State Legislature 2022: Mike Yakawich

It was an honor and opportunity to serve the Billings community in the past 8 years as both a City Councilmember and as Deputy Mayor. It was a privilege as an elected official to serve. With the help and support of staff, city council and citizens, we accomplished a great deal. It would be my honor to continue to serve through HD51 citizens, as well as those in our city, county and state with due diligence, hard work and sincere investment. Nevertheless, it is the businesses community which fuels our economy and provides so many goods and services for our citizens. They are not only important but vital to the growth, happiness, safety and security of our community.

My highest priority is to serve. My plan is to learn, ask, seek from our citizens, city, and county regarding the importance and implementation on policies needed for the health, success and growth of our community. I will continue to seek insights especially from our citizens in general and our city and county government in particular. I am very much interested in working on policies regarding local government, education, and the human services.

Yes, I agree for generally more control and authority returned to local communities. This means giving city and county government and businesses more ownership of Tax Increment Finance areas, supporting city and county initiatives unduly regulated by the state.

• We need to continue to support local probation and public defenders staffing levels.
• Support a Mobile Crisis Team as proposed by Substance Abuse Connect.
• We need to support our local jail by working with our county commissioners on growth and development of our jail and addressing overcrowding. This would include fair compensation from the State for our jail to accommodate people set for trial or already sentence and incarcerated.
• We need to ensure our sober living homes are ran well and compliment the neighborhood where they reside.
• We need to work closely with city (and county) government as to what issues regarding public safety polices, they suggest we work on in Helena.
• We can continue to work on pretrial diversion programs for example implementing a “Substance Use Disorder Voucher Program” (funded through the Heart Fund for example) to speed up the opportunity for treatment while one waits for example for their insurance or Medicaid to kick in.

First of all, I would thank all those who work in this field. The gas and oil in my car, the electricity and gas in my home and etc., comes from hard working business owners and workers. Coal, Oil and Gas alone brings $13 Billion tax dollars to our state. We have to insure safe and consistent energy to our citizens especially “base load power”. Our resources for energy are vast: Thermal, Hydro, Gas, Coal and wind. Each are valued and need to be considered while providing low energy costs to the consumers. Working with our energy partners in the best and most respectable way is very important. We know some are more reliable than others, some need more infrastructural support while others should not be ignored.

The Chambers work through Visit Billings has made a big difference. They have helped, along with many other businesses, bring “heads into the beds” of Billings, supported sports events (NCAA to local tournaments), conventions, musical venues and other events also providing great revenue to our city of Billings. We have achieved recognition in many national magazines due to the hard work of Visit Billings.  On this topic, let’s rely on the Alex Tyson and The Visit Billings Team to continue to do such a great job.

I see the value of a local option tax and the challenges to get it pass the legislature. Yet, well worth the effort to keep exploring on the options. Perhaps, some type of tax relief as no property or less property tax with a local option tax for example. I too would encourage public/private partnership as we have seen with some major nonprofits, park developments and building/housing enterprises working together diligently and successfully.

We have to understand what is the problem and then seek solutions. In short, we face: Worker shortages, high cost of products/supply chain, regulatory barriers, population booming with out of state cash purchases, affluent vs. affordable housing, under building, etc.

We need to: support SD2 trade schools, greater city/builder engagement, reduce development impediments, more density housing, innovative solutions (cement homes), enhance financing options with public and private partners, etc.