Sen. Baucus touts economic summit

After 25 years in the U.S. Senate, Max Baucus says economic development in
Montana is the most important issue he’s faced yet.

By Dave Reese
The Daily Inter Lake

Baucus, D-Mont., spoke to a class Tuesday at Flathead Valley Community
College. He gave a 45-minute lecture on international economics, then fielded
questions from students and college professors in Gregg Davis’ Introduction to
Political Economy class.

Students peppered Baucus with questions that ranged from federally subsidized
child care to the national housing market.

He said he disagrees with President Bush’s plan to cut taxes on stock dividends.
Bush had proposed eliminating the tax, but this week Congressional Republicans
scaled it back to a 50 percent reduction.

"I support it in principle, but not at this time," Baucus said. With reconstruction
costs looming in Iraq, "Now is just not the right time."

Baucus told the students they have a friend in him in Washington, and to get things
done they need to be persistent and be politically involved.

"Call me anytime," he said. "Here’s my phone number."

But it’s economic development that Baucus sees as a cornerstone of his office.

After his class lecture, he talked at Good Medicine Espresso about the Montana
Economic Development Summit May 28-29 in Billings.

Baucus formed the summit in 2000 as a way to spur economic growth. The summit
spawned the creation of Montana’s economic development office in Helena, and
the summit returns this year with Gov. Judy Martz, Rep. Dennis Rehberg and Sen.
Conrad Burns.

The goal of the conference is to bring together Montana’s political and business
leaders and help build on the idea of business clusters. Clusters are pockets of
economic strength in each Montana community. In northwest Montana, that cluster
could be health care.

"I want to put a little more meat on the bones of this cluster concept," Baucus said,
chomping on a chocolate-chip cookie.

The economic development summit is based on building consensus and putting
ideas in front of political leaders — but leaving politics out.

"This is not just another gab fest, and no politics are allowed," Baucus said. "If
someone brings up a political issue, we cut them off."

Economic development is "going to take time and there’s no silver bullet," he said.

Three things, though, could help Montana get from 48th in per capita income to
where it was in 1946, when it was 10th in the nation, Baucus said. They are a
well-built infrastructure, including highways and airports; high-speed Internet
access; and a top-notch educational system.

A business-friendly tax system also would help, he said. With high business
equipment taxes and high personal income taxes, Montana has to do better to
attract new business, Baucus said. "Business people should not be making their
decision to locate or not locate in Montana based solely on high taxes."

Baucus’ plan is to organize "sales teams" under Montana’s economic
development office, put those people on airplanes and start sending them around
the country to drum up business.

"Before you go around the corner (in economic growth), you’ve got to get to the
corner first," he said. "Ten to 15 years ago Montana was discovered as a great
place to live. I hope we’re on the cusp of being a great place to do business."

On the Net: http://www.montanajobs.org.

Reporter Dave Reese may be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

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