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Tester praises Bear Paw Development

A U.S. senator Friday had high praise for the local economic development agency that serves in his own backyard.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, who grew up and farms west of Big Sandy in the midst of the five-county, two Indian reservation region Bear Paw Development Corp. serves as an economic development agency, was keynote speaker for Bear Paw's 45th annual meeting.

"Congratulations on 45 successful years in a partnership that has included spending, or should I say investing, tax dollars from the federal government, the state government, local government, cities and towns, local entities to encourage economic development and to empower people to be able to succeed and, in some cases, to see their dreams come true," Tester said.

Tester said he attended his first Bear Paw annual meeting 16 years ago. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the keynote speaker that year.

"Max talked about how hard it was to secure money for economic development for organizations like Bear Paw," Tester said. "But because of your good work, because of work that Bear Paw has done that provided concrete results, it made it possible to get the dollars."

Tester said he would continue to work to fund programs that help Bear Paw, although it is the same scenario today.

"Even though 16 years ago the Clinton Administration was running budget surpluses, there were folks still out there that thought spending any money on economic development was not a good idea. There were folks out there that were in favor of little or no government. There were folks out there that were actually in favor of a government shutdown. Some things never change," Tester said. "But, thank God, Bear Paw, in the last 45 years, has not changed either. They continue to be an effective job creator for north-central Montana, and we are thankful for that."

For example, he said, Bear Paw took less than a million dollars in federal investment in infrastructure in 2013 and turned that into more than $7 million in community infrastructure projects.

But that is just a small part of what Bear Paw does, he added - over 45 years, the nonprofit also has helped small businesses grow, strengthened the economy, helped farmers add value to their products, and helped new businesses and business owners deal with business and finance, costs and regulations.

"You have helped create jobs. You have helped build a stronger Montana economy and raise the quality of life in our state," Tester said. "These are things we should never take for granted."

 

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