Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, discusses Democrats’ legislative priorities for the 2025 session on Oct. 16, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
Democrats in the Montana Legislature say Republicans squandered a $2 billion surplus last session, and Democrats plan to spend the 2025 session focusing on making life more affordable for Montanans despite likely still being a minority party in both the House and Senate.
They hope to make the state’s tax structure more friendly to middle- and lower-income people, to reduce property taxes for the same group, and to ensure Medicaid expansion is extended during next year’s session, two Democratic senators said Wednesday.
Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, and Sen. Shannon O’Brien, a Missoula Democrat vying for the Superintendent of Public Instruction position this November, gave a broad outline of the party’s goals for 2025.
While they said Democrats are happy with the candidates they are running and hope to pick up two or three seats at least in both chambers so Republicans cannot pass veto-proof bills if they choose, they acknowledge they will likely not be in the majority and will have to work with Republicans to pass any legislation of theirs.
But they say the addressing property taxes and the cost-of-living, which has skyrocketed during the past four years for many in Montana, being sure health care is available for all Montanans, and ensuring they receive high-quality public educations, are their top priorities.
“As Montana Democrats, our bottom line is we believe the state government should be serving the people of Montana. That’s our most important job,” Flowers said. “…Based on all of our conversations we’ve had knocking doors and (with) our friends and family, I think what Montanans are hoping for right now is just a fair shake, and that’s not happening in every case.”
Democrats maintain that Gov. Greg Gianforte and Republican lawmakers are to blame for the increase in property taxes most Montana homeowners experienced last year when the Republican supermajority in the Legislature failed to change the tax rate as suggested by the Department of Revenue. They instead passed a program to give out $675 property tax credits this year and last that homeowners had to apply for to offset the increases.
Flowers and O’Brien said Democrats’ proposal to offer homestead exemptions and other tax credits and cuts for lower- and middle-income Montanans has largely remained unchanged from when they first presented it this summer, and said Wednesday it will be a key piece of their agenda next year.
Sen. Shannon O’Brien, D-Missoula, and Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, discuss Democrats’ legislative priorities for the 2025 session on Oct. 16, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
Flowers said those proposals will be ready on the first day of the session in January and are already being drafted by legislative staff. Flowers said their homestead exemption proposal is both “similar and different” to that of the Governor’s Property Tax Task Force, and that Democrats were open to try to find middle ground that can “dovetail” with the task force’s proposal.
“The bottom line is it doesn’t really matter whose proposal it is, as long as it serves Montanans and puts Montanans first, and ensures that lower income and middle-income Montanans are able to stay in their homes,” Flowers said.
The Legislature will also consider whether to extend the expanded Medicaid program that has been in place in Montana since 2015 and allows the government to help provide more people with health care coverage.
Flowers said the bipartisan policy has been a “resounding success” that has cut the uninsured rate in half and reduced the number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
“I think there are lots of Republicans, and obviously lots of Democrats, who understand how important our current program with Medicaid has been for Montana, both the rural health care and just in the lives of the families that have gotten insurance and health care out of that,” Flowers said. “And I think in the end, that’s what’s going to drive that negotiation, is our recognition that we need to keep this in place in order to keep Montana families healthy.”
He said Democrats were hopeful to improve the program, making it easier for Montanans to enroll in and maintain coverage until they are ready to move over to private insurance. Flowers called renewing the expansion a “top priority” for Democrats and for some Republicans as well.
O’Brien, who faces Republican Susie Hedalen in the superintendent of OPI race, said addressing the teacher shortage crisis and boosting starting teacher pay would also be a top priority. She said 1,300 teachers left the profession altogether this past summer, as did one-third of all first-year teachers after their first year.
She said that is due in large part to teachers, especially in more rural areas of Montana, not being paid enough to afford housing and the rest of the costs of having a family. She said Democrats would introduce legislation increasing teacher salaries a year after lawmakers boosted their benefits last year.
The two acknowledged that having affordable child care, and for facilities to hire and retain staff, is also a big piece of the affordability puzzle in Montana currently. Flowers noted that Democratic Rep. Alice Buckley, of Bozeman, was able to get her Best Beginnings scholarship eligibility expansion bill signed by Gianforte, and said another boost to that program would likely be on the horizon, along with some other proposals he said were still scant on details.
O’Brien said Democratic lawmakers would also be focused on letting local governments maintain control of some of the larger decisions surrounding housing and education in particular and hoped that the state government would “get out of the way” and let local government be responsive to their community’s needs.
While Flowers said Democrats expect more Republican bills that Democrats see as attacks on groups of Montanans — some have pointed to legislation that affects people who are transgender as an example — or the state Constitution to come forward again next session, he believes that some of the largest issues facing Montana can be addressed through bipartisanship.
“Rest assured, some of these key issues are truly bipartisan,” he said. “We’re talking, ad trying to figure out solutions that both Republicans and Democrats can support.”