Candidates for State Representative Respond to Questions and Meet the Public at Elks Lodge Forum Thursday
The Beartooth Elks Lodge Forum will be held in Red Lodge on Thursday, October 17, at 6:00 p.m.
By Denise Rivette
In addition to the Beartooth Elks Lodge Candidate Forum being held this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. at the Elks Lodge in Red Lodge, located at 114 North Broadway Avenue, Montana Independent News (MIN) submitted questions to the two candidates to represent District 55 in the Montana State House of Representatives. Kim Gillan is challenging incumbent representative Brad Barker, for the position.
MIN: What makes you the best choice to represent District 55?
Brad Barker
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.
Kim Gillan
The 10,000 plus residents of Carbon County—scattered among 2000 square miles of beautiful mountains and valleys-- deserve a stronger, more effective voice and problem solver to represent us in the State legislature. I can and will do that for House District 55, always putting People over Politics. As I go door-to-door, whether in Fromberg or Red Lodge or Silesia, residents complain about the chaotic, negative 2023 Montana Legislative session. They were shocked at huge increases in homeowner and small business property taxes as well as the rising costs of housing, rentals, home insurance, etc. Despite our state’s $2.5 billion surplus, The Governor and legislature did little to address these or other pocketbook issues. Carbon County voters feel no one is looking out for everyday folks; no one listens. Unfortunately, our current legislator did little to help the situation, except voting to increase his salary by 50%! (the Governor vetoed this bill).
Throughout my career, I have built a track record of bringing people--with diverse opinions—together to tackle tough issues. I served as the Regional Director for the US Department of Health and Human Services, working with Governors and elected officials from Montana, Utah, North and South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. I tackled politically sensitive issues and found common ground. I spent over 20 years helping private and public organizations with job creation, finances and workforce training. When I served as a legislator (while living and working in Billings, 1997to 2012) I had a reputation of working across the aisle, strong leadership as well as policy expertise in taxation, school funding, healthcare. I chaired many committees and special legislative task forces—developing a reputation for fairness and independent thinking. Now, after being a permanent resident of Carbon County since 2013, I want to use these skills to help our rural communities as we face challenges in housing, workforce, Stillwater Mining layoffs and of course, property taxation.
MIN: What impacts do you foresee the Stillwater Mine layoffs having on us?
Brad Barker
700 mine workers losing their jobs will have a tremendous impact on those families and the communities in Carbon, Stillwater, Sweetgrass and Yellowstone Counties. I don’t yet have specific analysis of the impact on the local housing market, small businesses, banks and local government revenue, but we can get a rough estimate of the aggregate impact based on the $110,000 average salary figure provided by Sibanye. Without replacement, that represents an estimated loss of $77 million in wages.
Kim Gillan
The proposed Sibanye-Stillwater Mine layoffs will have significant, negative impacts upon the workers, their families and our communities. These workers and families face huge financial and emotional challenges; many have already expressed concern that they may have to relocate (and uproot their families) to seek other employment. The workers at the Mine are among the best-trained and most efficient hard rock miners in the world. The company should understand that and look to retain its workers rather than firing them by the hundreds. Let’s not forget that the economic benefit of the mine’s operation is over $6 billion a year---which has helped support local governments, school districts and many other downstream/small businesses. I support ongoing efforts to work with the mining owners to keep operations, to retain this skilled workforce, to look at modifying their own business operations/spending and exhaust all Federal and state resources/options to retain workers and the mining operations.
MIN: What State and Federal strategies and resources would you work toward directing to our region to help and retain the families of the mine workforce and those trades that support the mine?
Brad Barker
We need to immediately protect the integrity of the palladium market and the American supply of important resources by preventing dumping by foreign adversaries. The efforts of our Congressional delegation at the Federal level to block Russian metals and other resources is key to shoring up our markets and jobs.
At the State level and under the direction of Governor Gianforte, the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) to support affected workers and their families. DLI has released their mining specific skills matching tool available at, https://dli.mt.gov/data-dashboards/Skills-Matching-Tool-Mining, and job fairs. The next job fair is at the Livingston Fairgrounds in collaboration with the Livingston Chamber of Commerce. In addition to DLI’s Billings Job Service Office, they have opened three additional temporary offices in Big Timber, Columbus and Livingston. Based on information from the Director, Sarah Swanson, DLI staff will be present in Columbus when the layoffs formally begin on November 12, 2024 to assist with unemployment claims filing and to initiate rapid response efforts.
