Brad Barker for State Representative
Republican
By Denise Rivette
Montana Independent News posed the same four questions to all candidates in the Montana representative race in District 55. Republican Brad Barker’s views are presented in their entirety below.
What are the Montana values that will guide your decision-making?
I grew up on a farm & ranch and have served around the world in combat, so I know the value of hard work, adversity, a handshake, honoring your word, and teamwork. I strive to treat others based on my faith in God – not their political views. I share those values with Montanans who are ruggedly independent but also willing to help a neighbor.
What skills, knowledge and experience do you possess that make you the better candidate?
I have been blessed with extremely diverse opportunities and experiences that I could never have accomplished without the support of my amazing wife, family, friends, and exceptional colleagues. Resilience, personal growth, and empathy for others comes from the challenges that we have faced together. We’ve dealt with the uncertainty of returning from each combat deployment, the loss of close comrades, a child with cancer, and multiple moves. After retiring from the Army, we were welcomed by this Montana community.
Through those opportunities, I have served for thirty years of combined leadership in the Army and private sector. I have led large Army units in multiple combat zones as an aviation officer, AH-64 Apache pilot, and Master Army Aviator in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, and the Balkans. During my last deployment as an aviation battalion task force commander, I led over 600 soldiers with 49 aircraft and associated ground equipment to provide aviation attack, security, logistical and medical support to over 35,000 US, Polish and Afghan soldiers and special forces across 13 provinces in Eastern Afghanistan.
After retiring from a little over 20 years in the Army in 2014, I served for two years as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) (Deputy Superintendent role) of Teton County School District in Wyoming with over 2,700 students in nine schools. I also had responsibility for all support functions to allow the superintendent to focus on teaching and learning. To resolve overcrowding, I executed a grade level reconfiguration study across the county, renovations, and developed a new 585 capacity K-5 elementary school to provide capacity for all students while preserving rural schools. After standing up the COO position and getting the new school shovel ready, I moved on to the private sector to explore opportunities as an entrepreneur.
My wife, Carla, is a veterinarian, and we have been married for over 25 years. We have grown together and have been blessed by four incredible children. Three have graduated from here – one through home schooling and two from Red Lodge High School. Our youngest will be a freshman at Red Lodge High School this coming year. My wife and I run multiple businesses and have both residential and commercial property. I have also served as a wrestling coach and as a trustee on the Red Lodge School Board for almost 5 years. I look at policy from a commonsense perspective because my wife and I work full time in business, participate in the community, and live in the real world. I have a vested interest in keeping Montana, Montana, and a place where our kids can prosper through their own hard work and raise their own families.
Academically, I have a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Masters in Military Studies from the United States Marine Corps University.
In the 2023 Legislature, I passed key legislation to address real issues in education, transparency, and supporting veterans. I fought to kill two bills that would have adversely affected water rights, and I supported tax cuts, a simplified tax code, and reducing restrictions on building affordable free market housing. I also introduced legislation to de-monopolize trash hauling, improve disaster recovery, study the statewide school funding model and explore the possibility of regional detention/incarceration facilities with State funding to help resolve Carbon County’s inability to detain most who break the law. I am a member of an interstate workgroup of state legislators to develop policy on artificial intelligence (AI) and an international workgroup consisting of US, German and Canadian state/provincial level legislators to develop policy for critical infrastructure security. I am also the only first term legislator serving as a committee chairman as the Chairman of the Consumer Committee.
Key Bills that I passed:
TRANSPARENCY – Sponsored House HB 724 & HB 890 requiring local governments to publish agendas and record their meetings
EDUCATION – Sponsored HB 352 (targeted early literacy intervention) & HB 833 (teacher residency program to help rural schools)
VETERANS– Sponsored HB 583 (reciprocity for occupation & education licensing for military, veterans & spouses)
All of these experiences have taught me the value of teamwork, listening, and humility. Achievements gained through games and hyper-partisanship are usually very short lived because the other side becomes fixed on reversing them to settle the score. That whiplash adversely impacts citizens and businesses. Thoughtful policy that can withstand the ebb and flow of political tides requires collaboration and consensus. That does not mean that we have to or will agree on everything. On the contrary vigorous, honest debate and the competition of ideas most often results in the best outcomes.
What are your top priorities to address during your term if you are elected?
Tax Reform – Income taxes fund State government. Property taxes fund local government with 56% of property taxes going to local schools, 28% to Counties, 11% to Cities & Towns, 4% to Special Districts, and 1% to University mills. In 2023, the 18 property tax classes had a market valuation of $259 billion and generated $2.1 billion in tax revenue. Over the past 20 years, the percentage of revenue from residential property has grown from just under 46% to almost 58%. Fixing this requires comprehensive reform, not knee-jerk, short-term solutions like one proposal to lower the residential tax rate from 1.35% to .94%. We modeled that solution and it would have had a significant impact on small businesses and ag land in some counties. Commercial properties in Broadwater County, for example, would have been hit with a 79% increase. Approaches by previous legislatures, like getting rid of the Homestead Tax Exemption in 2015 while decreasing the rate, only served to temporarily mask the growing problem. We passed two property tax rebates of up to $675 per year, which mitigated the impact of increasing property valuations for all but 28% of the highest value residential properties, so we could take the time to develop a real solution instead of making the problem worse. First, do no harm. I am working with the Governor’s Property Tax Task Force to develop, model, and pass a comprehensive solution.
