Challenger calls for more collaboration

House District 3 Democratic candidate Zac Perry says he wants the constituents’ endorsement.

“The beauty of local politics is accessibility — my phone number is in the book,” he said.

A Martin City native, Perry, 34, graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1996, where he played football, basketball and track. He graduated from Notre Dame in 2001 with a bachelor’s in government and international relations.

He currently works for the family business in Martin City in the summer and substitute teaches the rest of the year at the four School District 6 schools in Columbia Falls. He also volunteers with the First Best Place and the Gateway To Glacier organizations in Columbia Falls and the Canyon.

Perry said he had a good introduction to the political arena when he worked on Brian Schweitzer’s 2004 gubernatorial campaign. He ran against Republican Jerry O’Neil and Libertarian Shawn Guymon in the 2010 House District 3 race and lost to O’Neil. He faces the same two this year.

“I campaigned well, but there was a learning curve,” he said. “I like to stay independent and have my own campaign team.”

Property taxes have reached the point where they’re regressive, Perry said. Changing assessments from every six years to every three would be a simple way to make them more accurately reflect market values, Perry said.

“There are too many instances in House District 3 where people are being taxed right out of their homes and off their property,” he said.

He’d also like to cap property tax increases at 2 percent and resist lobbying efforts by large out-of-state utility corporations for more property tax reductions, which would shift the tax burden to residents and small businesses.

Perry supports public education, which he calls “the bedrock upon which democracy is built.” He wants to ensure a quality and accountable system that also protects homeowners and small businesses from property tax increases. That also means dealing with struggling state pension programs for teachers and state workers.

“There are lots of ideas about this, and we need collaboration from both sides,” he said. “But it needs to be dealt with in this next session.”

Options for dealing with the pension programs could include asking for more contributions from teachers and workers, but also from local governments, he said.

Perry also supports improved access to quality and affordable health care. He wants to help small businesses offer affordable health insurance and to support the Children’s Health Care Program (CHIP).

“There are some positive aspects to Obamacare — kids are covered until they’re 26 — and we do need to be proactive about health care,” he said. “It would be great to have Montana tackle health care, to have individual states do it. The federal legislation is flawed, and some areas need to be gutted.”

An avid fisherman, hunter and target shooter, Perry wants to preserve Montana’s outdoor heritage. He notes that the state’s stream access law is “sufficient now,” but he’s concerned about efforts to chip away at it.

As for jobs, Perry wants government to focus more on protecting existing jobs.

“People themselves will get creative and make more new jobs,” he said. “You can’t rely on government to do that.”

Lots of opportunities exist for value-added products in the Flathead’s timber industry, he said.

“We need more collaboration in the legislature, with more community-oriented people and less personal agendas,” he said.