Letter: Thank you HD80 voters and neighbors around the state.

Thank you HD80 voters and neighbors around the state. Your engagement with elected officials is heartening, especially when referencing our US and Montana Constitutions. We are also expanding the conversations about education, our economy, our rule of law, our tax policies, and yes, most importantly, our Montana way of life.

A lot of input has come from you and from elected officials as to what to do with the excess revenues received by the State of Montana from your income tax payments. We even had a call for a "brief" Special Session three months ahead of the January 2023 Session. My concern was: how can we have a brief session when there are so many ideas about refunding and/or rebating these funds? One proposal immediately set forth was to provide a quarter of those $1 billion-plus excess revenues as property tax relief; then to spend half of it for affordable housing, with lesser amounts for child care and mental health services. There was nothing in there to cover the cost of the government's administration of these expenditures, and certainly nothing to address refunds to those who submitted the actual income tax overages.

A second proposal provided for property tax relief (rebate), support for mental health services, paying down debt, and for fire and disaster emergency funding. Another proposal incorporated property tax rebates, income tax refunds, paying down debt, plus some allowance for administrative fees. My personal preference would have been to REFUND the excess money to those who paid it. Throwing unexpected – and unallocated – funds at burgeoning problems doesn't FIX anything. At best, it would be a temporary bandaid.

At this juncture, we'll be navigating our way through this refund/rebate debate during the regular session with full transparency. The public needs to engage through the hearings process. We seem to have little problem growing government and programs. Our last overall two-year budget exceeded $10 billion. Many have come to rely upon the government taking care of every issue, but we typically have heartburn when the bills come due. We need to do a better job planning our budgets to pay for it all. It is evident that the government tries to be everything to everyone, it doesn't seem to do anything well.

Full public debate of these complicated issues promotes the best policies for Montana. It is my continued honor and privilege to serve the voters of House District 80 and our state. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Thank you.

/s/Rep. Becky Beard, HD80