This next Legislative Session will adjust education funding - something that happens only once every ten years. Our per-student funding formula isn't working; when enrollment drops, rural schools face huge budget cliffs. I'll work to raise the school inflation adjustment above the current 3% cap to reflect actual operating costs and increase the Quality Educator Payment to make rural teaching positions competitive (83% of Montana's teacher vacancies are in rural schools).
Many of us drive 30 minutes or more to see a doctor, and some can't afford to see one at all. We need to invest in rural clinics and telehealth infrastructure and increase Montana's Medicaid reimbursement rates so providers can work rurally and patients can get care. Medicaid saves our state money, grants 22% of our population access to essential healthcare that they deserve, and diverts what would be medical debt into spending in our own communities.
Our public lands are why many of us live here, and they should stay in public hands. I will fight for continued open access of our public lands and waterways for recreation, hunting, fishing, and sustainable development. I will also push to increase state fees for extraction and development on public lands in order to keep the Public Lands Trust better funded.
Our elected officials should work for you, not their own financial or political interests. If something isn't working for their consituents, they should fix it. I will support CI-131 and CI-132 that keep our Judiciary non-partisan, and I will fight for the Montana Plan to keep Montana politics clean. People over party, every time. Period.
I will work to increase the minimum wage and expand the Buy and Made in Montana programs. I will fight to massively invest in all form of infrastructure to grow Montana and its future economy. We need to make sure all generations continue to have a state that they can live in and enjoy.