State Legislature 2022: Bill Mercer

I ran for the first time in 2018 because I missed public service.  My term as U.S. Attorney for Montana ended in 2009 and, after ten years away from government, I wanted to work on public policy issues again.  I am running for re-election to the House of Representatives because of (1) a long-standing interest in public policy and public administration, (2) a concern with the growth in government spending, (3) a general sense that society is worse off today than it was when I started my public service career in Montana (as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1994) or when I grew up in Billings and is on the wrong trajectory, and (4) an interest in creating more and better oversight of the Executive Branch by the Legislative Branch.  Being effective as a citizen legislator is tough, but my background as U.S. Attorney, two terms as a legislator in 2019 – 2022, a term on the Montana Board of Crime Control, service on non-profit boards, and graduate degrees in public administration and law provide a useful perspective on budget and policy questions.

My top priority is limiting state spending to essential services and maximizing the prospects for tax relief by doing so.  A related goal is to make sure that what we are funding through the state budget is effective and necessary.  The only way to develop an understanding on this question is through oversight of the Executive Branch.  The Legislative Branch has not had an adequate focus on oversight for a couple of decades, but we are working hard to do more and effective oversight.

Public safety is my next highest priority.  Violent crime is significantly up statewide in the last decade at rates that far exceed our population growth.  We need to determine whether we can be more effective in minimizing recidivism.  We also need to realize that a lack of capacity to incarcerate violent offenders creates mayhem for our citizens.  We often hear that prisons are expensive, but rarely do we focus on the costs incurred by crime victims.  I will continue to resist the idea that taxpayers are better off by saving money with these offenders on the streets instead of in cells. 

Finally, I am concerned about performance of Montana students.  When one looks at available data, can we say that the system is optimal?  In my view, we know that it not based upon the amount of remedial work required when our high school graduates matriculate to the MUS and the college readiness index of the ACT scores of our high school juniors.  I plan to work to create more transparency on outcomes for Montana high school graduates who attend community colleges and MUS institutions.  Greater clarity on how graduates from each high school perform in higher education will be an important barometer for communities to evaluate the effectiveness of their local schools.

This question is so broad that it is difficult for me to answer.  I am not sure what control or authority has been taken away that should be returned to local governments.  The Frontier Institute’s recent analysis on the inadequacies of our housing supply suggests that local ordinances and regulations are contributing to the problem.  So, I think the analysis of whether local control is optimal is best done per issue.

I have served on the House Appropriations Committee for the last two sessions and chaired the subcommittee that focuses on funding for the administration of justice.  Some of these issues are easier than others.  I am confident that we will pass legislation to create more accountability for sober living houses, which have been allowed to function without the type of programming one would expect in a convict’s re-entry.  Senator-elect Usher has developed legislation based upon another state’s statute, which I anticipate supporting.  We need to continue to scrutinize the number of individuals released from custody and placed in Billings.  In the recent past, a disproportionate share of this cohort was placed in Billings.  Given recidivism rates, this has been viewed as a contributing factor to the increase in our local crime rate.  And, as noted earlier, we may conclude that our prison and community confinement capacity is not keeping up with increase in the number of serious offenders.  Of course, if we lack adequate prison capacity, it may take longer for the Yellowstone County Detention Facility to turn over bed space.

The rate of violent crime in Billings is unacceptably high and on the rise.  We worked closely with the City, County Attorney Twito, Chief St. John, and Sheriff Linder in the 2021 session on a handful of bills to deal with delays in transferring convicts post-sentencing into state custody and address statutes that make it difficult to incapacitate offenders.  There is more to be done on criminal justice issues in 2023.

We need to fight back against the War on Coal by ensuring that we do nothing to contribute to doing further damage to our ability to generate electricity from Montana coal here and elsewhere.  We have continued to see additional capacity come on line from wind to supplement are hydroelectric resources, which is positive.  The lack of grid capacity deserves more discussion that it gets.

I am not excited about the amount of money that we are spending on tourism promotion.  We are not suffering from a shortage of tourists, and we will not if we spend less on tourism promotion.  That said, I think the allocation of those dollars is ripe for re-examination, including the local share, as is the Department of Commerce as a whole.

I do not favor a local option sales tax.  We will be closely evaluating property tax revenues for local governments after reappraisal to determine adequacy of funding for cities and counties. 

I have done an initial evaluation of the work conducted on the question by the Frontier Institute.  Those ideas, coupled with some related analysis presented to the MARA committee, on which I have served in both interims, suggest many local governments could increase housing supply through changes in local regulation.  It is unclear to me whether this should be left to local governments to address or whether there is a role for the State.  To the extent advocates suggest the role for the State is to create a fund to incentivize local governments to revise their rules, I will resist.