Regier Running to Cement Fourth Term in House District 4
Republican Rep. Matt Regier, who has won each of his elections by more than 75% of the vote, faces a relatively unknown Democratic opponent in a conservative district
By Micah Drew
Incumbent Republican Rep. Matt Regier has represented Columbia Falls and the northeastern part of the Flathead Valley since 2017 and wants to bring his experience back to Helena in 2023.
Regier said dealing with the state’s $1.6 billion budget surplus will be a primary issue to tackle at the start of the next legislative session. Having served as vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee during the last session, Regier said he would like to find a way to return the bulk of that money to taxpayers, while using some to address major statewide priorities.
“This is money we didn’t anticipate having, it’s an overpayment from taxpayers in Montana and I want to give that back to them,” Regier said. “That still leaves over a half-billion dollars for the state that could address the state hospital and state prisons to some extent.”
Regarding other financial focuses, Regier said he’d like to examine ways to redistribute portions of state revenue to counter rising property taxes, such as keeping the state’s bed tax in the local communities. He also said that the state’s income tax can be lowered even further. In 2021 the legislature lowered the top marginal tax rate from 6.9% to 6.75%.
Another area Regier hopes to focus during the next session is creating more efficiency among government agencies. Pointing to a 22% vacancy rate at the Department of Public Health and Human Services, he said there is a need to examine the roles left unfilled to determine whether they are necessary, or if the agencies can be slimmed down.
“Inflation is a real thing, it requires us to pay good employees more to keep them around, but we need to find efficiencies across the board to make that happen,” he said.
On the other side of the ballot, Kimberly Pinter is running on the Democrat ticket as she makes her first foray into politics.
“We have so many issues going on, not just in this county but statewide that we need to find solutions to,” Pinter said. “I’m most interested in keeping local interests at the forefront. I believe working from the bottom up is the best way to govern.”
Pinter is a former community college teacher who, along with her husband, has spent more than a decade working with the Northwest Montana History Museum before retiring six years ago.
She said one priority for her would be to change campaign finance laws in the state to slow down the flood of out-of-state money to local candidates.
Pinter described the housing crisis as the most pressing issue affecting the Flathead Valley and communities statewide.
“Montana used to be a place where you could scrape by and still live a good life,” she said. “But no longer. We’ve got people getting kicked out of communities like Coram because they’re priced out of places to live.”
Pinter acknowledged abortion as another important issue during the upcoming session and described herself as firmly pro-choice. She characterized the GOP platform as focused on the lives of unborn children but without any plan to “concentrate on keeping those already living in Montana alive.”
On the opposite side of that spectrum is Regier, an anti-abortion advocate who wants to “protect the child inside and outside of the womb.”
“Ultimately the people of Montana will be represented on that debate.”
Regier is also the sponsor of Ballot Measure LR-131, the “Born-Alive Infant Protection Act,” which requires healthcare professionals provide medical care to any infant born alive at “any stage of development,” and carries a fine and up to 20 years of prison time for violators.