Housing – The Federal Reserve holding interest rates artificially low for over 15 years caused massive real estate speculation, and massive Federal spending spiked demand for most goods and services while government COVID shutdowns dramatically constrained supply. Welcome to inflation. Compounding those macro events, more folks seeking a better, freer place to live and raise their families and those wealthy enough to afford a second home to flee COVID restrictions found Montana. I’m told that over 20% of Montana homes and possibly as much as 1/3rd of homes in Carbon County are now owned by out-of-staters as vacation homes. That demand on Montana housing has made it unattainable for many of our residents and property tax increases threaten the ability of those on fixed incomes to keep their homes. I worked with fellow legislators to draft House Bill (HB) 819 that provides $56 million in matching funds for shared equity workforce housing where employers or investors can invest in up to 30% of the equity which reduces the cost for workers; provides $107 million in low cost loans for municipalities to buildout infrastructure for developments that average over 10 units per acre; and added $15 million to the Coal Trust Sub-Trust for low cost loans to developers to build multi-family housing. Comprehensive property tax reform and creative, free-market solutions are needed. None of this money is grants. These are not handouts or government housing like some have tried to mislead the public.
K-12 Education Budget Priorities and Funding – “Across Montana, students are experiencing a shortage of highly qualified, effective teachers. A 2019 study found that, even before the pandemic, Montana schools struggled to find qualified applicants for open teaching positions—especially in rural areas. That shortage is even more acute today: the percentage of positions that were difficult or impossible to fill increased from 45 percent in 2018 to 70 percent in 2022. Combined with high turnover at the principal and superintendent levels, the teacher shortage threatens the quality and stability of education offered to Montana students.” ~ Quote from Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) report in testimony in support of my HB 833 (Teacher Residency Program).
We have 397 school districts in the state. Many of these are small rural districts with a low number of students. These schools are often the hardest to fill with qualified teachers. Only 45% of Montana’s 3rd through 8th graders are reading proficient at grade level. COVID didn’t do that. We were only at 51% pre-COVID. My HB 352 (Targeted Early Literacy Intervention) directly addresses this issue. I believe in and support school choice, but abandoning our public schools is not the solution. If we are going to give all citizens of future generations the ability to participate in our Representative Democracy, we must work to improve this situation.
Healthcare, Infrastructure & Economic Development – Infrastructure and healthcare services directly impact economic development, quality jobs, workforce availability and quality of life. In the 2023 Legislature, we approved a historic increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates to reduce the pressure on our healthcare system. Without that reimbursement, providers pass those costs on to taxpayers in the form of higher costs that result in higher private health insurance premiums – more inflation. We also appropriated $300 million to shore up Montana’s behavioral health system. In addition, emergency medical services are not considered an essential service in Montana. This results in local ad-hoc funding solutions and the current mill levy to shore up a system that is plagued by a lack of qualified volunteers to backfill those faithful aging volunteers who have filled the gap for our communities. To be clear, I support the current EMS mill levy to bridge the gap. Finally, energy infrastructure is one of the cornerstones to every home, community and business. EV adoption by some areas of the country and the rapid increase in data centers to support AI are rapidly increasing our power demands. This will accelerate, and we are already challenged to provide enough power to Montana residents during extreme cold weather events.
Public Safety – Open borders, increases in fentanyl trafficking, and cartel activity on reservations present challenges to our local law enforcement that require State and Federal solutions. Carbon County’s frequent inability to detain individuals without driving them to Bozeman pulls our Sherrif’s deputies off patrol in our communities and often leaves our law enforcement with no choice but to catch and release individuals until their trial date.
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
What legislative language would you propose or support to address those priorities?
Tax Reform
Homestead Tax Exemption (HTE) – Reinstitute some version of the HTE to either reduce the 1.35% residential property tax rate for homes owned or rented by Montana residents or exempt a portion of the value of those homes. The HTE that was eliminated by the previous governor and 2015 Legislature provided an exemption for the first $200,000 of value for homes occupied by owners for 7 months or more per year.
Short Term Rentals (STR) – Tax STRs at the same rate as the hotels and motels that they compete with. I don’t support telling property owners what they can do by banning short term rentals, but the government should not be putting its thumb on the scale to advantage STRs over hotels and motels. They should pay the same rate. Instead of the 1.35% residential rate at a 1.0 multiplier, they should have to pay the 1.89% commercial rate at a 1.4 multiplier.
