Kassmier campaigns at Pachyderm meeting

Joshua Kassmier talked about jobs, the state budget and guns when he spoke Friday to the North Central Pachyderm Club at the Duck Inn.

Kassmier is a Republican candidate for the Montana House of Representatives in House District 27 that stretches from the Canadian border to just outside of Great Falls. He said he decided to run for the state legislature to ensure his three children have a good future.

"I have three kids and I want to make sure that they have the same great opportunities I had growing up," he said.

Kassmier faces fellow Republican Darrold Hutchinson, a farmer from north of Hingham, in the June 5 primary.

Incumbent Rep. James O'Hara, R-Fort Benton, has decided not to run for re-election.

The winner of the primary will go up against Democrat and retired school administrator Dan Nelsen in November.

Kassmier, 36, is a Fort Benton native, graduating from Fort Benton High School in 2000. He worked in Washington, D.C., as a paid summer intern for then-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. He has a bachelor's degree in political science and public management from Carroll College.

He is now a crop adjuster in the eastern Montana and Wyoming territories. Last year, he lost the race for Fort Benton mayor by three votes.

Kassmier said Montana's rural communities have had to deal with shrinking populations, as many young people have left those communities and Montana for better jobs.

Jobs in more traditional industries such as agriculture and manufacturing have dwindled in recent years, while more jobs have opened up in the health care and service industries, he said.

If elected, Kassmier said, he will concentrate on helping Main Street businesses.

"These businesses pay property taxes, income taxes, business taxes and employ the people of Montana," Kassmier said.

Montana must be more competitive with other states and create a better business climate, Kassmier said, by taking action to lower Montana's high workers' compensation rates.

To be more attractive to employers, he said, the state must work to upgrade its crumbling infrastructure.

Multiple bills were proposed during the 2017 state Legislature that would have funded infrastructure projects, but none passed. A $80 million infrastructure bill that would have allowed state bonding fell three votes short of the two-thirds needed for passage in the Montana House.

Kassmier said the harsh winter has only increased the infrastructure needs of cities and counties.

Kassmier said that although he does not like raising taxes on anyone, he is glad state lawmakers last session voted to approve House Bill 473, which raise the state's gas tax to provide additional funding for city and county infrastructure projects.

The bill raised the state's tax on motor gasoline taxes by six cents per gallon over six years, 2 cents on specialty fuels and 4 cents on aviation fuel.

Kassmier said the cost of health care is another issue that needs to be tackled, and that it needs to be cheaper for businesses to provide benefits to employees and less expensive for people to buy health insurance that don't receive it through their employers.

"We have to have a health care system that meets the needs of our citizens," he said.

Kassmier also talked about the state's budget.

Last year, after less-than-expected state revenues and a historically bad fire season, state lawmakers had to make several rounds of cuts and a special legislative session had to be called to deal with a $227 million budget shortfall.

Spending should be cut, Kassmier said, but without sacrificing the vital services Montanans depend on and without raising taxes.

"We cannot just tax our way out of our problems," he said.

But because the state collects most of its revenue from income and property taxes, that will be a problem, Kassmier said.

Cutting government waste, he said, needs to be a priority.

"The state needs to be run more efficiently, and also, the state needs a better way of projecting revenue," he said.

Montana's expansion of Medicaid is set to expire in 2019 unless the state Legislature acts, but Kassmier said that given the current budget difficulties he does not know how that will be done.

The Montana Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership Act, or HELP Act , which expanded Montana's Medicaid program, was passed in 2015 with bipartisan support.

As of December, 89,605 Montanans enrolled in the expanded program, information on the legislature's Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee says.

Kassmier said the state should consider requiring able-bodied people on Medicaid to have a job in order to receive benefits.

"Social programs need to be a hand up, not a hand out," he said.

Kassmier said that he opposes any new laws regulating gun ownership.

"More laws on the books do not protect our citizens, when we can't enforce the ones we have," he said.

The focus instead needs to be on dealing with mental health issues, Kassmier said. He added that not guns, but a more violent popular culture that desensitizes children to violence at a younger age is also part of the problem.