Rep. Curtis Cochran

1. What’s your plan to keep young people from leaving rural communities?

We keep searching for ways to enhance job opportunities and attracting new industry, support the timber industry. In 25 session we passed the Sawmill Revitalization Act. We passed the Homestead Act to reduce residential property taxes, which will help young families to afford to live in rural Montana.

2. How would you handle conflicts between agricultural use, conservation, and development?

Local control to me is the best. We have local planning boards and conservation districts with a wealth of people and knowledge about our area. The state needs to support them and stay out of the way.

3. Rural hospitals are closing across the country—what would you do to keep facilities open in districts like ours?

The 25 session we renewed the Help Act. One way we supported keeping the doors open for our Rural Hospitals.

4. What role should the state play in addressing provider shortages?

One thing recently the State has changed the rules for Physician Assistants, allowing more flexibility for PAs to work in rural areas.

5. How should the state fund infrastructure without overburdening rural taxpayers?

We passed the Growth and Opportunity Trust. Designed to eventually replace the coal trust we have relied on for years. The trust is a great tool to grow interest and automatically deposit interest earnings in six different buckets. Obligated pensions, housing, tax relief fund, water fund, and a local road and bridge account. The GO Trust is a smart conservative way to invest in the future without raising taxes down the road in future times of uncertainty.

6. How would you address teacher shortages in rural schools?

The Stars Act is a good one. The Student and Teacher Advancement for Results and Success. A bipartisan law aimed at raising starting teachers' salaries, with qualifying incentives.

7. How can the state better support vocational and trade education?

The other part of the STARS Act is to enhance CTE’s Career and Technical training opportunities for Middle and high school students.

8. What changes, if any, would you make to Montana’s tax structure, and how would that impact rural residents?

With the Homestead Act we overhauled property taxes for the first time since 2009. It’s not perfect and needs more work. One thing on the radar is an initiative to cap property tax increases at 2%.

9. What would be your top three spending priorities — and what would you cut if necessary?

Transportation., public safety and education.

The job of the Legislature is defined in the Montana Constitution. Article X Section 1 says the Legislature shall provide a free and quality education. As far as cutting programs. We are constantly looking for ways to cut red tape and unnecessary regulations in all departments.

10. What role should the state play in managing wildfire risk?

Wildfire is the number one natural hazard Montana communities face. From Frenchtown to Lookout our entire district lies in the Lolo National Forest Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). The MTDNRC forestry division supports many programs dealing with fire mitigation and preparedness. The Good Neighbor Authority program partners with the Forest Service on large scale harvest projects throughout our area and needs our continued support.

11. How will you stay accessible to constituents across a large, rural district?

As an elected official my cellphone and email are public knowledge. [email protected] 406-280-0081

12. What does representing rural Montana values mean to you in practice?

Representing rural Montana values as a citizen legislator is easy for me. Growing up in this area my entire life (70 years} I made up my mind a long time ago to call this place home. We hunt, we fish, we work hard at any occupation we can figure out. We watch out for each others kids and support our neighbors in everything. That is the Montana Way

13. How do you evaluate whether a bill is good or bad for your district?

A good rule of thumb I use is the 4 Cs. Constituents, our two awesome constitutions, and your conscience. How will this affect folks in my area? Is it constitutional? And often you just have to vote your commonsense conscience.

14. What’s one issue in this district you think is misunderstood by people in Helena?

In my first session in Helena I was constantly reminding other elected officials of where I’m from and our story. We have lost over 3000 jobs in our area in just the last 25 years. Three sawmills, plywood mills, the pulp mill. I tell them I’m old enough to remember when we had 35 mills in the State and a billion-dollar industry when eastern Montana had very little. Now, they have oil, gas, coal, ag and we have five mills left.

15. In your opinion, what are the three most important things government should do?

State government priorities. Pass a balanced biennial budget, remain debt free. Protect the public safety of citizens.