House District 15 candidates look at issues
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For the first time since the creation of Montana’s House District 15 in the early 1990s, a Republican is on the ballot, and two candidates will face off Nov. 2 to see who will represent the district’s 6,000 voters.
Joe Read, R-Ronan, and Frosty Calf Boss Ribs, D-Heart Butte, both said job creation is top priority for their district, which encompasses 3,137 square miles, with parts of Glacier, Flathead, Pondera, Lake, and Missoula Counties and the Flathead and Blackfeet Reservations. With unemployment rates at more than 60 percent on the Blackfeet, there’s no question that something needs to change, and Read favors removing regulations that keep businesses from operating freely and thus hiring more employees.
“If businesses aren’t allowed to work, there’s no way of getting paid,” he said.
Removing a moratorium on drilling on the Rocky Mountain Front and developing natural resources like oil would create more local jobs, he added.
Boss Ribs said getting Montana’s economy back on track means investing in infrastructure such as roads, clean energy and public safety.
“To get Montana working again, we need to renovate public buildings like schools to make them energy efficient,” she said. “We can put people to work and cut our energy consumption at the same time.”
Along with a poor economy, the 2011 legislature will likely face a budget shortfall, and the candidates proposed different ways of dealing with the issue. Boss Ribs said she supports “a balanced approach” to dealing with the deficit, and believes going after out-of-state tax cheats and closing tax loopholes is important.
“While we should look for ways to provide services more efficiently, we can’t cut our way out of this huge revenue shortfall … When the economy is bad, people rely on public services like unemployment to keep their families going,” Boss Ribs said.
Read, on the other hand, said that while no department wants its budget to be cut, cuts are inevitable. And while there may be some painful ones, there are some programs, like No Child Left Behind, that need to go, he said.
“I foresee that budgets are going to get cut, and education is going to be one of them, even though that would be a last resort … A part of our budget is putting kids in school, who need special assistance, when we’re having a hard time paying for school,” Read said.
More government programs are not the answer, he added.
“Once you initiate a government program, it is hard to wean yourself off a government program,” he said.
Another high-profile issue that legislators will deal with beginning in January is the state’s medical marijuana law, and the candidates agree that more regulation is needed.
While he’s “against medical marijuana up front, (the Montana Medical Marijuana Act) was a public mandate,” Read said, and should be upheld as the will of the people.
The problem, he said, is that the legislature did not handle the issue correctly, “and the courts made it a rainbow family gathering” with no real rules.
Of the proposed changes to the law, which include regulations on smoking in public and around children, limiting the number of patients per caregiver and requiring two doctors to recommend a patient for the medical marijuana program, Read said, “I’ve read them all, and I can back them all.”
He’d also like to see higher standards for growers and fewer medical marijuana producers, rather than the legislature limiting the number of patients per caregiver.
“If we’re going to legalize (medical marijuana), I’d like to see it made into a business, so some farmer could grow it, guard it and ensure quality,” Read said.
Boss Ribs said she would ask for voters’ opinions and “listen to health care and law enforcement experts, as well as people suffering from chronic medical conditions, during the legislative process.
“When major changes to the law are made through the initiative process, there are many unintended consequences … After hearing the evidence and listening to voters, I will decide how to vote on these bills,” she said.
