Greg's Top Ten

When I first came to Montana more than 40 years ago, I fell in love with the natural beauty and the people. I knew, back then, that I wanted to make a life in Montana.

When my wife and I founded a technology company in our home in Bozeman nearly two decades ago, people told us that a global business could not succeed in Montana. They told us the state was too rural, they told that we didn’t have good enough connectivity, they told us that we couldn’t attract qualified workers.

Well, we proved the naysayers wrong, and built a business that grew to employ more than 500 Montanans in jobs that paid an average of nearly $90,000 a year. We discovered that, when you combine the right leadership with the Montana work ethic, the sky is the limit.

Right now, our state faces uncertain times. The Obama Administration’s War on Coal threatens to shutter our coal industry and Colstrip units 1 and 2 are already slated for shutdown. The commodities boom has ended. Hundreds of timber workers have been laid off in the last two years as much of our forest land remains unmanaged. We’ve now seen two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Our state revenues have fallen off a cliff, and our rainy day fund is severely depleted.

It’s time for a change in Helena to get the state back on the right track. Here are 10 reasons (in no particular order) why Montana needs new leadership:

10. Our state finances are in shambles - 125 accounting errors, $1 billion lost, $300 million surplus gone, $800 million in growth of government.  Now, we’ve dropped from #1 “most fiscally prudent” before Bullock to #26 under his watch.

9. To bring accountability back to state government. There’s been rampant abuse of the state plane and rigged no-bid contracts to friends and family members – I’ll sell the plane and drive the same roads we all do!

8. To push back on federal overreach to save coal jobs, Colstrip and our property rights.

7. To withdraw from Obama’s Syrian refugee program and protect our communities from unvetted Syrian refugees.

6. To keep our guns. Steve Bullock vetoed 6 gun rights bills, that I would have signed. I’m endorsed by the NRA, Gun Owners of America, and Montana Shooting Sports Association!

5. To manage our forests. Let’s responsibly harvest timber rather than watch our forests burn. 

4. To make it easier for small businesses by eliminating excessive regulations, lowering taxes and bringing a culture of customer service back to state government.

3. To assure our kids are prepared for jobs of the future by putting computer science in every high school and increasing trades education.

2. So our kids are no longer our most precious export. Aren’t we all tired of being 49th in wages and 50th in income for millennials? 

1. Because we are all sick and tired of career politicians!

With the right leadership in Helena combined with hardworking people of Montana, we can get our economy growing again, and we can lift ourselves up from the bottom of the nation in wages. I humbly ask for your vote on November 8.

Greg Gianforte is candidate for governor of Montana. He is a businessman and entrepreneur and the founder of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman.