MATR Newsletter – October 28, 2022
The state with the best education wins!

Come Home Montana

• Montana report shows 62% of occupations that require post-secondary education are undersupplied

  Our unemployment rate sits now just below 3%, which is a very tight labor market. Employers throughout the state are reporting difficulty hiring and finding qualified applicants,” says State Economist with the Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Amy Watson.

• Montana Career Opportunity – Service Engineer I – Vision Aerial

      This position will provide post-sales service and technical support for all products and services offered by Vision Aerial. This position’s primary responsibility is to provide technical support and…

• Montana Career Opportunity – Senior Financial Officer – Big Sky Economic Development

    Are you a financial mastermind who loves driving organizational initiatives through savvy financial management? At Big Sky Economic Development, we are a passionate community of individuals who strive to…

Big Sky Commerce

• Last Saturday for Missoula’s Clark Fork Market

  Big Sky Commerce encourages you to stop by the last Clark Fork Market this Saturday before they retire for winter! We are proud to say we have worked with the Clark Fork River Market for twelve years to provide secure transactions between vendors and customers. Thanks for a great season!

City of Bozeman Economic Development

• Bozeman considering composting program

  “It supports so many of the goals of our city, including goals …from our climate action plan,” Commissioner Jennifer Madgic said. “We’ve been talking about composting in Bozeman for some time so I’m excited.”

• City of Bozeman announces 4-point plan for safer streets

  On Tuesday night the city of Bozeman announced its plans to increase street safety across the city. Their hope is that with this 4-pronged approach they’ll be able to make the streets of Bozeman safer for everyone including pedestrians, drivers, and bicyclists.

Montana West Economic Development

• Celebrate Montana West Economic Development’s 25th anniversary – 12/1 – Bigfork

  The meeting portion will begin promptly at 4 p.m. and include the election of our new board slate, some highlights from the past year, our strategic plan and finances for the year ahead, and feature videos and speakers. Following the meeting there will be a networking reception with drinks and appetizers.

MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association

• Montana State University Extension publishes results of statewide needs assessment

  Nearly 2,500 Montanans from all counties and reservations completed the needs assessment survey. More than 800 others participated in listening sessions and interviews coordinated by MSU Extension county and tribal agents. Participants included people who use MSU Extension programs, as well as non-users.

• MEDA Fall 2022 Conference – Mon, Nov 14-16 – Great Falls, MT, USA

  Please Join Us at The Newberry in Great Falls this November to learn about local and national trends impacting economic development. Hot topics include housing, workforce, business, and talent attraction. Benefit from networking and professional development opportunities.

Next Generation Broadband in Montana

• Vermont’s Community-Based Broadband Solutions Get a Boost from American Rescue Plan

  The 2018 Vermont gubernatorial election pitted incumbent Governor Phil Scott (R-VT) against challenger Christine Hallquist (D-VT). Previous to the election, Hallquist spent 12 years as the chief executive of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, an in-state power utility that she helped to bring back from near ruin. Expanding fiber infrastructure and increasing internet access in Vermont formed a centerpiece of her campaign. Governor Scott was reelected, but—demonstrating his moderate, bipartisan approach—appointed Hallquist to be executive director of the newly formed Vermont Community Broadband Board in 2021. He realized that Hallquist was “absolutely the right person” for the job.

• CenturyLink ordered to fix poor service in rural Montana

  Rural Montana customers of CenturyLink have gone without service for weeks at a time, particularly in Wibaux County, where the corporate descendent of Qwest Corporation also doesn’t provide broadband speeds fast enough to support video streaming.

Senator Jon Tester

• Senator Jon Tester Secures Nearly $4 Million for New School Buses for Montana School Districts

  Funding will come from the Senator’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte

• Governor Gianforte pushes trades education, more construction as fixes for Montana housing crunch

  Standing in front of a luxury apartment complex under construction in Bozeman Thursday, Gov. Greg Gianforte touted his efforts to address Montana’s housing affordability crunch by promoting new residential development.

• Montana Switches Gears to Try to Bargain for Lower Health Care Costs for Employees

  Montana is signaling it might step away from an innovative way of setting the prices its public employee health plan pays hospitals for services, an approach that has saved the state millions of dollars and become a model for health plans nationwide.

