A fresh roadmap for Montana economic growth

The election provides a historic Montana Mandate for new state leaders to deliver on a robust economic recovery.

On Monday we announced the Montana Recovery Agenda, a comprehensive report charting the policy pathway to a thriving economic recovery in 2021.

After the November elections, many were surprised by the historic results. Montanans, famous for their independent ticket-splitting, had elected Republicans across the board including the Montana’s first Republican governor in 16 years.

As we looked at exit polling to understand what happened, we saw one issue that motivated voters above all others: a thriving economy.

By voting in new leadership, voters resoundingly rejected the “more taxes, regulations, government control” approach of the last 16 years. The message for those in power was clear: We’ve had enough.

The result was a historic Montana Mandate for new state leaders to deliver on a robust economic recovery.

Along with new leadership, Montana needs a fresh roadmap for economic growth. The Frontier Institute’s Montana Recovery Agenda aims to provide that path.

By focusing on three key policy areas, lawmakers can show voters their elected officials are serious about the issues most important to them:

Change is never easy. Lawmakers will need courage to tackle the biggest economic problems facing our state.

But if 2020 was any indication, voters will reward success at the ballot box.

For Liberty,
Kendall Cotton

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The Latest

1. Don’t miss this in-depth look at some of the proposals in our Montana Recovery Agenda from Mike Dennison of MTN News:

2. On Monday, Kendall joined Aaron Flint on Montana Talks to discuss Frontier’s Montana Recovery Agenda for a full hour. Give it a listen!

3. Senate Majority Leader Cary Smith, one of the leading voices on healthcare in the Montana legislature, published an op-ed last week urging greater price transparency and a focus on reducing the cost of healthcare:

“The COVID pandemic has brought health care affordability into the spotlight like never before. The question is whether this crisis will be an impetus to rein in the alarming growth in health care costs or if we will go right back to business as usual.”

Our Take: The Senator is dead-on in his diagnoses of the ills in our healthcare system. Market incentives matter, and healthcare’s incentives are broken because of government barriers to more choice and competition. Now is the time for legislators to take action.