From your representative

What will Montana look like in 18 years? Americans are living longer these days, but Montana is projected to have the fifth oldest average population.

A bipartisan conference in Missoula in September covered some of these projections. The conference was titled the “Graying of Montana,” and was sponsored by many groups, AARP, UM, MSU, PPL, BlueCross/Blue Shield, the Association of Counties, etc.

Why would they all care? These projections change our state drastically. In 1960 Montana had nearly 400,000 children under 18 years old and 100,000 people over 65.

In 2030, just 18 years from now, we will have 200,000 people under 18 and 250,000 over 65. 26% of our population will be seniors. That’s half as many children and two and a half times as many seniors.

Here is one good result that is predicted, less crime. That means less jails, les probation officers, less police. Senior citizens are more honest. We will save some money here.

And less children in schools, half as many as we have now, means less money needed for education. We’ll need half as many teachers, half as many staff members and less buildings. In 1996 we had 165,000 students in kindergarten through high school. Now we have 141,000.

Big savings on our property taxes.

But the state will need more money for Medicaid and Medicare. So, local taxes will go down but state taxes will have to increase. It is very important to plan for the needs of our seniors.

But wait. I for one do not like this projection. Montana needs to be a place where our families can prosper. What can we do? Montana can have the same business environment as our neighbours, and other states that are family friendly.

Transportation costs stop large manufacturing, but not high tech. Wise use of our natural resources will produce jobs. But our tax structure needs to be competitive with other states.

Last legislative session we had many pro-jobs bills vetoed by the governor. Several were to reduce medical costs, continue to lower workers’ comp and prevent some frivolous lawsuits. This session we will work to make Montana a thriving state for everyone.

Email me at jannataylor@montana.com or call my cell 253-8766 anytime. Although I don’t know the outcome of the election when I write this, it has been an honor to serve as your Representative.  Remember I work for you