On investing in Montana's future, and the dishonesty of the Freedom Caucus

I believe in saving money and in preventive maintenance. If you have savings, it’s much easier to ride through difficult times. If you engage in preventive maintenance and fix things before they break, it generally costs less and you are not denied the use of an important asset while it is being repaired. Fix the brakes now, or pay for the ambulance later. It’s all about fixing things before they fail.

What works in people’s personal life, also applies to government. Both concepts are embedded in HB 924, a bill enacted by the 2025 Legislature which created the Montana Growth and Opportunity Trust. I voted for the bill.

The new trust will take excess state revenue and place it in a series of accounts within the state treasury. There, it will be invested by the State Board of Investments and the interest earnings will be used to grow the trust and fund a series of programs for the benefit of Montana citizens. The trust is regulated by state law and it’s financial transactions are a matter of public record.

Forty percent of the revenue going into the trust will be used to stabilize the State’s public sector pension plans. In doing so, it protects taxpayers from having to shoulder ever higher property taxes to keep those plans solvent. Ten percent will go to support housing programs designed to make housing more abundant and affordable. The remaining 50 percent is invested and the interest earnings used to maintain water projects, irrigation systems, county bridges and, provide tax relief. Again, this helps protect local property taxpayers and those who pay water use fees.

Several western, Republican states have funds of this type including North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and Alaska.

I mention this because the Montana Freedom Caucus, a rump group of extremist Republicans opposed the creation of the Growth and Opportunity Trust and have characterized it as an “unaccountable $1.0 billion slush fund.” That is not just a mischaracterization of the trust and how it operates under state law, it’s an outright lie to the people of Montana.

This case illustrates three things about the Freedom Caucus which also operates under the name of “The Constitutional North Star of the Treasure State.” First, they are fiscally incompetent and do not understand the difference between “investment” and “spending.”  They blow their own horn claiming to be fiscally conservative, when in fact, they don’t know what the words “fiscal” and “conservative” really mean. Second, they do not understand the state treasury system and the operation of state law which protects the integrity of the State’s money. Third, in their quest to obtain power, they have no problem whatsoever in distorting the truth and lying to the people of Montana.

In simple terms, Freedom Caucus equals fiscal incompetence coupled with dishonesty. And, thinking about it, their legislative actions are not about Freedom. They are better characterized as Free-Dumb.