MATR Newsletter – October 12, 2023
The state with the best education wins!

2023 Housing Landscape Assessment – Missoula Community Planning, Development & Innovation

TONIGHT – New episode of ‘Montana PBS Reports: IMPACT’ to air Oct. 12 – Property tax increases and additional passenger rail service

Montana’s Tech Hub Effort

• SBA Expands Reach of Regional Innovation Cluster Network With Four New Awards Regional Innovation Clusters Help Increase Startup and Small Business Participation in the U.S. Supply Chain

  Clusters act as a networking hub to convene several resources to help navigate the funding, procurement, and supply-chain opportunities in a specific industry.

Come Home Montana

• TONIGHT – New episode of ‘Montana PBS Reports: IMPACT’ to air Oct. 12 – Property tax increases and additional passenger rail service

  “Montana PBS Reports: IMPACT” is a news and public affairs program that provides in-depth reporting on issues important to Montanans.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• 2024 Montana Governor’s Conference on Tourism – April 14-16, 2024 – Hilton Garden Inn, Missoula

  The event will feature a variety of sessions that will expand and challenge our thinking, provide direction for the future and supply us with new tools to promote and develop our markets and services.

• Why technical skills won’t be enough for workers to thrive in the economy of the future

  In her new book, Michelle P. King breaks down how our notion of the ‘ideal worker’ is changing.

Montana Business

• Easy-to-use AI for agriculture

  A new AI-powered platform is helping farmers adopt precision agriculture to bring down costs and environmental impacts

• Knowledge is Power Instruction – What is AI and Why Is It Amazing? – Unleash the power of ChatGPT – 10/19 – Online

  Discover the untapped potential of AI and elevate your business to new heights with our ChatGPT for Business Owners, this is a great entry level class for everybody – not just business owners.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Getting broadband to rural Montana hits a snag

  Taking broadband to rural areas is expensive, and the mixup means an estimated 250 service locations, like households and businesses, are still in limbo depending on whether Tri County decides to move forward.

Housing

• Renting ages your cells faster than unemployment or being an ex-smoker

  The findings highlight the important link between housing and health and indicate that improving housing should be a focus of health interventions.

• 2023 Housing Landscape Assessment – Missoula Community Planning, Development & Innovation

  Missoula’s first comprehensive city-wide housing policy, A Place to Call Home: Meeting Missoula’s Housing Needs, was approved by City Council on June 24, 2019. The policy attempts to both spur and harness the market to better provide housing at a wide range of entry points, and to ensure that all Missoulians can obtain safe and decent homes.

• New York’s Airbnb Ban Is Descending Into Pure Chaos

  and so it begins….

Funding and Building your Business

• California passes law mandating VC firms to release investments’ diversity information

  Once the law goes into effect, any venture capital firm operating in the state (that includes VC firms headquartered in California, have operations in the state, have invested in companies that operate in or are based in the state, or have received investments from California residents) must report, for example, the race of the people they back, as well as their disability status and sexual orientation. The bill also requires firms to collect and release their diversity data to the public.

Regional Economic Development

• A Nobel Prize-winning economist has found an unlikely culprit for growing inequality: economists

  In his new book, Angus Deaton discusses why he believes American society is in a darker place than it was 40 years ago. And why there’s still hope.

Idaho News & Events

• Learning about Rural Higher Education in ‘Billionaire Wilderness’ in Wyoming and Idaho

  A treacherous mountain pass separates Teton County, Wyoming — a place with an average $318,297 per-capita income — from Teton County, Idaho — a place with roughly a $35,000 average. Here are three things a rural higher education reporter learned while visiting the Teton Counties.

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

• Missoula College Named NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense

  The NSA Center of Academic Cyber Defense designation is awarded to institutions that excel in providing students with the knowledge and skills necessary to defend against cyber threats. Missoula College received the designation as a direct result of the two-year college’s dedication to preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals and contributing to national cybersecurity efforts.

Rural Communities

• Goldman Sachs Invests Millions in Job Creation and Economic Growth in Rural America

  A new summary report of the Goldman Sachs’ Small Business Program highlights the challenges business owners in rural communities face.

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Less Politics Is Local: States Get Increasingly Aggressive About Pre-Emption

  Pre-emption of local authority has been a major concern over the past decade. Now, states are not only blocking specific laws but stopping cities and counties from addressing entire areas of policy.

Government News & Events

• Why is there no sales tax in Montana?

  Montana is one of five states that doesn’t have a statewide sales tax, meaning the state and most local governments collect most of their revenue through income and property taxes.

• Climate rules are coming for corporate America

  “The days of a company trying to avoid reporting their emissions at all are over,”

American Prairie

• Book available to accompany PBS show about the history of American bison

  The film tells the story of how the U.S. National Mammal (officially known as bison) came back from the brink of extinction, and its deep connection to Indigenous communities and the land.

City Club Missoula

• City Club Missoula – Missoula Mayoral Debate shows many similarities between the two candidates.

  One of the last questions asked was how each candidate would want to be remembered, if they were to carry out a mayoral term.

Hellgate Venture Network

• October Hellgate Venture Network Event – Missoula Works & Missoula Works Ventures – 10/19 – Missoula

  Nearly 500 Missoulians have found employment support through Missoula Works, either through a local business staffing partner, the Get It Done Crew or Missoula Works Ventures. Paige is excited to continue testing the lines of revenue and expand employment opportunities to ensure that meaningful work is made available to all Missoulians.

Transportation

• How America’s mayors are transforming communities with tech-enabled transit services

  Hear from 10 innovative mayors on the benefits of their new transit systems.

• Stockholm to ban petrol, diesel cars from city centre

  Stockholm will ban petrol and diesel-powered cars from key parts of the city centre from 2025 as it seeks to improve air quality and reduce traffic noise, the Swedish capital’s vice mayor for transport said on Tuesday.

Energy and Climate Change

• Vermont Utility Plans to End Outages by Giving Customers Batteries

  Green Mountain Power is asking state regulators to let it buy batteries it will install at customers’ homes, saying doing so will be cheaper than putting up more power lines.

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