Legislative Updates

The future of the United States of America rests upon the quality of education our children receive. We need to teach the future leaders of our country to love this country by going

back to the basics often. 

“Every member of the State ought diligently to read and study the constitution of his  country, and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.”

-John Jay

First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Parents must be at the forefront of their child’s education, and it’s important that we have more choice in our education system so parents and kids can find the best solution that fits their unique individual learning needs. 

We also need to get politics out of the classroom and end the woke social agenda infecting our schools. Let’s teach kids how to think – not what to think. Let’s focus on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. And above all, we need to limit the Department of Education’s footprint in our classrooms.

Click on the following ling to see the "Purpose of Education Index":

https://publications.standtogether.org/purpose-of-education-index-populace-2023/full-view.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=STTOGTR_welc-k12_na_525603_k12-populacerpt-welcome3&utm_content=text1

I will sponsor, co-sponsor, or support a bill in the Montana Legislature only if it meets what I have come to know as the LIFT Principles. I want to have a good culture and a good society; therefore, I will judge individual pieces of legislation utilizing these four principles:

1. Limited government

In our particular form of constitutional republic “We The People” authorized certain powers in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution and we defined the jurisdiction in which we limit the government.

“In questions of powers, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief with the chains of the constitution.”

Thomas Jefferson, 2nd President of the United States

2. Individual liberties

The job of government is to protect rights, not give rights. The first ten amendments to the constitution, the Bill of Rights, do just that, protect your rights. The post-911 Patriot Act remains one of the most flagrant violators of your rights that has ever passed congress and signed in to law, all due to fear.

3. Free enterprise

Free enterprise is where profit is rewarded, skill is rewarded, and labor is rewarded. Ethical free enterprise produces great results.

4. Timeless truths

There are certain principles and truths, moral absolutes that do not change. Going against timeless truths damage the culture, just as we see today. Without morality you cannot have liberty. You get that morality from religion.

Additionally, as active citizens, we must reign in our federal government in the following three ways:

Impose fiscal restraints

Limit its power and jurisdiction

Impose term limits on its high ranking officials

As a citizen, you need to know how to measure the promises of your representative, how to measure the proposed policies, and how to measure your representative so you know if they’re being a good steward of your responsibility as a citizen, a good steward of your vote, and a good steward of your influence in the culture.

In 2022 the State of Montana over-collected taxes from property tax payers and income tax payers. The $4 billion over-collection should have been refunded to those who paid, but only $1.2 billion was returned to the tax payer. What happened to the retained $2.8 billion?

Fergus county experienced a 51% increase in property values and property owners are paying a commensurate increase in property tax all in one year. Is that fair? Does that make sense?

The Central Montana agriculture community now sees big money come in the buy up large tracts of land at prices local farmers and ranchers cannot afford to compete with. Then these big money purchasers are taking these large tracts of trophy land out of agricultural production, but continue to pay agriculture taxes. Central Montana communities lose out on all the financial activity that productive land owners would pay. We need to find a way to reclassify those acres into a tax bracket that makes up for that loss in local revenue.