Hingham farmer, aviator challenges for House seat

A local farmer and aviator is challenging a Republican representative in the 2014 primary in a district that stretches from the Canadian border to Great Falls.

Darrold Hutchinson, who farms north of Hingham, said the spending increases in the last Legislature were, in his mind, far too much and he wants new money coming into the state through natural resource harvesting, including agriculture, forestry, oil and natural gas and mining.

"If we're going to grow some wealth in Montana, we need some more new money," he said at a meeting of the local Pachyderm Club Friday in Havre.

He also said the state spending increase, which he said was 17 percent to 18 percent, approved by the last Legislature was "to me, a very significant amount of money."

Hutchinson said he thinks the state spending should grow at zero, "maybe even a 5 percent cut."

Hutchinson faces incumbent Rep. Roy Hollingsworth, R-Brady, in the June 3 primary.

The winner of that race will face Democrat Rob Laas of Chester in the Nov. 4 general election.

Hutchinson said he grew up on his family's farm in southeast Wyoming, then earned a degree in vocational agricultural education from the University of Wyoming and taught for two years.

He then had the opportunity to come to the Hi-Line to take over the farm, north of Hingham, of the family of his wife, Mary, whom he married 38 years ago, Hutchinson said

The couple has raised three sons, all graduates of Montana State University in Bozeman, a mathematician, a civil engineer and a computer engineer.

While he has not held a state elected office, Hutchinson said he has testified before the Legislature, served on the Hill County Weed District Board and served in agricultural aviation boards including the National Agriculture Aviation Association, where he also served as chair of its constitution and bylaws committee.

He said he wanted to make one issue clear.

"Politicians always stand up and they say, 'well, I want more jobs and I want to cut government spending.' It's pretty much old hat," Hutchinson said. "Just to clear the air on that, I'm in favor of that, too, and that's all I'm going to say."

Hutchinson said the spending increases by the state last session would be high rates of returns in an investment. With bank savings accounts earning about one-half of 1 percent, conservative investments earning about 5 percent, moderate investments about 7 percent to 10 percent and aggressive investments 10 percent to about 15 percent, it seems like investing in the state would be a good idea, with spending increases of 17 percent to 18 percent, he said.

"If you could invest in the state you would get a better rate of return," he said, adding, "I know we wouldn't do that because if you gave the state $10,000 you wouldn't see it again they would spend it."

When asked where he would find a 5 percent cut in state spending, Hutchinson said he would advocate an across-the-board cut, preventing people from protecting their favorite programs - people always want cuts to come from someone else's program but never their own, he said.

He said he wants to see increased use of Montana's natural resources, which would bring new money to the state and create new jobs. But, Hutchinson said, he is basically a conservationist and wants the state to protect the environment while doing so.

"The way I look at this, we need to do our dishes, we need to clean the kitchen on the way," he said. "We don't need to leave a mess behind."

Analysis: State general fund growth clarified

In response to a request from legislators, the Montana Legislative Fiscal Division last month issued a memo detailing what the growth in total state spending was, which is considerably less than the 14.2 percent increase reported in the general fund spending.

The memo says that figure relies on the traditional reporting method and includes several variables which can be difficult to compute.

An analysis of the spending in all funds, rather than just on the general fund, shows state appropriations decreased slightly in the 2013 biennium, down 2.1 percent from the 2011 biennium. The same analysis shows a 4.3 percent increase in the appropriations for the 2015 biennium approved by the last Legislature and adjusted and signed into law by the governor.

The memo says if the total amount of spending is examined, the increase for the 2015 biennium is 2.2 percent.

Online: http://leg.mt.gov/content/Publications/fiscal/interim/2014_financemty_March/biennial-comparison.pdf.