Meyers outlines policies before GOP group

Less than two years after state Rep. Bruce Meyers, R-Box Elder, was elected to the Montana House of Representatives, the freshman lawmaker is running for the state Senate.

Meyers is mounting a campaign for Senate District 16 seat which spans from Box Elder eastward toward Glendive and includes Fort Peck, Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy's Indian reservations and neighboring rural property.

Meyers is unopposed in the primary.

Democrats have three candidates vying to run for the seat: LeAnn Montes, attorney general for the Chippewa Cree Tribe, and Bobbi Jo Favel, both from Rocky Boy, and former State legislator Frank Smith of Poplar.

Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder is unable to run for re-election due to term limits and will instead be running for Meyers' House seat.

The winner of the June 7 primary will face Meyers in the general election.

Democrats usually win reservations by lopsided margins, but Meyers told a gathering of the local Pachyderms Club Friday, that American Indians embrace many of the values espoused by the Republican Party, such as conservative stances on social issues and what he deems the "responsible use of resources."

He said that after his upset win against incumbent State Rep. Clarena Brockie, D-Hays, many Democrats later told him he was the first Republican they ever voted for.

Meyers said, based on his conversation with Native voters, many cast their ballots for Democrats because that is what they had always done.

He said an increasing number of American Indians, along with many farmers and ranchers in House District 32, are growing frustrated with dependence on social welfare programs.

Meyers said there needs to be responsible limits placed on government.

Meyers said his family briefly lived in Chicago when he was in junior high, after his father was encouraged by an official of the Bureau Indian Affairs to pursue training in welding and mechanics.

Meyers said a year after the move, his mother wanted to move back to the reservation so badly that they drove back to Rocky Boy, where he had been born, on bald tires.

His father then started the first automotive repair shop on the reservation.

It was watching that business grow, Meyers said, that he learned about the importance of private enterprise and community.

Meyers went to several colleges and has worked in higher education, social work and public health promotion. He has also worked for the Montana Jobs Corps and was coordinator for the Montana Governor's Office of Indian Affairs during the administration of Gov. Judy Martz.

Meyers said, like many lawmakers, he has had to withstand pressures from various interest groups seeking to influence his stand on a given piece of legislation.

Meyers said he has a simple way of determining on how he votes: conscience first, constituents second, his stand on issues third and party last.

"I found that, for me, as long as I could do that, I could go back to the Legislature day after day after day and face the pressure," he said.

After speaking to the audience, Meyers sat down for an interview with the Havre Daily News and detailed his positions on several key issues.

Medicaid Expansion

During his brief time as a lawmaker, Meyers has bucked his party on a few occasions, most notably last session when he joined Democrats and a contingent of Republicans to pass legislation expanding Medicaid.

Meyers said many people in his district live in poverty and don't have access to adequate health care.

He said the expansion is expensive and able-bodied people should provide their own health care, but said people are sometimes in circumstances through no fault of their own.

Meyers said rural areas should build up their health care infrastructure in areas such as telemedicine and the use of licensed nurse practitioners.

Reservation Housing

More must be done to remedy the shortage of housing on reservations, he said.

In the short term, he said an assessment should be done of those homes that are in disrepair to find out which ones are salvageable and use local labor to do the work.

A more long-term solution, Meyers said, would be for reservations to use more of their own resources such as timber and manpower to build housing, rather than have the federal government provide second hand units.

Meyers said The Chippewa Cree Tribe at Rocky Boy recently purchased a mobile saw mill, something that could help provide not only new housing but jobs.

He said people on the reservation could receive training to be electricians and plumbers through programs provided by tribal colleges or Montana State University-Northern.

Sales tax

Meyers said he would advocate the creation of a state sales tax.

Montana is one of only five states that does not have such a tax.

He said such a tax would be a way for the state to generate revenue from the flow of tourism, that could be used to bring in additional revenue to help improve the state's infrastructure.

Gas tax

Meyers said he would be open to considering a small increase in the state gas tax. Across the nation, state and federal gas taxes provide a share of the money used for infrastructure upgrades through taxes imposed on gasoline.

The state of Montana now has a tax of 27.75 cent tax on gasoline, which hasn't been raised since 1993. However with the price of gas so low even less money is coming into the state.

Last legislative session, state Rep. Nancy Wilson, D-Missoula, proposed legislation that would have raised the gas tax by 5 cents. The House Transportation Committee voted to table the bill, effectively killing the proposal.