Senate candidate wants smaller government

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

One more Flathead farmer has thrown his hat in the ring for the state legislature.

Republican candidate Bruce Tutvedt will face Democrat Mark Holston in the Senate District 3 election in November. Both ran unopposed in the June primary and received 2,898 and 2,131 votes respectively.

The senate district includes House District 6, which covers Haskill Basin, Northwoods, Big Mountain, most of Whitefish Lake and land all the way north past Olney and west to McGregor Lake. Sen. Jerry O'Neil was term-limited out.

Tutvedt received his bachelor of science degree in agricultural business from Montana State University in 1978. He served two terms on the Flathead Basin Commission and worked on the state's Wolf Advisory Committee. He also has been a member of the Montana Grain Growers, Montana Mint Committee and Montana Farm Bureau.

He is the chairman of the Montana State Farm Services Agency, a presidential appointment. The committee, which oversees 300 federal employees, voted last year to shrink government by reducing the number of Farm Services Agency offices in Montana.

Tutvedt said he decided to run because he wants to get Montana's economy going by encouraging more use of the state's natural resources, including coal and timber. Coal development, particularly in the Otter Creek tracts, is being held back by environmental regulations, not the state's coal tax.

"We need to get transmission lines and railroad lines built," he said. "There's no political will to complete the coal-fired power plant in Great Falls."

He said he opposes a coal-to-liquids plant in Montana because of environmental impacts and cost and wants to see the state's coal used to make electricity. He also questions the idea of mandating Montana-made ethanol in gasoline sold in the state.

"We have the wrong type of grain, and Montana doesn't grow corn," he said. "If it would work, it would've already been built. Instead, it needs subsidies."

Tutvedt's also concerned that state government has grown 44 percent over the past two bienniums. The budget surpluses have primarily resulted from higher tax revenue from oil and gas and capital gains.

"The budget can't continue to increase," he said. "It's way outpacing wage and incomes and growth of the population. State government is growing at an unsustainable rate."

Tutvedt said he'd like to see some real property-tax relief and eliminate the business-equipment tax.

"Montana is the only state in the Pacific Northwest with a business-equipment tax," he said. "We need to be more competitive with other states."

Tutvedt's gravel operation in the Flathead has drawn strong criticism from West Valley neighbors who have sued to stop it. He now has permits to run a crusher and washer but no asphalt or concrete operations. He said he expects to see significant gravel pit legislation next year.

"There's a large need for gravel in growth counties, but neighbors don't accept gravel pits near their homes," he said. "We need a reasonable way to permit gravel pits while protecting neighbors' safety and health and property owners' right to full beneficial use of their land."

Land-use issues and planning are big issues for Tutvedt, who wants to start off by establishing a good definition of property rights.

"The Montana Constitution provides it as a basic right, but there's no definition," he said. "The result is competing definitions."

Too much regulation is making homeownership more unaffordable, he said. "Smart growth" policies add $10,000 to $20,000 to the costs of homes, he said.

"The government can't make affordable housing, but it can make houses unaffordable," he said.

Homeowners and voters need to have a seat at the table when land-use decisions are made, Tutvedt said. Residents in Whitefish's two-mile planning jurisdiction, the so-called "doughnut" area, for example, were left out, he said.

"If you want stream setbacks, you need to talk to the landowner. If you want habitat protection, you need to pay for the land," he said.

Tutvedt says his wife calls him a "connector" because of his people skills and networking across the state. He says he hopes to use these to address the divisiveness that caused difficulties in the last legislative session.

But he says he won't compromise his basic philosophy of smaller government is better government, and of lowering taxes and protecting individual rights.