Gianforte emphasizes business while stumping in Columbia Falls

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte toured the state last week with his running-mate Lesley Robinson. Gianforte introduced towns to Robinson for the first time, including a visit to Columbia Falls Friday.

Robinson is a Phillips County Commissioner and a fourth-generation rancher. As Lt. governor, she plans to be the liaison between the governor’s office and the agricultural community. She balances Gianforte’s business experience with her background in agricultural and rural leadership, she said during a visit to the Hungry Horse News.

Gianforte touched on some local subjects of import during his stop.

About the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. cleanup, Gianforte said his opinion is less important than the community’s opinion on it becoming a Superfund site. He is concerned that the Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t issued final approval to remove the spent potliners from the plant.

He claims that state agencies overall don’t work as efficiently as they should and need new leaders to decrease delays in issuing permits. As governor he would put new leaders in the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Department of Commerce, and Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“We need leaders who have actually walked in the shoes of the people they’re trying to serve. What we’ve had in Helena is government insiders playing musical chairs between these agencies,” Gianforte said.

As far as helping small towns thrive, he said that prosperity will come to small towns through jobs and opportunities that are created by entrepreneurs and not through government programs. He wants to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start and grow a business by removing regulations, lowering taxes and reducing healthcare costs.

One of the government programs he would replace is Main Street Montana. He claimed that it wasn’t effective since it didn’t improve the state’s standing for wages, which is 49th in the country. He pointed to its lack of clear, quantifiable goals or accountability as the problem. The city of Columbia Falls has considered, but later rejected, participating in the program.

He said small towns also have a problem of losing the younger generation because there aren’t high paying jobs for them. He claims rural economies would improve if more companies used telecommunication. He sold his business RightNow Technologies to Oracle in 2012 for $1.8 billion and most of its employees are able to work remotely.

He said focus should be on getting Montanans to return to the state and bring jobs with them. And also on educating the next generation for jobs of the future. 

The goal of education has to be to help every child reach their full potential, which can be a challenge for rural schools to provide diverse classes, he said. He claimed part of the solution is increasing funding to the Montana Digital Academy to help bring the same opportunities to rural areas.

“With digital delivery, we can have the best teacher in every classroom, to complement the local teachers,” Gianforte said.

He also calls for more trades education as an alternative to four-year degrees. He funded the Gianforte Manufacturing Scholarship to help veterans and low-income citizens get certificates in welding and machining. About 300 people have gone through the program in the last two years, he said.