MATR Newsletter – August 14, 2023
The state with the best education wins!

TODAY!

City Club Missoula Presents Treasure State Taxes: Shedding Light on Montana’s Tax System Monday, August 14, 2023

Join City Club Missoula’s August forum as we dive deep into Montana’s Taxation System. The forum will feature current and former members of local and state government. The expert panel will provide an overview of Montana’s multifaceted system, including tax codes and rates, collections, rebates, and burdens.

NorthWestern Energy presents new Integrated Resource Plan – Public Hearings and Your Input Requested

Montana regulators are taking public input on a new plan from NorthWestern Energy, laying out how the utility plans to meet the state’s energy needs over the next 20 years.

Today’s MATR Newsletter is sponsored by:

Come Home Montana

Discover the 6 Fastest-Shrinking Counties in Montana
The numbers may not look big on paper, but these small percentages equate to hundreds if not thousands of people. And that number of people in the third-least densely populated state is a lot of residents.
Outstanding Career Opportunities – Montana State University!
Come and experience our remarkable setting and adventurous community of students, faculty and staff.
Montana Talent Available – Nicholas Peterson – Experienced .NET Developer with a background in developing and testing applications on various platforms including Outsystems.
I am an experienced .NET Developer with a background in developing and testing applications on various platforms including Outsystems. With 10 years of experience in the industry I believe…

Northwestern Energy

NorthWestern Energy presents new Integrated Resource Plan – Public Hearings and Your Input Requested
Montana regulators are taking public input on a new plan from NorthWestern Energy, laying out how the utility plans to meet the state’s energy needs over the next 20 years.

Big Sky Economic Development

Big Sky Economic Development is helping connect local companies to government contracts in hopes of boosting the local economy with GovMatch in Billings
Federal and state agencies have all sorts of needs that can be filled with expertise from the private sector.

Great Falls Development Alliance

GFDA Top 10 for 8-13-23
Week to week we talk about the exciting successes of entrepreneurs, businesses and developers in our region, but on a quarterly basis we get our report card on how we’re doing in building a stronger overall economy.
Montana Career Opportunities – Director Regional Small Business Development Center (SBC)/Small Business Advisor, Small Business Adviser (SBDC) & Project Manager, Food and Ag Business Development Officer – GFDA
Director Regional Small Business Development Center (SBC)/Small Business Advisor Dynamic, self-motivated leader sought to join our passionate, creative, fast-paced, and results-driven economic development team in Great Falls, Montana. Lead…

Montana Business

How businesses and governments can work together to stop cyberattacks before they start
Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris Administration released the National Cybersecurity Strategy to ensure the safety of digital ecosystems for Americans.
Smartups: Lessons from Rob Ryan’s Entrepreneur America Boot Camp for Start-Ups
In Smartups, Ryan focuses on methods he’s developed over the years for building a sustainable business that makes money. He emphasizes the importance of testing ideas on customers and making sure that a product offers something new and important.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

Waterloo, Iowa Unveils Affordable Pricing For City-Owned Fiber Build
According to the Waterloo telecommunications board, locals will have access to symmetrical 300 megabit per second (Mbps) service, symmetrical 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) service, and symmetrical 10 Gbps service for $50 a month, $70 a month, and $110 a month, respectively. The offerings will see no long-term contracts or usage caps.

Senator Jon Tester

Montana Senator Jon Tester Announces More Than $4 Million to Boost State and Local Cybersecurity in Montana
Funding will go to state and local governments to assist in managing and reducing cyber risk

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte

Montana’s expert witnesses in climate change trial billed state $95K
So what did the State of Montana get for $95,000 in expert witness fees in the landmark Held vs. State of Montana case? The answer: Not much. Montana paid nearly one-hundred grand to debunk climate change and then only called one witness who was, by most accounts, eviscerated on the stand.

Housing

Pathways to Equity & Savings for Low-Income Households
How tax incentives and updated standards are changing home construction.
How Montana performed a housing miracle
This has become a familiar story across America, where the housing crisis has gotten so severe that even rural communities in northern Montana are feeling the pinch.
New housing model in Montana turns tenants into shareholders
A statewide organization that helped craft a new design for affordability at Wolf Avenue is using the first-of-its-kind model in Montana in a second project — and plans to use it again.

Montana Ambassadors

Montana Ambassadors Invite You to Attend: Mike Mansfield – How the Legacy of Montana’s Greatest Statesman Inspires Us to Strengthen Our Democracy – 9/19 – Seattle, WA
Marc Racicot, former Governor of Montana, and Deena Mansour, Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, will discuss the Center’s work to honor the Mansfield legacy, and how we can work together to support the core values of our democracy in the Mansfield Way.

Come Home Wyoming

Breaking Through: Stories from Wyoming Pioneers – Wyoming Business Council Launches Episode 2: Plenty
Our latest episode is available now, spotlighting Laramie, Wyoming-based Plenty, a pioneer in the controlled agriculture environment (CEA) industry.

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

Montana gets OK from feds for school testing pilot
Participating schools will not administer existing statewide general assessments and instead complete assessments throughout the year using the Montana Alternative Student Testing pilot program
Helena families receive free laptops to support student education
On Wednesday, August 9, AT&T along with Human-I-T and the Montana Chamber of Commerce worked together to distribute laptops to students and families to allow them to participate in today’s digital world.

Careers

Production Assistant Course – 8/26-27 – Polson and Online
Applicants can select on-line or in-person learning for the two-day training course, at no cost, valued at $500. Those not awarded in Round One will automatically be entered into Round Two.

Transportation

People are having sex in self-driving cars, apparently. It’s not exactly comfortable.
Having sex in a moving car raises questions about legality and safety, but the only thing stopping some people from doing it, apparently, was the presence of a driver.
Robotaxi Companies Win — Can Operate 24/7 In San Francisco
“Today is the first of many steps in bringing AV transportation services to Californians,”

Energy and Climate Change

How to Upgrade & Electrify Millions of US Homes & Buildings
A recent RMI analysis showed that in all 48 continental states, replacing a gas furnace with a heat pump alone could reduce climate pollution by up to 93 percent, depending on the state.