Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Democrat Bob Bergren of Havre, a three-term state Representative in House District 33, said this week he hopes to be able to continue representing that district after the Nov. 4 general election. “I’m proud of my record and work I’ve done for Hill County and hope to continue to do so,” he said. Bergren faces Republican Kyle Austin of Havre in the general election. Bergren said he will let the work he has done in the last six years speak for his qualifications as a candidate. “I think my record goes to show for itself,” he said, adding he has worked to provide some of the largest state tax breaks in recent history, funding education and increasing children’s health insurance as well as listing his experience and leadership in the House of Representatives. Bergren was minority whip in 2005 and deputy minority leader in 2007. He took action as the deputy minority last week when he issued a statement on a Republican challenge on the eligibility of nearly 6,000 voters in six Democrat-leaning counties including Hill County. The challenge was withdrawn Tuesday, after Montana Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that the challenges were made in an attempt to intimidate Democratic voters. U. S. District Judge Donald Molloy Wednesday scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit, which the Democrats are continuing to pursue, for Monday, Oct. 14. A press release issued Friday, Oct. 3, said Bergren reacted with “outrage” and “indignation” at the challenges. “We have our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters fighting in conflicts in the Middle East to protect our freedoms and liberties, including the right to vote. Yet right here in Montana, the Republican Party is doing everything in its power to make sure Montanans are denied their constitutional right to vote," Bergren said in the release. "This is a slap in the face of every Montana citizen, especially those who have served or are serving in our military to protect these same freedoms abroad." “I understand that politics is a dirty business, but the Republican Party has crossed the line; they're not attacking Democrats, they're attacking the rights of Montana voters," Bergren continued in the release. "The GOP's case has no legal standing and I will do everything in my power to ensure all Montana voters are allowed to vote." Bergren also attacked the Republicans in relation to the Wall Street bailout package passed by Congress last week. He said the problem came about through deregulation and tax breaks, and the Republicans are trying to do the same in Montana with tax breaks for the rich and for corporations and big business. “The deregulation of energy, now the deregulation of Wall Street, that doesn’t seem to be helping anyone but the wealthy on Wall Street,” he said. Bergren said he has mixed emotions about the bailout package. “I think something had to be done. I don’t know if it had to be done so quickly,” he said. He added that the next Legislature will also have to keep an eye on the situation in Montana. “We need to make sure when we go into the next session we can create good-paying jobs through our renewable energy, through our extractive resources,” Bergren said, adding that those industries can directly benefit Hill County and the Hi-Line. He said one good point is that the banking industry in Montana, aside from the inevitable ties with banking worldwide, is fairly solid. Fewer Montana banks were involved in subprime mortgages, listed as one of the major causes of the financial crisis, he said. That is true for most of Montana, he added, including the projected budget surplus expected for the next legislative session. “Our economy is actually on the upswing,” Bergren said. “And our ending fund balance keeps going up every day that I check.” He said fiscal responsibility has helped create that surplus making sure programs are funded adequately, which also prevents pushing the funding onto the backs of local taxpayers. He said, for example, increasing funding for education reduced the need for local property tax increases. He said what the funding for education will be next session depends on several variables, including what the school budgets look like and what the actual ending state balance is. How the funding system should work is still a major issue, he added. “There are a lot of questions about the funding formula,” Bergren said. “I think we need to take a look at it.” He said a primary focus of the next legislature has to be about creating new good-paying jobs to help people worried about living paycheck to paycheck or even if they will have a paycheck and issues ranging from health insurance to increasing college tuition. He said he wants to continue with the policies of the last four years to try to keep the economy strong and to continue to end up with budget surpluses. “We invested some, we saved some and we gave some back,” Bergren said. “We ended up with the largest budget surplus in recent history and we did it without raising taxes, and that’s kind of my mantra.”
