Incumbent wants to rein in government

Jerry O’Neil’s long-held libertarian beliefs show in the responses he gives to interviewers. The 69-year-old Columbia Falls resident and Republican representative for House District 3 is running for re-election to a second term this year.

In the basement of his home, where he maintains an office for his independent paralegal business, shelves hold books by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, a book titled “The Underground Lawyer,” and “The 5,000 Year Leap,” by W. Cleon Skousen.

O’Neil first got into politics lobbying the Legislature to improve family law, provide better access to justice, limit the size of government and make better use of Montana’s natural resources. He successfully ran for the Montana Senate in 2000 in the former Senate District 84, which included Columbia Falls and Evergreen.

After redistricting, O’Neil won election to Senate District 3. Term-limited out of the Senate in 2008, he waited two years to run for House District 3, after Dee Brown was also term-limited. O’Neil defeated Democrat Zac Perry in 2010 in the House District 3 race by 1,725 to 1,299 and faces Perry again in November.

A Flathead native, O’Neil worked at the family-owned lumber business as a teenager. After graduating from Flathead High School in 1961, he ran a retail service station until it went broke. He traveled to Seattle, where he worked seven days a week as a tool maker and machine operator and eventually paid off his debt — a lesson he believes the government should heed.

“Similar to you and me, a government can either pay off its debt or chance going bankrupt,” he said. “When a government goes bankrupt, the people lose their freedom and are subject to revolution and poverty.”

O’Neil cites the unfunded structural liabilities of both the state teachers and the state public employees retirement systems as cases in point — by July 1, 2011, the liabilities were about $1.8 billion and $1.3 billion respectively.

“On a theoretical level, I would no longer like to see teachers or state workers get state pensions,” he said. “They should pay into it themselves. It’s a Ponzi-like scheme where new hires are paying funds to cover those who retire.”

On a practical level, he said he’d like to see new hires weaned off the system over time, or have teachers and state workers pay more into the system, or even raise the retirement age.

O’Neil, who attended Montana State University and the University of Montana without graduating and has a two-year degree from Flathead Valley Community College, wants to see some changes in Montana education.

“Our schools should benefit from income created through the use of our natural resources, and our students should be educated to manage those resources,” he said.

He also supports the idea of government-supported charter schools to compete with public schools, but he said he wasn’t sure how that would be done.

On the other hand, O’Neil supports the idea of using tax credits so individuals can create health care savings accounts to supplement or replace President Obama’s health care program. He has suggested that the state stand up to the federal government on Obamacare.

“Similar to our refusal under Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s leadership to comply with the Real ID Act, should Montana now refuse to go along with the Affordable Health Care Act?” he asked.

O’Neil said he so far isn’t carrying any bills for the 2013 Legislature. He said he wants to work on lowering property taxes for Montanans and keep an eye on water rights adjudication in the Flathead.