Services provided by DLI include webinars for workers and their families, addressing inquiries related to unemployment claims, retraining assistance, job searches, and getting more information to facilitate DLI’s Dislocated Worker Grant Application to the US Department of Labor.
Kim Gillan
There are both Federal and state resources which can be tapped to address this issue, but first, Russian dumping of critical materials, onto the US market aimed at deflating prices should be stopped. I stand with Senator Tester, who immediately called out this issue and has already introduced Congressional legislation to halt further Russian market disruption. Efforts should be made to work with the company to minimize the layoffs e.g. buyouts of some workers to voluntarily leave (e.g. retire, etc.) Additionally, the company also must look internally to some of their financial decisions and recognize the full “costs” associated with total operation shutdowns. There is potential to use tax credits authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act to assist the company.
There are multiple, existing Federal programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Labor that are set up to deal with Displaced Workers and the impact of downsizing/layoffs. These programs are aimed at helping workers with new skills, as well as helping local communities/economies adjust. Programs/funds from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (often passed down from the Federal government) can be deployed. This is an “all hands-on deck situation” which requires cooperation/collaboration, private-public partnerships and creative thinking.
MIN: What can the State do to help municipalities, counties and downstream businesses adjust to the income lost to the layoffs as well as other social and economic stressors?
Brad Barker
Businesses will experience the biggest impact of the lost wage income, but it would not directly impact local governments since income taxes fund State government. In 2023, the composition of Carbon County local government revenue was 48% Federal and State transfers and grants, 39% property taxes, and the remainder from license, permit and other income. Potential home foreclosures could have downward pressure on property values and delay property tax receipts. For additional context, Federal grants were substantially higher in 2023 ($5.7 million) than they were in prior years. They were $1.6 million in 2022 and $658,553 in 2021. Property taxes have historically accounted for around 47% of revenue.
Comprehensive tax reform and cost cutting, where possible, is needed to stabilize revenue for local governments and schools that is entirely dependent on property taxes. That system has become too reliant on residential property taxes that now account for 76% of the total value of all taxable property in Montana.
Kim Gillan
The “downstream” economic and social stressors of the Stillwater Mining situation will be extensive; as noted above, every effort should be made to minimize the total worker layoffs. I would recommend that collaboration and coordination among the affected parties will be key to navigating this situation, especially in seeking out Federal and state resources, Tackling the fallout could be helped by forming one or more interregional task forces or working groups to ensure communication—giving a seat at the table to the diverse groups affected. The State does have programs that could help the retraining of workers, but the loss of local revenue needs to be further assessed and could require some temporary state financial support (low interest loans, grants, incentives). As noted, this is a $6 billion economic asset to the state and local economy per year.
MIN: What are your top priorities for the upcoming legislative session?
Brad Barker
Tax Reform – Implement Homestead, Agstead and Comstead tax exemptions and tax short term rentals at the same rate as other similar commercial enterprises like hotels, motels and RV parks. This will help shift some of the burden from resident homeowners and businesses to out of state homeowners and businesses that do not pay income taxes which fund the State services that they benefit from like the $180 million fire fund, public safety and healthcare infrastructure.
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.
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 and 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. If we want to protect and keep our rural schools and improve the quality of education for our kids, we need to pursue school district consolidation to reduce administrative overhead, get more money directly to our classrooms and improve teacher pay. 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. Protecting rural healthcare infrastructure by re-authorizing Medicaid in it’s current form with work requirements and co-pay while following through on successes from the 2023 Legislative Session with the historic provider rate increases and $300 million appropriated to not only shore up but dramatically improve mental healthcare services. Without that Medicaid, providers pass those costs on to taxpayers in the form of higher costs that result in higher private health insurance premiums – more inflation. We must also follow up on the $300 million appropriated 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 recent 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. 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. We must improve our fragile energy infrastructure to keep power affordable, reliable and resilient to physical attacks, cyber attacks and weather.
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.
Kim Gillan
My top legislative priorities will be to address what Carbon County residents have shared: tackle property taxation on homeowners and small business, focusing on stopping the $200 million permanent increase and work to minimize the unfair shifts. I will look at all reasonable tax proposals, regardless of whether the sponsor is a Republican or a Democrat. I will also work on ensuring the future of rural health, and support extension of Medicaid Expansion. Another concern is the attraction, retention of quality educators for our rural public schools and work to stop siphoning off public dollars from public schools for private or charter schools.