Candidate wants to return American greatness

Ken Miller stopped in Columbia Falls on May 2 after appearing on a stage in Whitefish alongside four other Montana gubernatorial candidates. With everyone calling for more natural resource development and less taxes and regulations, it’s hard to distinguish oneself from the rest of the pack, he agreed.

“The country is heading over a cliff,” he said about his decision to run for governor. “I want to use my background in construction, manufacturing, retail, my time in the legislature, my 31 years of marriage — all of this to make a difference in returning the country to what made it so great.”

Growing up on a dairy farm in Colorado, Miller came to Montana with his family in 1974 to farm in Joliet. He married his current wife Peggy in 1975 and moved to Laurel in 1983, where they raised a family and operated a number of small businesses — construction, sports and award plaques manufacturing, and currently a furniture store.

Miller served in the Montana Senate from 1995 to 2002 and was chairman of the Montana Republican Party from 2001-2003. He came in third out of four Republicans in the primary race for governor in 2004. He and his wife have served on numerous local, state and national Republican campaigns.

One of those was for former congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill. Miller is sharply critical of Hill’s plan for dealing with wolves. Noting that he and his family are avid hunters and anglers, Miller called Hill “not in touch with Montana and the wolf situation.”

Pointing to the “devastating impact” of wolves on big game and livestock, Miller’s wolf plan calls for hiring a new Fish, Wildlife and Parks director who understands the Montana Constitution’s “preservation of harvest heritage” requirement, designating wolves across the state as predators — “just like coyotes,” and standing up to the federal government.

Developing the state’s vast natural resources, including oil, gas, coal, timber and hard-rock minerals, will not only create much needed jobs but provide revenue to offset Montanans’ escalated property taxes.

“Every county should benefit, not just Eastern Montana,” he said, noting that taxes on his own home went up 400 percent.

Miller laid out four steps to promoting resource development — choosing new department heads who support development, passing legislation that will stop environmental obstructionists, lowering workers compensation taxes, and totally eliminating the state’s business equipment tax. Existing environmental regulations don’t need to be changed, he said, just how they’re used.

“We need a governor who will get needed facilities in place in less time,” he said.

Miller wants to reform K-12 education by providing alternative education opportunities, like charter schools and tax credits for private schools and home-schooling, and returning local control.

“Teachers are not the problem — their hands are tied behind their back,” he said. “It’s Washington, D.C.-based curriculum, like Leave No Child Behind.”

The state’s pension programs for teachers and state workers also need reform. He said the pension plans’ shortfall in 30 years could be much more than the $3.5 billion, as currently forecasted.

“Every dollar coming in from new hires goes to a retiree, not into the pot,” he said.

A social conservative, Miller believes in protecting a right to life at all stages of pregnancy. He calls the use of federal taxpayer money to fund pro-abortion family-planning clinics “a gross misappropriation of public funds.” He also accuses “the Obama administration and its liberal allies in Congress” of appointing pro-gun control bureaucrats.

For information on Ken Miller, visit online at www.miller4governor.com or call him on his cell phone at 670-8318.