A Few Hard Truths

A conservative is a fellow standing athwart history yelling, ’Stop!’

At least that is how patron saint of the modern conservative movement, William F. Buckley defined it. As I travel across our great district talking to voters, I often try to define the terms liberal and conservative in today’s political climate. Amongst a farrago of definitions for what a conservative is, I think Buckley’s assessment is accurate.

This election, cycle conservatives are yelling “stop” to excessive political correctness, federal overreach and unnecessary taxes. Montana has been a punching bag for the federal government in the last several years. They are effectively shutting down our coal industry and controlling our water supply and in some cases shutting down our use of our own streams and rivers on private property. The Environmental Protection Agency’s sweeping “Waters of the U.S.” proposal under the Clean Water Act would be a detriment to our state. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox asserts that the new rules would infringe on our state’s constitutional rights. We would be given a new standard of water quality; the regulations would be harmful to our farmers, ranchers and landowners.

The state has been successfully navigating the waters of its H20 quality assurance successfully since the 1971 Water Quality Control Act. If this new proposal were enforced it would cause the obtaining of new federal permits by thousands of landowners. To be told you cannot use the water on your land, not essential water cores, if you do not meet the new regulations is beyond the federal government’s rightful jurisdiction. The Montana Stock Growers Association, Montana Farm Bureau, Montana Association of Realtors and even 12 other states share these same sentiments.

Beyond this, a possible greater crisis is the constriction of our coal industry by EPA regulations. As I stated in my January Op-Ed, we are in danger of losing billions of dollars in revenue. In a state near the bottom of the wage barrel, when compared to the rest of our 50 states, we cannot sacrifice high-wage jobs and send thousands of families packing. This issue also compounds into other industries. Seventy percent of BNSF Railway’s shipments are coal. Less coal would mean less train movement, which directly correlates to conductors, engineers and brakemen holding their jobs. In small towns, losing a large percentage of railroad workers would devastate a local economy.

Currently Montana is comfortably sitting on a 300 million dollar surplus. I believe that if the government takes money from its people, it should be given good use. With the excess, we must either take this opportunity to lower taxes, such as the business equipment tax or put the money towards something the people desire. Montana is fortunate that we are mandated to balance our budget. This and a surplus will be increasingly harder to achieve if we cripple our valuable industries. If we do not invoke the 10th amendment and provide another path we may be sleeping in our own gallows, dreaming of chasing shadows the environmental intellectual purists wish to achieve. We are at historical crossroads in Montana history and we must declare “stop” to outside forces that would impair our livelihood while we still can.

Glasgow’s Michael Burns is a candidate for Montana’s 33rd District State Representative seat.