By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Local voters have only one contested race for the Montana Legislature to decide this year, as incumbent Republican Rep. Alan Doane attempts to fend off Democratic challenger Mike Ruddy in the race for House District 36, which covers all of Dawson and Wibaux counties.
Doane is a Dawson County native who graduated from Dawson County High School in 1983 and later completed the Farm and Ranch Management program at Dawson Community College in 2006. Doane has been involved in agriculture and construction work his entire life and currently runs a ranch near Bloomfield with his wife, Kathy, where they raise Black Angus cattle.
Doane is running for his third consecutive term in the Montana House of Representatives. He was first elected to the House in 2012. During the 2015 session, he was named one of the Majority Whips in the House.
As the Montana Legislature readies for what is widely expected to be a contentious session, Doane said the most important issue he sees facing the body is that there is a lot less money flowing into state coffers now due to the downturn in oil, coal and other important sectors of the state’s economy.
“Most categories are down. Agriculture, grain, cattle, coal and oil are down,” Doane said. “There’s going to be significant revenue shortfalls that we have to deal with.”
With that in mind, Doane said the 2017 Legislature is going to be faced with some very hard decisions when it comes to spending. He said that’s likely going to mean big budget cuts in some areas, as he sees no viable options for making up the anticipated revenue shortfall.
“There’s going to be significant budget cuts, because I do not see tax increases as being a viable option to increase revenue,” Doane said. “They might get 20 people to vote for a tax raise.”
Even with budget cuts, Doane said it’s going to be difficult to come up with funding for major projects due to the anticipated revenue shortfall. He said that means, in his mind, that one-off appropriations will gain little traction in the next session and that the Legislature will have to get very creative just trying to fund the state agencies and programs it is constitutionally required to fund.
“It’s going to take some creative jiggling to meet the state’s priorities,” Doane said. “And that’s what it’s going to come down to is prioritization. The Christmas wish list just isn’t going to get filled.”
Compounding the difficulties the Legislature is already facing is the fact, Doane said, that successfully passing some kind of statewide infrastructure funding bill is an absolute must this session.
Given the anticipated budget shortfall, he said that will mean that GOP legislators like himself will have to take a long, hard look at doing something most of them – Doane included – have balked at during the last two sessions when the state was flush with oil and gas tax revenue, which is bonding to pay for infrastructure.
“We’re going to have to come up with some infrastructure funding, and bonding is the only avenue I see to come up with funding for that,” Doane said.
Ruddy, Doane’s challenger, is also a Dawson County native, DCHS graduate and former DCC student. Ruddy is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and served one tour of duty in Vietnam. After completing his military service, he attended Northern Montana College in Havre (now Montana State University-Northern) for a time before being offered a job with BNSF. Ruddy worked for the railroad in Glendive as an electrician for 25 years before retiring. He then moved to Austin, Texas for a time, where he worked for five years for an engineering firm before retiring for good and moving back to Glendive.
Ruddy, who is vice chairman of the Dawson County Democrats, said he decided to jump in the HD 36 race when no other Democrats did.
“They didn’t have a candidate to run, so I thought I’d run to at least give people a choice,” he said.
Like Doane, Ruddy identified a need for local infrastructure funding as one of the biggest issues facing the state right now. Unlike Doane, who has opposed bonding for infrastructure in the past, Ruddy has no qualms about doing it, adding that now is a prime time to do so given the very low interest rates available right now on government-issued bonds.
“We need financing (for infrastructure), and I believe going with a bond issue is the most correct way to do it,” Ruddy said. “If we did it now, we’d be better off than if we wait on it, even if we have to finance. We need to get financing for local projects for the counties and cities.”
Besides infrastructure, Ruddy said there are some “social justice” issues he sees as being important, naming increased drug use, domestic violence and human trafficking in the wake of the regional oil boom as worrying issues that need addressing.
Ruddy also suggested the state needs to examine its minimum wage rates, saying that the current minimum wage simply isn’t enough for people to live on in today’s financial climate.
“I think we need to increase the pay for people who are marginal workers,” he said. “They work for minimum wage and minimum wage isn’t enough to survive.”
Increasing the state’s investment in Makoshika State Park is another issue Ruddy said he would work toward if elected, as he identified tourism as a sector of the state’s economy which is only growing in importance, especially as other sectors of the economy like natural resource extraction wane.
“I like the idea of making Glendive and Makoshika State Park the Glacier Park of Eastern Montana,” Ruddy said. “I think the best industry other than agriculture that we have is tourism.”
Finally, Ruddy pledged to work across party lines if elected, saying that both parties have brought forward good ideas in the past and that the two sides need to work together to benefit all Montanans rather than sticking stubbornly to party ideology.
“We just can’t have excuses and party politics get in the way of progress,” he said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.