The candidates for State Senate District 38 and House District 75 gathered in Boulder Oct. 10 for a public forum focused on state and regional challenges, in a substantive, mostly conflict-free discussion that nonetheless exposed significant differences in political perspective and legislative strategy.
The evening was not without partisan jabs. Both Democrat challengers cast themselves as upstart foes of the Republican hegemony that has dominated the Legislature in recent sessions. “I’m running to represent Jefferson County, because the last Legislature failed,” said Nancy Jane Lien, a Democrat from Whitehall who is aiming to unseat HD75’s Republican Marta Bertoglio of Clancy. The “Republican super-majority,” Lien added, “elevated culture war issues over the business of the people of the state of Montana, and it’s time for a change.”
Likewise, said Jeffrey Benson, a retired business consultant who is challenging Republican Becky Beard in SD38, “I’m representing the people. That’s why I’m running. And the people are saying the way that they’re doing things in Helena is wrong. This tax debacle is wrong. All the programs that the [Governor Greg] Gianforte administration is doing have been hurtful to people. They’ve made this somebody else’s playground. I would change that.”
The incumbents, in turn, spoke to their legislative records: Beard, who co-owns an engineering consulting firm with her husband, has served for four terms in Helena, and Bertoglio, a realtor, two. “Public service is important to me,” Bertoglio said. “And I strongly believe we need leaders at the state level who have a breadth of experience and knowledge and the ability to forge relationships that will result in laws enabling Montanans to thrive.”
But both acknowledged that the 2023 Legislature had fallen short on important issues, and that work remained. Bertoglio said she supported a proposal to increase property taxes for out-of-state owners of second homes, easing the burden for owners of primary residences and long-term rentals. Beard, who heads the Senate’s interim tax committee, noted that she questioned the state’s controversial application last year of a 95-mill school equalization tax, and said, “we are looking at mitigating that faux pas in statutes for next year.”
HD75 encompasses most of Jefferson County. SD38, which was radically redistricted in 2023, includes the majority of Jefferson as well as Powell and Granite Counties, extending as far west as Seeley Lake in Missoula County.
That is largely rural territory, and some of the evening’s discussion focused on challenges peculiar to small and geographically disparate communities. Asked about the tensions emerging between land development, infrastructure and open space, Beard said, “We have a lot of back and forth about people coming in buying all our land. That’s a private property right; you can sell your land to whoever you want.” Benson agreed, but noted that the state’s stream access law is “what’s being infringed on. That’s being taken away from us. Traditional hunting and fishing areas being restricted. That’s got to stop.”
Beard flashed her conservative credentials throughout the forum. She recalled that she entered politics because she heard too often from rural communities that they couldn’t pay for state-mandated water and sewer projects. Asked about the right balance between taxation and economic development, she responded: “I like the free market. It drives competition and good, solid business. We want growth, but the more government gets involved, the more taxation we have to face.” She later indicated that she opposed a higher property tax rate for higher value homes because, “I do not believe in discriminating against people who are successful.”
Asked about the state’s Constitutional Initiative 128, which would ensure women’s access to abortion services, Beard said, “I do not like to legislate morality. However, I believe as a Christian woman, as a Christian person, as a mother, that life begins at conception. And I do not want to carry a bill that says we have to provide abortion.”
Benson, who has positioned himself as pro-choice, said the state Supreme Court’s recent decisions to block bills that would restrict abortions were appropriate reactions to instances “where the Legislature overstepped.” CI-128, he said, “will put it to bed once and for all. And to be honest, it’s none of your damned business.”
On a question about legal marijuana sales and its potential effects on health, Bertoglio said: “I never wanted marijuana in our state in the first place, [and] I would appreciate if we had more control over how many [marijuana dispensaries] there are out there. It is not good for our state. It’s not good for our citizens, and I do not like it.”
Lien responded that “legalizing marijuana has been good for the state of Montana’s revenue. I think it was a great idea to spend [marijuana excise tax proceeds] on county roads. And I think that it comes down to individual choice. It’s not the government’s job to say this is bad, this is good, this is what you should do.”
But much of the evening’s discussion came around to property taxes, and to the dramatic increases in assessments last year. Joy Lewis, a Basin resident, noted that, “I watch people around me just struggling to pay their property taxes, and you all voted for what Gianforte wanted.”
Bertoglio responded that “we have county services to fund, so not passing levies is not the answer.” That said, “I would like to see primary residents [have] their tax rates lowered, and that would shift to people with second homes to make up the difference.”
Lien said that “the solution the governor should have done before the Legislature ever met was to reduce the percentage rate of our property valuation to its current 1.26. It wasn’t proposed.” She added that the governor’s proposal to ease Montanans’ tax burden, including a so-called homestead exemption, amounted to “shell games that have prevented the government from providing long term property relief. And that is really the goal here.”
Listen to the Monitor candidate forum at bit.ly/monitorforumaudio
