Supports Perry

The House District 3 race offers a clear choice between two individuals who share some of the same concerns but offer different solutions.

Democrat Zac Perry wants to create job opportunities by cutting certain taxes, investing in technology education and job-training programs, and ensuring that companies aren’t discouraged from investing in Montana due to a lack of quality infrastructure.

In contrast, Republican Jerry O’Neil’s plan for increasing job opportunities (http://tinyurl.com/nwj5y37) includes allowing employers to pay certain wage-earners (specifically including high-school dropouts, welfare recipients, and people in impoverished areas) less than the minimum wage.

Both candidates want the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. site cleaned up. Mr. Perry, understanding that under the Superfund law, the EPA is able to make those who are responsible for the contamination perform and pay for the cleanup, recognizes that involving the EPA offers the Flathead a rare chance to leverage the federal government’s power in our favor — to make the feds work for us.

Mr. O’Neil seems to think it would be more effective for us to try and make Glencore pay by ourselves, which could take decades and likely be a more expensive fight than we can afford at the local level — if we were ever successful at all.

Finally, Mr. Perry opposes the massive taxpayer burden that would result from the transfer of federal lands to the states — a move supported by the official platform of Mr. O’Neil’s party. We Montanans value our access to public lands, and I expect it wouldn’t take many major fire seasons before the state was forced to sell those lands into private hands to pay the firefighting bill alone, ending public access for good.

Whose agenda is more likely to benefit the lives of people here in the Flathead? Just like the choice, the answer is clear. Vote for Zac Perry in November.

Alice Biel

Columbia Falls