Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, left, and challenger and Democrat Ryan Busse debate. (Screenshot of debate hosted by NonStop Local.)
Montanans have higher incomes and they’re more prosperous since Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte took office, he said — but Democratic challenger Ryan Busse said they’re struggling with high property taxes, housing and an out-of-touch governor.
In a gubernatorial debate Wednesday hosted by NonStop Local, former firearms executive Busse said he talked with a 68-year-old man in Whitefish who had to go back to work to pay his property taxes.
“This has always been a beautiful place to live, but the people who made it beautiful can’t afford to live here anymore,” Busse said the man told him.
But Gianforte, a former Congressman seeking his second term as governor, pointed to a teacher in Wibeaux who was finally able to buy her first home because his bid to raise starting teacher pay put more money in her pocket, $10,000 in three years.
“And that allowed her young family to buy a home,” Gianforte said.
In the debate held in NonStop Local’s Missoula studio and moderated by Bradley Warren, Ben Wineman and Mike Dennison, the candidates also discussed public lands, homelessness, energy, and other topics.
Moderators discuss debate between Gov. Greg Gianforte and challenger Ryan Busse. (Screenshot from NonStop Local.)
Busse took an aggressive stance against Gianforte in what was the only meetup between the candidates with ballots already in the hands of many voters. He repeatedly referred to Gianforte’s wealth and “private jet.”
He also reminded viewers of his opponent’s 2017 misdemeanor assault after he body-slammed a reporter, and his trip to Tuscany when the historic Yellowstone River floods wreaked havoc in the state in 2022.
In 2017, Gianforte apologized to the reporter, and in 2022, his office said he was returning home quickly, had been responding to the flooding emergency from afar, and immediately planned to tour disaster area Gardiner upon return.
During the debate, Gianforte presented his economic record as a win for Montanans, and in contrast to Busse’s attacks, admitted he agreed with some of his challenger’s stances, but he chastised the Democratic Biden-Harris administration.
For his own achievements, Gianforte pointed to “the largest tax cut in Montana history,” “record job creation and wage growth,” and making Montana “completely debt free.”
Watch the hour-long debate here. A recent poll had Gianforte leading 55% to Busse’s 36%.
Property taxes, high costs
Gianforte said one of the reasons Montanans are struggling financially is because of inflation and “the Biden-Harris affordability crisis.”
He agreed property taxes are a problem and said that’s one reason he supported property tax rebates for Montanans of nearly $1,300, but he blamed property tax increases on local governments.
“If we’re going to fix property taxes permanently, we’ve got to deal with local spending,” Gianforte said.
He pointed to a bipartisan task force he formed that presented recommendations for the 2025 legislative session, including a homestead exemption that would allow Montanans to pay lower rates and help renters, he said.
But Gianforte said he didn’t like the idea of simply lowering the tax rate to offset high reappraisals. For starters, he said, it would give a break to out-of-staters and jack up costs for small businesses and farms and ranches.
Busse, though, said Gianforte had the chance to fix the problem already, and he didn’t do so. Gianforte had a $2.6 billion surplus, and he “gave it away in big tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires like yourself,” Busse said.
“The rest of us were walloped with the highest property tax increases in the history of this state, and people across this state are hurting,” Busse said. “Now, you may not be hurting … you fly around in a private jet.”
He said four governors before Gianforte, two Democrats and two Republicans, had addressed reappraisals with lower tax rates, but Gianforte and a supermajority Republican legislature put the money in their budget instead.
“And folks at home, you are getting the bill for that,” Busse said.
Instead, Busse said, he would roll back rates to 2022 for all classes of property taxpayers so no one would pay more than they were paying then.
Housing affordability
Busse pointed right back to his solution for property taxes in response to how he would address the lack of affordable housing, in part.
He said it’s a problem that nurses, teachers and firefighters can’t afford to live in the towns where they work. But he said Gianforte is flying around the country touting a “Montana miracle” in housing when people are working three jobs to pay rent.
“Do you feel like you’re living through a Montana miracle?” Busse asked viewers.
He said he would use housing credits to help and the Department of Labor and Industry to get union crews working on building new homes — two ideas he said Gianforte won’t fund.
“We now have a less affordable state than the state of California, where Gov. Gianforte was born,” Busse said, one of a couple of times California played villain in the debate.
Gianforte, though, said the problem is supply and demand, and during the last decade, the population has grown more than 10%, but supply of housing has grown just 7%.
Yet he said his administration has “done more … to affect affordable housing than any other state in the country.” He pointed to his task force on property taxes as well.
He said his administration has quadrupled the number of apprentices in the building trades and is stripping back regulations, which he said account for 40% of the cost of a new home.
In the meantime, rents are “softening” in high cost places such as Bozeman and Missoula, he said, and 6,100 units are under construction in the Gallatin Valley.
“We’re making good progress on this problem,” Gianforte said.
Abortion and CI-128
Gianforte said abortion is a “passionate issue” for a lot of people, and he’s a pro-life candidate who plans to vote “no” on Constitutional Initiative 128, to enshrine the right to an abortion into the Montana Constitution.
He said the initiative is extreme and described it as “a California-style restriction.” Instead, he said, abortion issues needed to be handled with “compassion and consensus.”
“I think life is precious and should be protected,” Gianforte said.
He also said the initiative would mandate that parents don’t have to be notified if a minor child is getting an abortion, and it would require taxpayers to pay for abortions.
