As Republicans enter 2025 with a smaller but still powerful majority in the Montana Legislature, Flathead Valley lawmakers expressed optimism about the body’s ability to shape Montana’s most critical policy areas.
After a decade-long redistricting process that reshaped Montana’s legislative boundaries, Republicans will hold 59 of the 100 seats in the state House and 32 of the 50 seats in the Senate in 2025. historic supermajority the party that was held in 2023.
Republicans have criticized the new districts as “gerrymandered” after the chairman of the state redistricting commission broke with the Democrats on the new map. Democrats, however, are saying more about the map reflects accurately Democrats’ vote share in the state, rather than splitting blue areas into red districts, which would help the Republican party perform better.
“We had a liberal redistricting commission, that was clear,” said Montana House Speaker Matt Regier, who was elected to serve in the Senate starting in 2025. “They redrew the districts, and we held our ground.”
Regier is one of three Flathead Valley Republicans elected to the Senate on Tuesday. Joining him in Helena will be 11 Republican state House members from the Flathead and two remaining Republican senators, John Fuller and Mark Noland, who failed to seek re-election this year.
“I’m excited about the Senate. I think we have a great makeup,” Regier said.
The Flathead Valley will too for the first time since 2019 send two Democrats to Helena. Former state Rep. Dave Fern will move to the Senate, and retired teacher Debo Powers will move to the House of Representatives.
Fern told the Beacon on Wednesday: “The Democrats have done quite well in the Montana House and we see a working coalition coming together in the Senate. You could attribute that to a few things: redistricting and spreading that concentration of Democrats, and then hard work by the candidates. But overall, this is a very Republican, fairly conservative area with a hint of libertarian views.”
Lawmakers will be charged with navigating a complex set of policy issues, starting with property taxes have increased exponentially in recent years and become one central talking point for candidates this election cycle, especially Democrats, who blame the tax increases on the Republican Legislature and Governor Greg Gianforte.
The average homeowner in Montana saw their property taxes increase by 21% annually through 2023. analysis by the Montana Free Press. The tax increases followed Montana’s first real estate assessment cycle after the state experienced explosive growth during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, which sent home prices soaring, especially in booming areas like the Flathead and Gallatin Valleys.
Republican state Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, who was subsequently re-elected on Tuesday ward off an ultra-conservative primary challenger in June, say lawmakers are considering a number of proposals to reduce property taxes.
One such proposal is a reconfiguration of the state’s school funding formula.
Currently, each school district in Montana determines the rate at which it taxes local property owners to fill its base budget – a complex calculation determined by the district’s taxable value, the number of taxpayers within the district, and the school’s budgetary needs. district. Under this system, there are hundreds of different school rates in Montana, creating a tax structure that education experts say is “almost impossible” to understand. The formula favors small school districts in wealthy tax-base areas, such as resort areas and natural resource hubs, while lower-income areas bear a higher tax burden.
To address inequality among communities and balance the burden on taxpayers, education advocates have forced the state to introduce leveled factories for the entire countrywhich they say will lower taxes for most Montanans.
Sprunger said reconfiguring rates is a way to maintain adequate funding for public education while protecting Flathead Valley residents “from continued increases” in their tax bill.
Representative Courtenay Sprunger attends Kalispell Public School’s Charting New Opportunities event on October 3, 2024. Hunter D’Antuono | Flat beacon
It is expected that the Legislature will consider a homestead exemption that would allow tax deductions for individuals whose primary residence is in Montana. There have also been discussions, Sprunger said, about creating a separate tax code for owners of second homes and vacation homes. Lawmakers can also impose a “reasonable limit on local government spending,” Sprunger said, calling rising taxes “an unmanageable burden on the people of Montana.”
Lawmakers will also be tasked with deciding whether or not to renew Medicaid expansionwhich was the last authorized by the state legislature in 2019 and is expected to disappear by 2025.
Under the program, which was implemented through the Affordable Care Act, individuals at 138% of the federal poverty level or lower are eligible to enroll in Medicaid. Coverage is largely funded by the federal government but administered at the state level. If Medicaid expansion fails, more than 85,000 Montanans will leave the country may lose health insurance.
Regier said “there is clearly a feeling” that the program will not be extended, adding that lawmakers included the sunset clause in the 2019 bill so they could “take another look at the program.”
Gianforte offered mixed messages on his support for Medicaid expansion, saying that while the state must provide a safety net, individuals must work to get coverage. Conservative think tanks have done that took advantage of the opportunity to oppose the program, calling it bloated and burdensome.
Fern, the Whitefish Democrat, has done just that expressed strong support for reauthorizing Medicaid expansion, saying it will keep rural health care systems afloat while helping working Montanans.
Republican supporters wave a GOP flag at the Flathead County Fairgrounds in Kalispell on November 8, 2022. Hunter D’Antuono | Flat beacon
Flathead Valley Republicans have a long list of policy goals, including enacting penalties for undocumented immigrants in Montana, increasing funding for law enforcement, curbing the power of the judiciary and exempting Social Security checks for seniors from taxes.
Talk to the beacon after the electionsIncoming freshman lawmaker Lukas Schubert said his top priorities will be “dealing with immigration” and abolishing Montana’s nonpartisan judicial races, which he said are “insanely corrupt” and should be partisan like legislative elections.
As a retired law enforcement officer, newly elected lawmaker Steve Kelly said he has an “intimate understanding of the criminal justice system.” Kelly hopes to increase support for law enforcement, including improving state investigations and increasing jail capacity.
While the legislature has passed some abortion restrictions in 2023, powers to restrict the procedure will be limited by the passage of CI-128, a constitutional initiative that protects access to abortion in Montana.
“It has permanently changed our ability to protect the unborn,” said Regier, who has been the architect of several anti-abortion laws.
Governor Greg Gianforte signs two bills from Rep. into law on June 9, 2023. Courtenay Spunger at the old courthouse in Kalispell. Hunter D’Antuono | Flat beacon
While Republicans retain a final majority in Helena, they will have to deal with divisions within their diverse party, which is swinging from moderate Solutions Caucus lawmakers to hardline members of the Freedom Caucus.
Some of the state’s most critical policy decisions, including Medicaid expansion in 2019, passed by narrow margins as some Republicans joined Democrats in pushing the bill across the finish line.
Sprunger, who rose to fame in 2023 for her bipartisan work, said she will “work with everyone to make sure people can get where they need to go safely and efficiently,” adding that Republicans will “have a conservative mindset” and ‘ to consider all Montanans.
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