Meet Trish Schreiber's teammate from Virginia: Americans for Prosperity

In the last week or two, you may have seen a post on social media or received a brochure in the mail from Americans for Prosperity (AFP) claiming that Montana’s budget has exploded and implying that Montana was on the brink of a financial crisis.

AFP is a lobbying group based in Virginia. It was founded by the Koch brothers of Kansas who are notorious for both their political extremism and the fact that their various businesses have repeatedly violated environmental laws.

AFP’s claims about Montana’s fiscal condition are false. Here are the facts.

In 1997, Montana adopted a law specifying how budget comparisons are to be made to ensure that apples are being compared with apples, not oranges. The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Division made that comparison this year in compliance with state law and it showed that state spending increased only 0.7%, about 25% of the rate of inflation and well below the 13-16 percent growth claimed by AFP.

State general fund is one component of state spending. When you look at general fund appropriations of the past 10 years, they have increased an average of 2.4% per year, 40% below the rate of inflation during the comparable years.

The past two legislatures also reduced Montana income tax rates by about 17% for over 60 percent of Montana taxpayers and paid off the State’s General Obligation Debt. Far from facing a fiscal crisis as suggested by AFP, Montana’s financial condition is one of the strongest in the nation.

AFP is sending out its inflammatory brochure with the intent of defeating Montana’s most effective legislators – the ones who sponsor the important bills, who look after the welfare of Montana citizens, who think for themselves, and who do not take orders from AFP. AFP wants to elect a group of sheep who will do what the Virginians want, like California liberal, “Tax-Hike” Trish Schreiber, a candidate for HD 76 who has been doing AFP’s bidding for years. She claims to be a conservative but anyone with a plan to double residential property taxes looks like a closet liberal to me.

During the 2025 Legislative session AFP spent $127,462 lobbying the legislature on 20 separate bills. It succeeded in passing eight bills for a .400 batting average which is great in baseball but, a deplorable record of failure for a professional lobbying organization.

True to its hypocritical nature, AFP never once testified on any of the 12 bills that made up the Governor’s Budget Recommendation to the Legislature. It did not appear before either the House or Senate Budget Committee encouraging the Committees to reduce the size of  the primary budget bill, House Bill 2, which they now claim is too high. 

In addition, AFP lobbied to defeat property tax relief for Montana homeowners. 

Now, AFP targets the very legislators for defeat who did the hard work to prepare a conservative, responsible state budget while AFP hid in the capitol hallways.

Going forward, a good rule of thumb to follow is this – if AFP says it, it’s almost certainly a lie.

State Rep. John Fitzpatrick is a Republican from Anaconda representing HD 76.