Gerry Browning, Democrat for HD12

Gerry Browning served as a nurse for 25 years, beginning with a stint in the Peace Corps and eventually bringing her to Polson, where she worked in home health and taught the CNA course at Salish Kootenai College. In a shift from “science brain to art brain,” as she says, she purchased a floral shop in 1994 downtown Polson. Calling it The Terrace, she added wine, gourmet foods and even cigars, and ran it successfully for 20 years.

Just when she thought she was ready to retire, a downtown bar came up for sale at a good price. She renovated that business and ran it as the Vine and Tap tapas bar for three years. As a nurse and as a business owner, she has stayed active in Polson community activities and downtown development and improvement projects.

“I love being an involved member of our community,” Browning said. “I love dealing with these issues. There are important issues that people need to learn about and try to figure out and work with people and get the job done. I get really excited about that.”

Negotiation is a skill Browning feels she can bring to the state legislature. She was on teams negotiating nurse contracts in Seattle, including successfully negotiating for maternity leave. When she served on the Polson School Board, she got to sit on “the other side of the table,” representing the taxpayers during negotiations for teachers’ contracts.

“We successfully negotiated several contracts, no problem. Everybody was up front. The teachers were part of the process,” she said.

“Health care is one of the most important issues facing us,” Browning said, acknowledging that it is an economic issue as well as an individual issue. If the Affordable Care Act and the associated Medicaid expansion is struck down by the Supreme Court when they consider it in November, an estimated 90,000 Montanans will lose health insurance. Browning said this could severely impact local hospitals such as St. Luke’s and St. Joseph, and small businesses that cannot afford to get coverage for their employees.

“I spoke with our hospital administrators. They said that many rural hospitals would face closure without Medicaid expansion. Our two local hospitals were in a much better financial state and could probably weather the storm. But Medicaid expansion did allow them to do more preventative care, which in the long runs saves everyone money and is the better way to care for people.”

Many people who were able to get health insurance because of the ACA still find it unaffordable, paying $1000 to $2,000 per month in premiums and still having a $5,000 to $10,000 deductible.

“We really need to have a long conversation about this.”

Browning said she has made a point to speak with wildlife managers, school administrators, the sheriff, city commission and other experts on issues the legislature addresses.

“I am making it a point to talk with people. That’s how I’m learning what are their concerns, their issues. People aren’t voting for me and my agenda. I am representing them. I need to listen to all the people in my district,” she said.

“I think many of us want a lot of the same things. It’s just figuring out how we get them.”

For example, she says, “Everybody wants good schools and for our kids to get a good education. Everybody wants to save money on property taxes. But those taxes pay for the schools. How do we decrease property taxes and not decrease funding to our public schools? This is another challenging question that needs to be seriously looked at. People have many different ideas about how these things should be solved. The trick is how do we get there together.”

Another example, Browning said, is that education gets a lot of its funding from oil, gas and coal excise taxes, which is declining.

“You do have to look at how to increase tax revenues from other sources without socking it to the consumers or discouraging businesses. It’s a big balancing act.”

A state sales tax, Browning said, is not an option, as voters have made clear. However, communities have the option to add local sales taxes to meet local needs while allowing the cost not to be solely borne by locals, but shared by visitors.

She recently took a four-class training session on Montana’s budget process. Among the issues in that course was the subsidies and tax breaks provided those industries that we then rely on for revenue.

“We need to look at perhaps increasing the subsidies on clean energy. These businesses are on the rise, and they bring good paying jobs. We have the wind, we have the rivers, we have the ability to move forward with clean energy in our state.”

She said other industries are being incentivized to locate in Montana, including a new motion picture studio in Missoula.

Browning supports incentivizing businesses to come to Montana by investing in ensuring there are good roads, good internet, cell phone coverage and workforce development. She said it is important to encourage varied education opportunities such as technical trade schools and apprenticeships.

Browning said she recently spoke with business owners along Main Street in Polson about how they have been doing through the COVID-19 pandemic. They all said they were able to access CARES Act money being distributed by the state, she said.

“The money is coming, and people have been able to go back and get more. You have to have your taxes up to date, you have to be registered with the state, and you have to have good payroll records. Everyone I talked to who had applied had received it, sometimes multiple times.”

She said there is a lot of help available to business owners through local and state agencies if you ask, as she found when she started her own businesses.Browning said if elected she looks forward to contributing her experience working with community members to solve problems.

“I have the energy, the passion, I have experience, skills, and I am open-minded. I don’t have the answer to everything, but I know how to ask questions. I think I can bring something valuable to the table.

Gerry Browning

Occupation: Retired RN and business owner

Background: BSN from Carlow College in Pittsburgh; Polson School Board member;, St. Joseph's Hospital board; Polson business community member and president; soroptimist and PEO member and officer; FLIC treasurer; charter member of the Greater Polson Community Foundation (GPCF).

Contact: gerrybrowning.hd12@gmail.com and gerrybrowning.com