Housing

• Universal Basic Income Has Been Tested Repeatedly. It Works. Will America Ever Embrace It?
  The extraordinary success and thorny politics of a bold policy idea
• The US housing shortage is ‘awful’ and will likely get worse with no apparent end in sight

  How dire is the decades long housing shortage in the United States?

• Denver Supportive Housing Experiment Breaks Street-to-Jail Cycle

  Police spend thousands of hours arresting unhoused people for committing nonviolent crimes. Housing people works better, research shows.

• Home prices starting to decline in Kalispell

  Home prices in Kalispell are falling, not long after the city was named the fastest growing micropolitan area in the nation.

Montana Business

• Carbon investments backed by AI and satellite data – ‘Biochar’ incinerator tested for forest thinning, soil enhancement

  A fintech platform helps farmers attract investment in carbon credits for regeneration projects

• The Two Most Important Startup Metrics: Acceleration And Momentum

  If there were only two things you should measure when building a company, it would be acceleration and momentum. One could argue that these two measurements are indicators of your chances of success, team performance, effectiveness and efficiency.

Visit Montana

• Advocates pushing for more tourism promotion in eastern Montana

  Tourism has come back better in Montana than the rest of the country, according to Montana Lodging and Hospitality Association (MLHA).

  The association wants to make sure the Legislature allocates enough of the bed tax money to go toward marketing Billings and the rest of eastern Montana.

Wyoming Business

• Five more nuclear plants on the horizon for Wyoming, Utah

  A second wave of advanced nuclear reactors could be coming to Wyoming.

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

• Rural Teacher Prep Program Delivers ‘Job-Embedded’ Degrees — For $75 a Month

  Reach University candidates gain BAs and teaching certifications for just $1,800 while working and earning a salary in high-needs Arkansas districts

STARS Montana Early Education Program

• A Prenatal-to- 3 policy roadmap shares how states are doing and how they can improve

  The Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap has answers that were shared earlier this month at a virtual summit that drew “thousands of national and state leaders, scholars, and practitioners.”

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Opinion: Candidates’ Commitment to Road Safety Should Be a Litmus Test For Voters

  Leadership, action and courage is needed to address any crisis, and the same is true for mobility safety and accessibility. That is why it is crucial to recognize that traffic safety is a ballot issue when voting this year, and America needs leaders ready to make street safety a priority.

Government Technology

• Crosswalks, roundabouts in Bozeman getting new signs to explain light patterns – How about in your community?

  “If you have not seen them, the pattern of the lights begin with flashing yellow, followed by a solid yellow to warn drivers to prepare to stop. Solid red is next indicating you need to stop and remain stopped. The final pattern is a flashing red light which should be treated like a stop sign.”

Non-Profit News

• How Healthy is the US Nonprofit Sector – Quarterly Report

  Independent Sector regularly releases Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector reports – an evolving and growing resource of data, analysis, and recommendations about key areas powering U.S. nonprofits. Among the most recent report’s key highlights: The number of donors to U.S. nonprofits has declined.

Hellgate Venture Network

• Hellgate Venture Network – 11/3 – The Sidecar – Missoula

  We are excited to host Jason O’Neil, Co-Founder of The Sidecar a tightly-knit community of entrepreneurs, creators, doers, and innovators with locations in Missoula, Helena and Bozeman.

Energy and Climate Change

• President Joe Biden just signed an international climate treaty. And Mitch McConnell voted for it.

  The US is now committed to phasing out HFCs, a class of powerful greenhouse gases.

• Nailable solar shingles for the home

  New solar shingles can be installed in the same way as traditional roof shingles, saving both time and money on solar roof installation

• Yard waste has lots of value if you leave it alone

  Leaving fallen leaves and other yard waste alone can do great things for the climate, a working paper shows.

Social Media, Connectivity & Communications

• How to delete Twitter account? Step-by-step guide to permanently remove your account. What happens to your Twitter data when Elon takes over

  If you find yourself ready to ditch tweeting once and for all, here’s what you can do to permanently delete your account:

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