No Sales Tax. Just Better Use of What We Have.
"What's your plan to pay for all this 'affordable' stuff? You offer no solutions, just your issues."
It's a common question so let me lay out how we can approach this strategically and as a new representative. I want to focus on things that can actually pass, without asking Montanans for more out of their pockets. I oppose a flat income tax rate and I oppose a sales tax, because both would hit working families here the hardest. If affordability really is the priority, voters deserve to know which candidates are actually opposing a flat tax rate, not just which ones are opposing spending.
Here's the thing: none of what follows requires new tax revenue. It's about fixing what's already broken or using what's already on the books.
School Funding Formula
Right now, Montana funds schools through hundreds of different district-by-district mill rates. That patchwork favors small districts sitting on a wealthy tax base, resort towns, and natural resource hubs, while leaving lower-income areas to shoulder a bigger share of the local burden. Fixing that starts with shifting to a fairer countywide system. Advocates who've studied this say it could actually lower taxes for over 80% of Montanans, not raise them, because it spreads the load more evenly instead of asking any one community to cover more than its share.
There's also the inflation-cap piece, which matters just as much. State funding for schools is capped at 3% annual adjustment, but real costs have climbed well past that in recent years, over 7% in 2022 alone. That gap is exactly why districts across the state keep going back to voters for local levies just to keep the lights on and why levy passage rates that used to be above 90% have fallen off a cliff. Raising that cap doesn't mean a new tax on Montanans, it means directing more of the state budget we already direct toward schools instead of elsewhere. That is a real trade-off, not a free move, but it's one I think is worth making. It could take pressure off districts that are stuck asking their own voters for more, year after year. Our kids are worth that investment, Montana's future depends on the generations coming up behind us and getting the funding formula corrected now is how we make sure they inherit schools that actually thrive instead of just surviving.
Mental Health in Schools
Montana has a proven school-based program, CSCT, which puts licensed therapists in schools with federal Medicaid covering roughly 65% of the cost. But a 2021 change requiring districts to pay a 'hard' cash match, combined with a therapist shortage, cut participating schools by about half and participation hasn't fully recovered. The state's $300 million HB872 behavioral health investment includes school-based initiatives, but it's one-time money, so the legislature created a Long-Term Sustainability committee to find lasting funding before it runs out. My focus is making sure CSCT is part of that plan: permanent match relief for districts, training and retention incentives to keep therapists with the students they've built trust with, a healthier therapist-to-student ratio, and a push to apply for federal Project AWARE grants as an added funding stream. The goal is consistent care for kids that outlasts the one-time dollars that started this work.
Data Centers
Before any data center gets the chance to move forward in Montana, we need real protections in place, not after the fact, but first. That means protecting Montanans' bottom dollar just as much as our land and water. Montana's Constitution guarantees us the right to a clean and healthful environment, and it puts a duty on both the state and each of us to maintain that environment and prevent the unreasonable depletion of our natural resources. Protecting our land and water isn't optional, it's written into the founding document of this state and it should guide how we handle new industrial demand before a single shovel goes in the ground
My Data Center Water and Ratepayer Transparency Act isn't asking more from our taxpayers. It requires the true cost of new water use, energy draw, and infrastructure strain to be disclosed upfront, before a project is sited, so those costs can't quietly get folded into everyday ratepayer bills down the line. It also closes gaps that have let this kind of siting move forward with limited local input, so our communities get a real say and real answers before ground is broken, not a bill and a depleted water table after. Every Montanan deserves to know what the true cost of a large data center is before making any decisions about building one.
People have voiced support for data centers saying they could bring jobs to Montana, there is evidence to show this may not truly be the case, at least not to the scope it is being portrayed to be, which is something I could go into more detail on later.
Childcare
The bigger opportunity is connecting families to help that already exists, and strengthening it. Far too many eligible Montana kids are not enrolled in the Best Beginnings child care scholarship, so a big part of the challenge is getting people connected to what's already available. Two recent changes make that work more urgent: the state moved applications to a new online portal that requires a Montana Okta account and Flathead County applications are now processed through Child Care Resources in Missoula instead of locally. That means real outreach, help navigating the new system, less paperwork, and a stronger local workforce through pathways like early childhood dual-enrollment program at Glacier and Flathead High School with Flathead Valley Community College. Get more qualified motivated people trained for child care so we can bridge the care gap, where Flathead has a 64% shortage.
Housing
I want to start building on reforms Montana already passed in 2023, which legalized duplexes in larger cities, made accessory dwellings units easier to build, and opened more places to multifamily and mixed-use development. In the Flathead, I'll push further by legalizing 'missing middle' housing like triplexes, four-plexes, and cottage courts. And prioritizing infill on land that already has roads and utilities and taking a hard look at oversized minimum lot sizes. Updating these rules thoughtfully, without abandoning zoning, means more starter homes and rentals for teachers, nurses, young families, and longtime residents getting priced out. It's a supply fix, not a subsidy fix - which also offers possibilities in creating affordable housing options. Workforce housing is another avenue strengthen and explore.
Not every good idea comes free and I'll consider well-built proposals that hold a potential cost down the road, but we can make real progress on childcare, housing, and other issues with what Montana already has, without asking families for a bigger tax bill first. But if a flat income tax rate goes through, that may not be the case down the line.
I spent years as an oncology social worker, watching families go broke around a health crisis they didn't cause. That's the kind of failure that happens when the people in charge wait too long to fix what's broken. I didn't run for office to hand out empty promises, because I'm tired of watching that happen year after year. I ran with a background in nonprofit management, fundraising, and grant writing. And thats the approach behind everything above, fix what's broken, use what already exists, and work hard to not ask Montanans to pay more before we've done that work first.
Happy to go into more detail with these issues if anyone would like to.
Reach out anytime - contact@madisonformontana.com
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