Tuss speaks at forum on run for Havre House seat

Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss, a Democrat, is challenging Montana House Rep. Ed Hill, a Republican, for his seat in the Montana Legislature and answered questions on a number of issues at a Havre Daily News candidate forum Monday evening, a forum his opponent did not attend.

In his opening statement Tuss commented on his opponents refusal to attend, calling it a serious disservice to the voters in the district.

"I think both candidates should be here," he said. "I view this as a job interview."

Tuss said he believes the biggest issue in state politics at the moment is the extremely polarized partisanship, which he said should be done away with in favor of a common-sense approach to legislating.

Tuss answered questions about a number of topics at the forum including what the state should do with the expected budget surplus.

He said that money shouldn't be sat on and there are clearly things that the state government should be doing but aren't, things that money could be used for.

An example he gave is the state's nursing home and long-term care crisis with Montana recently losing 10 of these facilities in rural and urban areas.

Tuss said he has a friend in Malta, where a care facility recently closed, meaning his friend's mother needed to be moved to a facility in Havre despite the fact that she'd spent her whole life in Malta and all of her family was there.

He said facilities like this close because the state is not adequately reimbursing them for the services they provide to the level that they need, and using surplus money to fix that issue seems to him like an entirely appropriate use of funds.

He was also asked about the state's housing crisis, which he said is another area the state should be spending some money to fix.

Tuss said he thinks the state should be providing incentives for private-sector businesses to build affordable housing in areas around the state, and while this is not a silver bullet for the crisis it will certainly help, especially if the state coordinates well with local governments and private institutions.

Another issue the Legislature seems likely poised to address soon after coming into session is abortion, with many Republicans pushing for restrictive bans on the procedure, something Tuss said he is absolutely opposed to.

He said Montana's Constitution has very strong privacy protections and the Montana Supreme Court was clear when it ruled that abortion falls under that umbrella.

"I don't think the government, on any level, needs to know how many rifles I have in my gun safe, and I don't think the government, on any level, should be dictating the health care decisions of my daughter," he said.

Tuss also answered questions about recent tension between the Legislature and the Montana Supreme Court including that caused by attempts in the last session to subpoena judicial records.

He said he thinks the Legislature was absolutely in the wrong attempting to interfere with the courts and they need to leave the judiciary to do its job.

"The Legislature needs to butt out of what goes on at the (Montana) Supreme Court," he said.

He also said efforts to have judges voted for by district instead of by the whole state is wrong and undemocratic.

Tuss was also asked about the relationship between the state and local public health, which he said has been damaged by the actions of the Legislature in the last session. Pressures of the COVID pandemic led many public health officials, including in Blaine County, to resign.

He said local public health experts are knowledgeable, know their communities and need to be trusted by the state to do their job.

He said he doesn't understand why it so often happens that when local folks are elected to the Legislature, all of a sudden they think they know better than the local people on the ground who deal with situations like COVID-19.

"I don't understand that," he said.

He also said the local public health officials deserve the trust of the people they serve.

Tuss, when asked about vaccination in the wake of three years of COVID and a case of polio being confirmed in New York, said he is opposed to mandated vaccination, but that people should trust their local experts when they tell them that it is safe and effective.

This attitude extended to the matter of climate change, which he was also asked about.

He said the science is clear and it's hard to talk about solutions when so many are still denying that there is a problem, even when virtually the entire scientific community agrees about the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

"If there are 99 heart surgeons saying I need surgery and one isn't sure, I'm going with the 99," he said.

Tuss said this shouldn't be a partisan issue at all and everyone needs to work together to solve it.

Tuss said he is absolutely opposed to using public money to fund vouchers for students to attend private schools.

He said there are great private schools out there that deserve people's support, but public funds are for public schools and the separation of church and state is absolute.

"I support (private) schools every Sunday when I go to St. Jude's (Church) and I put a dollar in the collection plate. It's a great school and I support them but I don't think they should be getting public funds," Tuss said.

He said he might be inclined to change his mind on support private schools if public schools had all the funding they needed, but teachers are still having to buy supplies with their own money, so that's clearly not the case right now.

In his closing statement Tuss said signs and social media are parts of campaigning, but events like this forum are where democracy really happens, with candidates telling people where they stand on issues, and he thanked everyone who attended.