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Kaltschmidt said the infrastruc- ture bill debacle from the 2015 session is what spurred him to le for the Sen- ate seat. Party in ghting and partisan politics have likely ended up costing the state money, he said.
“It’s something that two years ago would have cost a dollar instead of a$1.10 now,” Kaltschmidt said. “If we keep kicking the can down the road it just costs more and more money.”
According to the Montana Depart- ment of Transportation, District 1, which encompasses Missoula and the northwest corner of the state, has more than $262 million in backlogged proj- ects not receiving funding, and a whole list of projects that aren’t even on the state’s radar due to the lack of funding. The American Society of Civil Engi- neers gave Montana’s infrastructure an overall grading of C- in 2014, meaning the poor end of mediocre.
In Flathead County alone, there’s a backlog of more than $71 million worth of MDT projects.
“You can really see the need. I know
the whole state’s that way. It just frus- trates me that our leaders in our state can’t come together on something as important as this,” Kaltschmidt said.
Jayson Peters, chairman of the Flat- head County Republican Party, said infrastructure isn’t a partisan topic, but the di erence between the parties lies in the ideological view of how to pay for those projects and which ones should be selected.
“If a clean, straightforward infra- structure bill comes before the next Legislature, any of our Flathead Repub- lican candidates would support it with the condition that it was paid with sur- plus tax revenues,” Peters wrote in an email to the Beacon.
Regier agreed, saying that whoever is elected to the Legislature will be faced with a need to fund the projects deemed “necessary.”
“From my perspective, Republicans would like to see some money go to infra- structure, but let’s get the priorities right,” Regier said. “If they are projects that seri- ously need to get done, I think some bor- rowing could come into play there.”
mpriddy@ atheadbeacon.com
TRANSACTIONS WEEKLY BUSINESS BRIEFING FLATHEAD COUNTY ECONOMY
“IF A CLEAN, STRAIGHTFORWARD INFRASTRUCTURE BILL COMES BEFORE THE NEXT LEGISLATURE, ANY OF OUR FLATHEAD REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES WOULD SUPPORT IT WITH THE CONDITION THAT IT WAS PAID WITH SURPLUS TAX REVENUES.” - JAYSON PETERS
The arrival of spring and sum- mer provided a boost to the Flat- head County economy. Seasonal job additions improved the coun- ty’s unemployment rate from 7.1 percent in March to 5.6 percent in April, according to the Depart- ment of Labor and Industry.
Montana’s seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate dipped by
one-tenth of a percentage point to
4.2 percent in April. Businesses
added 2,000 payroll jobs across
the state in April, and have added a total of 5,500 jobs since the begin- ning of the year. Flathead County has added 120 jobs this year and the local workforce has reached 42,061, which is still 1,009 jobs below the high in April 2009. Lincoln County holds the state’s highest unemploy- ment rate at 9.3 percent. Lake County is at 4.2 percent with 271 jobs added this year.
The national unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent in April.
If you would like to be featured in “Transactions,” please email information to news@ atheadbeacon.com
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