State Legislature 2024: HD47-James Reavis (D) - Billings Chamber of Commerce

What are your three most important policy priorities? What do you hope the impact of implementing these policies will be?

My top three priorities for the upcoming legislative session include: 1) Affordable housing & property tax relief, 2) Supporting public safety, and 3) Passing the Medicaid expansion.

Affordable housing is critical to securing the future of Billings as a thriving place of business and industry that will attract more workers to live here. I would work to pass multiple reforms proposed by the governor’s bipartisan housing task force, such as zoning reform and simplifying the permitting process. Included with affordable housing is property tax relief and reform for primary residence properties. Property taxes are too high. These taxes must be more fairly distributed amongst all property owners while still funding critical services.

As a former public defender, I know how important public safety is to a safe community and a welcoming business climate. That’s why I will work for measures to reform Montana’s mental health system. Montana State Hospital is overburdened and has lost federal accreditation. We need to bring high-quality mental health services to local communities to prevent smaller problems from getting worse and to allow MSH to focus on criminal forensic cases.

For a healthy and safe Montana, we must pass the Medicaid expansion and make it permanent. Failing to do so would be a fiscal torpedo to our budget and send Montanans to the emergency rooms rather than the doctor’s office. A healthier workforce is a more productive workforce.

In a recent survey of our members, an overwhelming portion of respondents (96%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “Reducing the cost of doing business in Montana generally benefits all Montanans.” What do you hope the Legislature will do to reduce the cost of doing business in Montana?

We can reduce the cost of doing business in Montana by promoting a heathy and trained workforce, supporting a strong infrastructure, and passing property tax relief.

Fixing the education funding formula in our state will allow us to hire high-quality educators and improve our institutions of higher learning to support practical skills for today’s challenges. An educated and trained workforce will make it easier to fill job vacancies to keep businesses moving. A healthier workforce, which we can support by passing the Medicaid expansion, means fewer sick and missed days by employees. Supporting programs such as Best Beginnings to help employees with child care is also essential.

We need working roads, water, and sewage systems to help businesses thrive. Broadband is still far too expensive in rural areas and we must make it easier to move federal funds into expanding broadband’s reach. When infrastructure breaks down, services get harder to deliver and goods become harder to ship, raising prices and lowering profits. I support consistent infrastructure appropriations and funding.

Property tax relief is needed to keep Billings affordable for employees and customers. This is especially important for seniors on a fixed income. In addition to lowering the property tax rate, we can also adopt measures such as expanding the P-TAP program to the middle class to help more people affordably pay their property taxes.

In our recent survey, public safety was identified as the number one policy issue for our members. During the 2023 Session, important bills to update the antiquated Youth Court Act and revise theft laws both narrowly failed. We expect those and other safety bills to come up during the 2025 Session. What legislative changes would you suggest to address safety issues in Billings and around the state?

As a former public defender, I have substantial experience in the Youth Court Act. I have both the legal background and the motivation to modernize the Youth Court Act and would welcome an opportunity to work on this issue.

I am seeking to expand Montana’s mental health services so that the majority of mental health crises can be handled by community hospitals rather than Warm Springs. Local mental health facilities can better plug patients into local resources to prevent further mental health crises from arising again in the future.

I would support statutory reform to our criminal laws that provide a way out of addiction and into treatment that does not result in a felony mark on a person’s criminal record. Reintegration, not exclusion, for former criminal offenders is essential to preventing recidivism.

Passing the Medicaid expansion is a must-do for public safety. Medicaid supports mental health, keeps parents focused on raising their children, and supports addiction treatment. A healthy Montana is a safe Montana.

Supporting our parks and recreation, such as the South Side Pool, is also important for public safety. Providing safe and fun spaces for our children to play and recreate means fewer opportunities to find trouble.

Last session, the Montana Legislature passed numerous bipartisan housing bills, reforming onerous regulations that restrict housing supply and appropriating an historic amount of funding for housing. Considering how much was accomplished, it was dubbed the “Montana Miracle.” However, the work is not done, and more recommendations are coming forward from the Governor’s Housing Task Force. Which recommendations to add housing supply and make housing more affordable will you consider supporting?

The recommendations from the task force report are fairly comprehensive and I would support the passage of almost all of them. I would add that there needs to be more protection for manufactured housing. We do not want out-of-state hedge funds buying up these properties and then providing sub-par services to our Montana residents.

Over the last two sessions, the Montana Legislature took significant steps to reduce the business equipment tax, relieving 502 Yellowstone County businesses from the burden of paying this tax. Would you be supportive of further reductions, allowing even more businesses to keep more of their hard-earned dollars?

I would support targeted reductions in the business equipment tax for smaller businesses to reduce their paperwork burdens and to improve their narrow profit margins.

Reauthorizing Medicaid Expansion will be a major topic of debate in the upcoming session. Originally passed in 2015, the program provides significant benefits to Yellowstone County, creating over 1,500 jobs and providing healthcare coverage to approximately 10% of our local workforce. Are you supportive of reauthorization? With changes? Not at all?

I fully support reauthorization of the Medicaid expansion without any new sunset date. The expansion should be authorized permanently. Certainty for health care is also good for business.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is consistently a topic at the Legislature, with supporters arguing it is one of the only economic development tools available to local communities in Montana, while some opponents contend it should be eliminated. The Billings Chamber has long been a strong supporter but acknowledges there could be room for improvement. What are your thoughts on TIF?

I support TIF because they give local governments another tool in the toolbox for local investment into business development. Eventually the successful business development generated by a TIF should be allowed to reintegrate back into the general tax base. Any reform to TIF’s should make sure that local decision making authority remains front and center.

Considering the concern over recent property tax increases, the Governor established a Property Tax Task Force to offer recommendations for dealing with increasing property taxes. Which of the 12 recommendations, or other solutions, would you support to address property tax concerns?

I would support fixing the education funding formula so that funding is less reliant on passing mills every election cycle and instead relies more on a general appropriation budget. I would support property tax relief for homesteads, that is, a person’s primary residence. I support the task force’s recommendation to investigate expansion of the P-TAP program. Both sides of the aisle are going to have to work together and make compromises to fix our property taxes.