olney.

Regier has represented House District 4 for the last eight years and he is the current House Majority Leader from Kalispell. Regier moved from Nebraska to the Flathead Valley in the 1970s. Now retired, he taught in Evergreen for 28 years. He has reached his term limit in District 4 and says the open Senate seat presents an opportunity to continue to represent the Flathead Valley in Helena.

“I want to keep Montana, Montana,” he said. “I want to take the Flathead Valley’s concerns to the Legislature and get them addressed. I enjoy representing a part of the state that I love. Hopefully I can help improve the quality of living in Montana — that’s my ultimate goal.”

Regier, 65, along with his wife Joleen, has two daughters, one son and two grandsons. Regier served seven years on the West Valley School Board and nine years on Kalispell School Board.

While Hartman is new to electoral politics, she has spent a lifetime studying the issues. She studied government and economics at Connecticut College, then earned a master’s in social work at New York University. Out of college her first job was with the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., where she discovered what she says was a massive bureaucracy and chose to move into social work, an area where she felt she could make a positive difference. She moved to Whitefish in 2008.

“I grew up in a household watching the news every night and talking about the issues and policy,” she said. “I developed an idealistic world view that good government could make a positive difference in people’s lives. This opportunity came along and I felt like it was my civic duty to run and provide representation for Democratic values.”

Hartman, 48, owns a private mental health counseling practice in Whitefish and is married to husband Dave.

The seat became available as Republican Sen. Bruce Tutvedt termed out after eight years representing District 3.

Infrastructure

The legislature adjourned last year without passing a much-discussed infrastructure bill. Senate Bill 416 would have assisted local governments statewide by providing funding for road, water and sewer projects, and other public works objectives.

Regier says Gov. Steve Bullock “hijacked” the infrastructure bill and criticized a proposal to fund a Montana Historical Society museum in Helena that was part of the bill.

He said he would like to come up with an infrastructure bill that addresses regional needs and spreads any surplus money out across the state instead of in one area.

“Whitefish and Kalispell have water and sewer needs and the state should help them out,” he said.

Regier says the state needs to look at streamlining what its different departments are doing and how money is being spent.

“That would free up money to help cities, counties and school districts,” he said. “After all, that’s where the money came from.”

Hartman said the state has a big need for infrastructure and it’s one of the pillars of making sure the state is strong.

“I would whole heartedly support a bill for infrastructure,” she said. “It creates jobs too and it plays a significant role in the economic well-being of our state by having a strong infrastructure.”

While she wouldn’t necessarily support a sales tax, Hartman said some of the burden for paying for state costs needs to shift to tourists. She said travelers to the state benefit from the state’s infrastructure.

“We don’t want it to be cost prohibitive, but we need to explore ways to transfer that burden,” she said. “A sales tax really affects residents more. I would rather something that targets folks coming from out of state.”

Aquatic Invasive Species

Some aquatic invasive species have made their way into the state’s waterways, but continued protection from further invasion has been a concern from those who say the species entering the state could harm the environment and could have a negative impact on the state’s economy.

Regier questions the effectiveness of mobile watercraft check stations that check boats at a specific waterbody, noting it’s hard to tell where inside the state a boat might have been before getting to that check station.

Keeping aquatic invasive species out of the state, he said, is a big concern for him after seeing what the destruction they have had in other states.

“We need to stop all watercraft at the borders at the weigh stations,” he said. “I think that’s what the state could do to make it better.”

Hartman said it makes sense for the state to invest money in preventing aquatic invasive species from entering the state.

“I think it’s an important issue to address,” she said. “Better to put the money up front than have much bigger expenses in the future.”

School Funding

Regier says the state is doing an adequate job of funding schools. He said school districts are facing challenges when it comes to growing enrollments and finding space to house students.

“I think it should be left up to the local people to make the decision — they know best what the needs are,” he said, when asked if the state should be spending more to help districts with those challenges.

Hartman said she would like to see an increase in school funding, including maintaining facilities.

“That’s one of the pillars that are critical to a thriving economy is education,” she said. “It’s important that we are investing in kids’ education.”

Property Taxes

Rising property tax values in areas like Whitefish Lake have been called unfair. It’s something that both candidates say needs to be addressed.

Regier says property tax relief is his top priority. He says the value of the lot should be determined by the improvements that are on the lot, rather than by the location of the land.

“If elected, I’m going to be working on legislation that would address that,” he said. “I would help those people living along Whitefish Lake that have modest homes that have multi-million dollar homes beside them and are getting priced out.”

Regier said agriculture land in the sate is taxed at a lower rate, which helps farmers, but that same relief should apply to homeowners.

Hartman says she would like to see some policy changes for property taxes. Some of those options include tax deferment until a property is sold or having property taxes freeze after the owner reaches a certain age.

“What is bothersome to me is I feel like it erodes the fabric of the community in the sense that people who have lived here for decades have to relocate because they can’t afford their property taxes,” she said. “That’s not a healthy thing to do to a community. We need to take away that burden from owners.”

Land transfer

Last session there were several bills aimed at increasing the state’s influence over federal lands. Proponents like Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, said the move would create jobs and improve forest health. The Montana Wood Products Association, however, came out against those efforts.

Regier says in general he agrees that the state should be managing federal lands held by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, but not Glacier National Park and wilderness areas.

“State lands generate more revenue per acre than federal lands do,” he said. “The [federal] lands are a negative — taking money. We’re seeing more and more forest fires with the build up of fuel and I think if it was under state management we would log them and make them more productive.”

Regier said any liability that is with federal lands, however, should remain with the federal government.

Hartman said she does not want to see the transfer of federal lands to the state.

“They should stay in federal control, but it would be nice to see more collaboration on management issues of that land,” she said. “If there’s a way to have more public input into management that would be great.”

Top issues facing Montana

Coal production in the state has been down this year, which has had an impact on state coal taxes. The 2016 fiscal year was $7.3 million lower in coal tax collections than the previous year, according to Montana’s Department of Revenue.

Regier says if coal mining in the state shuts down that will have a large impact on the state because the amount of revenue the state takes into the general fund is significant. The result could be an increase in taxes or a cut to services, he said.

“If we’re going to have to stop using or selling coal, it’s going to affect the general fund,” he said. “Montana needs to get out there and market its coal because it’s some of the best and cleanest quality coal in the world. If other countries that burn coal would burn Montana coal, the pollution would be a whole lot less.”

Hartman cited the overburdened criminal justice system as a top priority facing the state. She said jail and prison overcrowding is a failure of the state to provide unmet mental health and addition treatment needs. She says she would look for ways to improve preventative care and treatment, along with revising state sentencing guidelines, as measures that she says would save money in the long run.

She said talking to folks in the valley she finds there is great concern for the addiction rates, suicide rates and criminal justice rates.

“I feel like there is a lot of overlap between those three issues and those areas would be a big priority for me,” she said. “When you don’t treat those issues then you see issues with crime.”

Her work with the Center for Restorative Youth Justice, a group that finds alternatives to juvenile detention, has shown her how interventions can help reduce the number of young people in juvenile detention.

“That’s a wonderful example of a preventative measure that can be really helpful with restoring the fabric of our community,” she said.

Absentee ballots will be mailed Oct. 14 and must be returned by Election Day on Nov. 8.

Information about voter registration, absentee ballot applications and a sample ballot are available on the Flathead County Election Department website at flathead.mt.gov/election.