CI-128 does not directly reference minor children or Medicaid, although other bills and policies have. Earlier this year, the Montana Supreme Court found the state Constitution’s privacy clause means parental notification is unconstitutional in a decision Gianforte criticized.
A separate pair of bills about Medicaid payments are being litigated and under a temporary restraining order.
The language of CI-128 says it would “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability.” It also would prevent the government from penalizing providers or others who help people make decisions about their pregnancy.
Gianforte, however, said he wants a “culture of life” beyond pregnancy. He said Montana used to have the second highest number of children in foster care when he took office, for example, but it has moved the dial by promoting an adoption tax credit.
Busse said reasonable people can have different views on abortion, but he said the governor “should not be in the doctor’s office with women telling them what they can and can’t do.”
He said Gianforte has signed bills that curtail access to abortion and promised to sign even more, and Busse also pointed to the consequences in states that have restricted access to abortion.
“You have women being forced to flee the state when they need life-saving care from doctors,” Busse said.
He said he supports CI-128: “I will be a governor that makes this a live and let live place, and I will protect women.”
Public lands and access
Both candidates discussed public lands as part of Montana’s heritage, but Busse said Gianforte has tried to restrict access.
Busse said Gianforte is the only governor in the country to ever sue to block a public river access, and he made sure that the Republican Party included public lands transfer from the federal government to the state in its platform.
Busse also said the governor has had four years to legalize “corner crossing” and rein in out-of-state hunting pressure, but he’s failed to do so. He pointed to hunting results in northeast Montana as one example.
“There’s now more non-residents harvesting mule deer there than there are residents,” Busse said.
“Corner crossing” is stepping from one corner of public land to another where the corners of a parcels meet.
If it was legal, people could access more public lands — 930,000 acres, Busse said. It’s considered a gray area in Montana, according to Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in 2023 that it’s illegal.
A case out of Wyoming that involves a Montana group was heard in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in May, and an attorney in the case expects it will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to WyoFile.
Busse said he would unlock public lands, and he and his children were just hunting on them this past weekend.
“Public lands are integral to my life, to what I think the values of Montanans are, and to what we love,” Busse said.
Gianforte said he agreed with Busse that access to public lands should be expanded, and he’s proud of his record.
He said it includes 100,000 more acres of access in the Snowy Mountains, more block management to allow increased access to private lands, and more leases to 50,000 acres in Montana.
“Hunting and fishing is not something we engage in. It’s who we are as Montanans. It should be a bipartisan issue,” Gianforte said.
‘Head of the pack’ on homelessness
A national report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2023 found Montana had the steepest increase in homelessness in 15 years — 551% — and candidates were asked to address the problem.
“This is a tragedy,” Gianforte said.
He pointed to the $300 million for behavioral health that he supported in the 2023 session, the “largest investment ever made in Montana in behavioral health.” He said the money will help rebuild the state hospital at Warm Springs and bring back community-based mental health care.
Gianforte also said some of the revenue will support the HEART fund, which sends money to community-based nonprofits working on addiction and recovery.
But the governor said there’s another side of the coin, a positive one, and that’s helping people pay for homes. In that regard, he said, Montana has made progress on his watch.
“Wages have gone up in Montana faster than 48 other states,” Gianforte said.
Busse, though, said people are living in campers and in tents in Montana, and Gianforte has bypassed opportunities to help.
For one thing, he said, Gianforte “kicked 136,000 people off of health care” in Montana, including children, and those are some of the people who are on the streets. When people call the state health department, he said, they don’t get answers.
“They wouldn’t pick up the phone for nine and 10 hours,” Busse said. “These are the kind of people we’re putting on the street.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal government kept people on Medicaid, but after the health emergency passed, it required states to verify people still qualified.
A state report in June said 115,000 adults and 36,000 children lost coverage; state officials have said they were ensuring those using the program were indeed eligible, but some patients have blamed the health department for leaving them out unfairly.
Energy and climate change
Busse’s sons were plaintiffs in the historic youth climate case, Held vs. Montana, and he said when it comes to climate change, he understands that “reality is actually here.”
“Climate change is real, and it’s impacting the jobs of every single Montanan,” Busse said. “It’s impacting our lives.”
In the case, 16 youths alleged the state of Montana wasn’t adhering to the state Constitution’s promise of a clean and healthful environment when it came to greenhouse gas emissions. A district court judge agreed, and the case is pending in the Montana Supreme Court.
But Busse said Gianforte is looking to the past even as a changing climate delivers severe natural disasters in Montana, such as the historic Yellowstone River flooding with structures floating down the river.
He said drought is affecting fly fishing guides, cafe owners, lodge owners and others. He said he will support new ideas, such as small scale nuclear power at Colstrip and an “all of the above strategy,” rather than flying overseas in a crisis.
“I want to be a governor for the future,” Busse said.
Gianforte, though, said the country has climate extremists who want to shut down power sources. He said they want to tell people the kinds of cars to drive and stoves to use, but he favors an “all of the above” strategy.
He said he supports the coal fired plant at Colstrip, he likes innovation over regulation in energy, and he backs hydro, solar and nuclear power.
“Just recently, I helped cut the ribbon on the new Clearwater Wind project north of Miles City,” Gianforte said.
In their closing remarks, Gianforte said he loves the job, it has been the greatest honor of his life, and he wants to continue finding ways to “help Montana prosper.”
Busse said the choice for voters is “stark,” and he wants to fight for Montana to be a “live and let live place.”