HELENA – Montana Democrats on Wednesday released a jobs plan for the state that is broad in scope but short on specifics as they seek to regain control of at least one legislative chamber this fall.
The six-part plan outlines proposals for education and job training programs, business taxes and regulations and natural resource development. They plan to divide the proposals among their party’s legislative candidates and get the word out by door-to-door campaigning, said Sen. Carol Williams, of Missoula.
Williams, Rep. Chuck Hunter, of Helena, and House candidate Jenny Eck, also of Helena, said the plan is the product of legislators listening to the ideas of business owners, public employees, tribal leaders and educators in 16 cities and towns over the past year.
“We hope, no matter what happens in the election, whoever controls the next Legislature in Montana will come together and join with us to try and pursue some of these things that we have learned on this trip,” Williams said.
Republicans in 2011 held majorities in both the state House and Senate. Democrats hope to take back at least one of the chambers in the Nov. 6 election, while the GOP is aiming to win governor’s office and control both the executive and legislative branches.
The Democrats’ plan includes more funding for existing economic development programs, using energy development revenue to fund infrastructure projects in the eastern Montana oil patch and providing small businesses stability instead of regulations that change from year to year.
Other proposals would encourage natural resource development and emphasize reclaiming lands affected by forest and mining projects. Some are failed ideas from the 2011 session, such as eliminating the business equipment tax for all but the largest companies operating in the state.
One of the plan’s most important components is education, with the Democrats recommending freezing tuition for students in the university system.
“There is no job creation that is independent of education,” Hunter said.
The plan’s authors said some of the ideas may advance while others fall to the wayside as priorities are set in the next legislative session. No cost estimates were offered and they acknowledged specifics still must be crafted for most of the proposals.
Montana Republican Party executive director Bowen Greenwood said Wednesday he had not seen the proposal. He said it sounded as though the Democrats were coming closer to the GOP’s vision of more jobs in energy development by reducing regulatory burdens, but they weren’t quite there.
He also dismissed the Democrats’ ideas to boost funding for education and job training programs.
“The Democratic solution to every problem is more funding,” he said.