Tempel, Tuss face off in Senate District 14 race: Russ Tempel, Republican

Montana Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, is running for re-election for his seat in the Legislature in Senate District 14, facing challenger Paul Tuss of Havre, a Democrat.

Before becoming a part of the Legislature for the past year-and-a-half, Tempel said, he was a Liberty County Commissioner for 18 years, adding that he has worked with some of the same contacts during his time in both positions, which has made the job easier.

Tempel said he is running for re-election because he enjoys working with people and when he was appointed he agreed, if everything went well, he would run for re-election.

"I thank everybody for the support I've had in the last year and a half," Tempel said. "It's been an exciting time of my life, and I look forward to working with some of the same people and more in the years to come."

Tempel, 71, was born in Havre, he said, and was educated on the Hi-Line, graduating from Joplin High School in 1966. After high school he wasdrafted in the U.S. Army, serving from 1966 to 1968 and was honorably discharched as a Specialist E4. He then attended Northern Montana College, now Montana State University-Northern, graduating with an associate degree in business.

His previous political experiences, other than his 18 years as Liberty County Commissioner, included serving on a variety of boards, he said, such as water boards and church boards.

"We've been pretty involved with community," he said. "Over the years, somewhat when we retired, we decided to stay involved with the community, and I guess at that point in time I didn't realize how big my community was going to be."

Tempel and his wife of 48 years, Judy, have four children, three girls and one boy, and 11 grandchildren. He added that they are all good kids and he is proud of his family.

He added that his 48 years with his wife is the "highlight of my life."

During his time as a county commissioner, Tempel said, he was on the board of Bear Paw Development Corp. off and on over the years and also on the board of the District 4 Human Resources Development Council. He was also on the Montana Association of Counties Board and was chair of districts 4 and 5 for a number of years, he said, adding that he also served on the board of Montana Early Education.

"As county commissioner, you're involved in everything that happens," he added.

Before his retirement he was a farmer and did custom cutting 32 or 33 of the 34 years, he said.

During a special legislative session at the end of last year held to deal with revenue shortfalls, Tempel said, the Legislature cut some programs.

"The shortfall was a combination of things," Tempel said.

He added that when the budget was cut certain programs were cut as much as 10 percent and some cut as little as 4.5 percent, although the Legislature tried to cut most programs 6 to 7 percent across-the-board.

He said the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services was cut the least percentage at 4.5 percent.

"DPHHS was not hit as hard as some other programs percentagewise," Tempel said. " ... It's the biggest program, it affects more people, but was still less percentagewise."

Tempel said the cuts were inevitable this year. Part of the shortfall was due to gas, oil and coal revenues being low this year and those industries paying a large amount of the tax revenue.

"The governor came up with his suggestion, which the Legislature agreed with," Tempel said, "and then there were some other cuts that were necessary."

"It had to be fixed," Tempel said.

He added that coming into this session he predicts the budget will be tight again.

"Hopefully, the governor can maybe cut back a little bit," Tempel said. "If he would have cut back on his budget, like the year before, or started slowing things down, I think that (cuts) could have maybe been averted. Hopefully that can happen this time."

Tempel said if issues, which caused the shortfall this year, are not corrected in the future another method the Legislature can look at to raise revenue is to raise taxes, although he opposes that option.

"To raise anymore capital you have to add taxes and people are to the point where they don't appreciate being taxed any more than what they are," he said.

He added that, as a conservative, he would like to hold back having to tax people more than necessary.

Looking forward, Tempel said, the biggest issues facing the next legislative session are a variety of items, such as public lands and the timber industry. He said Montana use to be one of the top logging states in the United States, although it has been on a steep decline in recent years.

One source of income which is being wasted, he added, is the timber which is salvageable after wildfires. The paperwork and process to salvage the resource is so extensive it is practically impossible, he said.

Tempel said another item that he is looking at is Initiative 185, which proposes raising cigarette, e-cigarette and vaping taxes.

"There are some things on that, that should really be tweaked, that have been left on I 185," he said. "I would hope that they would allow the Legislature to (work on Medicaid expansion), not through an initiative."

He added that other issues which he wants to work on in the next legislative session will be concerning education, agriculture, gas, oil, coal and business.

Tempel said he has served on the Education Interim Committee in the past, and the Education Committee during last session worked on the big issue of getting qualified teachers to smaller communities.

"Incentive is not there. We did do a stipend, hopefully, it will encourage teachers to come to these schools," he said.

Agriculture has also faced a huge struggle this year, Tempel said, and he would like that to be a focus next session, looking at options for improvements in that industry.

"(Agriculture) is a bigger national issue than anything but hopefully the state can encourage the national folks to pay more attention to what agriculture is doing," he said.

The laws that are put in place for gas, oil, lumber and coal, he said, are putting companies in stress.

Those laws need to change, Tempel said, adding that the state should encourage business.

"Over-regulation is hurting these businesses, making it difficult to function," he said.

A focus should be to get these businesses back on their feet, he added.

"That's a part of the job as Montana Legislature is to advocate for Montana," he said.