Agriculture Land – Land taken out of agricultural production should not continue to enjoy the ag tax rate. As much as I prefer to simplify the tax code instead of further complicating it, we should create a higher Recreational property tax rate that would apply to land taken out of ag production. Land taken out of production reduces the resilience of Montana’s local food supply and makes us more dependent on external sources and supply chains. Land taken out of flood irrigation also dries up aquifers that supply the wells of home and neighborhoods. I believe new developments should bear some responsibility for the cost of developing water supply solutions for existing property owners effected by eliminating flood irrigation.
Education Funding – Bring the majority if not all education mills to the State level for redistribution on a per pupil basis to each school district. The current revenue model is a very complex mix of State and local funds and makes it difficult to meet the Constitutional requirement to provide equal education for all. A statewide mill for all K-12 education funding, like the 95 mills, would further tax refineries, pipelines, railways, and very high value homes that lie outside of most school districts. This could dramatically reduce taxes on residential property in most school districts. This would also make school choice much easier to implement because money could more easily follow each student. I would want to leave school construction with bond levies at the local level.
Sales Tax – Many of the folks I talked to while knocking doors asked about the potential for using a statewide sales tax to eliminate all property taxes. Of the standard three tax classes, property taxes are the most stable, income taxes are the least stable and sales taxes are in between. What I’ve shared with folks is that the Montana Constitution limits any statewide sales tax to a maximum of 4%. Modeling of a 4% statewide sales tax in 2023 would have generated somewhere around $2 billion, so it would not completely eliminate property taxes without a Constitutional Initiative (CI) to go above 4%. But completely replacing property taxes with sales would make that revenue less stable. The Governor has taken a sales tax off the table for his Property Tax Task Force. I would only support a sales tax if it was used to permanently offset property taxes. I believe that the simplest way to do that could be in concert with bringing all school mills to a statewide levy then directly buying down K-12 education property tax mills with sales tax. The reason school revenue is the best place to ensure that they are used to buy down property taxes is because K-12 education revenue is formulaically capped by student enrollment. It also consumes the majority of property tax revenue. I think this is something we should explore and model during the next session to see how much we could save property owners by using a sales tax that’s also paid by out of state retailers and tourists.
Marijuana Tax – Some of you expressed disappointment in my lack of support for SB 442 that would have provided these taxes for county road maintenance. I did not support the bill because it very disproportionately distributed money away from the counties that collect the taxes to counties that do not. It also reduced the amount of money for the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) Fund. Those favoring large pork barrel payouts to their districts have led the public to believe that disapproving the bill reduced the funding that was already going to Wildlife Habitat, State Parks, and Trails & Recreation. That simply isn’t true. That funding stayed the same. In addition to the habitat and recreation purposes that are already funded with these taxes, I think that the majority of marijuana revenue should go to drug and alcohol rehabilitation, law enforcement, and EMS since those are the services that bear the cost of these decisions. I acknowledge that counties need increased funding for road maintenance. Substantially reducing the burden on residential property taxes with some or all of the changes above could provide the capacity to handle those needs locally while still reducing residential property taxes.
Housing – Zoning law changes and HB 819 during the last session, the property tax changes described above, and the eventual reduction of mortgage rates could have a significant impact on increasing the free-market housing supply for residents in Montana.
K-12 Education Budget Priorities and Funding – We need to be honest with ourselves and make decisions that will preserve our rural schools and our rural culture in a rapidly changing environment. Change can be both good and bad and it can be scary. One of my favorite quotes on facing change was from General Eric Shinseki when he was Chief of Staff of the US Army and trying to convince the other generals to support his effort to modernize the Army. He said, “If you don’t like change, you are going to hate irrelevant”. Persistent teacher vacancies and parents voting with their feet by moving to higher performing schools will inevitably bring closures if we stick our heads in the sand and refuse change. I believe that consolidating many of the 397 school districts while keeping all of the schools and would dramatically reduce the overhead of our K-12 education infrastructure. Additional savings could be achieved by proper grade-level reconfiguration – K-12 to K-8 for some schools for example. Savings from having only one superintendent, one business manager, one etc. per area or county could go to increases in teacher pay to help fill vacancies with qualified teachers, increase vocational education opportunities, increase school choice, and improve the quality of education. Doing nothing will lead to school closures, increased bus times for kids, and continued inefficiencies that will further burden taxpayers. Many of these solutions are in the hands of local school board trustees. I stand ready to work with trustees to help them navigate potential solutions and make sure the State is supporting their efforts. The main metric that we should be focused on is student outcomes.
Healthcare, Infrastructure & Economic Development – Continue to explore and support ways to lower healthcare costs for taxpayers and private insurance; improve our rural healthcare infrastructure; improve the reliability and affordability of our electricity supply; and attract the right kinds of industry.
Public Safety – It will be challenging for Montana to resolve the pressure from open borders and increased cartel activity without a substantial shift in policy priorities at the Federal level. At the State level, we must pursue every Constitutional avenue to find solutions as well. I will also re-introduce legislation to explore regional detention/incarceration facilities with a state/local match funding component to eliminate or at least mitigate the impact on local property taxes.