Todd O’Hair’s comments came alongside analysis of the state’s economic status from other experts at a mid-year update from the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research

“The big industrial base of our state continues to decline and we are hanging religiously on the fact that we don’t have a sales tax in this state,” O’Hair said. “And I think that if we don’t start having an adult conversation about our economy today and where it’s going in the next 10 years, we will never catch up.

“We will rob our children and our future because of tax policy in the state that is not conducive to the economy that we have.”

Montana Chamber of Commerce

By Mariah Thomas