House leader cites Helena experience

After representing a state House district in the heart of the Flathead Valley for the last eight years, Republican Keith Regier says his experience and multiple leadership roles in the Montana Legislature make him the best candidate for Senate District 3.

The sitting House majority leader from Kalispell is running to claim the seat held since 2009 by Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, who has reached his term limit after eight years in the upper house.

Regier is being challenged by Don Kaltschmidt in the GOP primary race for the June 7 election.

Regier has also termed out of his current seat, but said he believes his record reflects the conservative values of the neighboring Senate district, which extends north from Kalispell and includes the West Valley and Whitefish.

“I’ve been elected four times in the House. I identify with the values the people of the Flathead Valley have — conservative, principled values,” Regier said.

Regier cites lowering taxes as his top priority if elected and said he believes the $300 million general fund ending balance that Gov. Steve Bullock has defended as a “rainy day fund” could be safely cut down to $100 million to $150 million.

“The state has had a surplus for over 13 years, even through the recession, and it just tells me we’re collecting too much from the taxpayers,” he said. “We need to leave some in the economy, and that in turn would stimulate the economy.”

He wants to eliminate the business equipment tax and lower the state’s income and property taxes.

Infrastructure is already emerging on the campaign trail as an issue the 2017 Legislature will likely address, and Regier defended his role in narrowly defeating a last-minute compromise bill in the House last session.

He opposes bonding if the money exists in the general fund and panned the bill for supporting building projects like a new museum in Helena, which he deemed a “low priority” compared to repairs to roads, bridges and water systems.

“What I’ve got in mind is an infrastructure bill that would divide the state into regions, designate ‘x’ amount to each region, and having cities, counties and schools apply for those funds,” he said.

He noted that while Medicaid expansion passed, it was less extensive than the version pushed by Gov. Steve Bullock’s administration. Regier said he also succeeded in passing multiple bills to strengthen the state’s DUI laws.

“It takes several sessions to work into leadership, to build that rapport and respect on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “I’m the type of person that works with people.”

Regier said he prefers to lead from the front lines, using the example of the water compact between the state and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes: “I was bringing amendments to the floor along with other people. I wasn’t saying, ‘Now you and you go do this.’ I was right there with them.”

He opposes a local-option sales tax for Kalispell and wants the state to take a more active role guarding against aquatic invasive species, such as cross-training weigh station employees to perform boat checks.

Local Child and Family Services officials have told him there are significant problems within the state agency, but he said the Legislature has a limited ability to fix them.

“It’s more of the governor’s issue, getting the right director in there who is going to run the department right and have these people managed in a good way,” he said. “The people I talked to said it’s not about the pay, it’s the working conditions.”

He also offered overall support for measures intended to transfer federal lands to state ownership, but said it would have to be done systematically, with the federal government retaining at least some of the liability for wildfires.

Regier noted that Kaltschmidt, his GOP opponent, has not held public office before.

Regier and other members of the Republican leadership in Helena opposed many major bills to emerge during last year’s session, including the infrastructure bill, the water compact and Medicaid expansion.

While they succeeded in their opposition to the infrastructure bill, a sharp division emerged between the leadership’s more conservative wing of the party and “moderate” Republicans who sided with Democrats to pass the other measures.

“I think leadership did a good job with who we had to work with and what we had,” he said, but conceded that the session was not a success overall. “There were those liberal Republicans that sided with the Democrats, and there wasn’t anything the leadership could do on things like the compact and Medicaid expansion.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.