I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I am currently 58 years old, and I live in Wise River, Montana (Deer Lodge County). I am self-employed as a consultant, running my own business (Registration Solutions) since April 2004. My business is to work with boutique broker/dealer firms, and assist with compliance and regulatory matters. In the summer of 2022 I completed a life long dream of graduating college, with honors, from Colorado Technical University, with a Bachelors of Science in Business Admin/Finance. I then graduated with a Masters degree, with honors, in December 2023 from CTU. These achievements and business experience have prepared me to be an effective leader, along with my honorable service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
I consider the most pressing issues facing Montanan's today to be record high inflation, a lack of affordable housing, ridiculously high energy prices, over inflated property taxes, a completely unsecure border letting millions of illegals come unchecked into our country which has led to an increase in crime and drugs in our communities. Some of these issues are handled at the national level, but I do have ideas for legislation to help with affordable housing and lower energy costs for all Montanan's. I also have proposed legislation to address the crime and drug issues plaguing our state.
The property tax issue in Montana is overly complicated and burdensome. After attending a Local Government Interim Committee meeting in Helena last November, I feel the current property tax structure needs to be revised to account for the increased cost of living conditions, higher home/land prices, and take into consideration economic growth within our communities. I will work with all parties and stakeholders to suggest that we provide an exemption for primary residences back to pre-COVID levels (potentially), while second homes, vacation homes, rental/investment properties, etc be classified at a higher tax level. Additionally, since tourism is as top economic driver for Montana, I will also suggest a separate tax for tourism.
I have personally been impacted by private health care insurance here in Montana, and I believe there needs to be more options provided by major insurance companies in the state. I do not feel that the state or federal government should be the sole provider for mental and physical health are services.
I feel that the required 95 mills that homeowners currently pay annually as part of our property taxes is more than sufficient to cover the cost of education for all students in Montana. What I feel we need in Montana is to support more options for parents to choose the best educational environment for their children, whether that be home school, charter school, private/religious schools, etc.
I was born and raised in Butte, MT
I currently live in Anaconda with my husband Daren and our 3 children (SheaLee 15, Hunter 13, Gage 13).
45 Years old
Occupation - Special Education Director @ Great Divide Education Services, Special Education Cooperative
Education - Butte Public Schools, BS. Education (UM Western), M.Ed Counseling (MSU Northern), Educational Leadership/Special Ed Supervision Endorsement (UM & MSU Billings)
I have been working as an educator for almost 20 years. I am a union member and former union leader. I am active and hold leadership positions in my professional organizations. I serve on the board of directors for a couple of local organizations in Anaconda. The biggest asset is my prior legislative experience.
Taxes which I address in question 3
Housing – Lack of housing in general and the overall cost of housing are huge barriers to young people and employees being able to move into and/or stay in our communities.
Public Education – Providing appropriate funding of our schools, addressing recruitment & retention, supporting & providing opportunities for our students to have a robust education and prepare for their futures. PK-Higher Ed.
Affordable Healthcare – Supporting Medicaid Expansion, Access to high quality health care, including mental health services. Home health & Long-term care options in communities.
Supporting our State Run Facilities - Montana State Hospital, Prison & Nursing Home, including fighting privatization efforts.
Addressing the property tax situation will take collaboration. I am open to listening to any and all ideas brought forth. I will support legislation that provides residents relief. We as residential tax payers, should not be covering the burden with our current rates, while the wealthiest citizens and corporations get tax breaks and/or little to no increase in taxes. I believe there should be gradual increases over time and/or caps on the increases allowed. Additionally, folks who have been in their homes for many years and are on a fixed income need to be considered. I believe there is a big difference between permanent (specifically long-term home ownership) and rental properties or short-term rentals. We need to consider it all.
We need to provide incentives for professionals to practice here to increase access and availability of services, specifically in rural areas.
We need to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for providers.
Again, Medicaid expansion is vital in terms of opening up the availability to Montana's access to healthcare services.
We need to encourage interstate compacts & reciprocity in terms of licensing of our professionals.
We need to collaborate with the University system on program availability and rural placements.
Collaborative approaches within communities, agencies & schools to meet the needs of individuals and families.
A heavy emphasis on mental health training & trauma informed practices, especially for police, EMTs & schools.
This is the area I feel I could have the most impact. If elected I would love the opportunity to serve on both educational policy & budget committees.
We are heading into the 10 year cycle of reassessing the school funding formula.
We need to assess the inflationary funding cap at a 3% max. We know that the increases just to keep the lights on have far exceed a 3% increase. Additionally, the needs of students continue to increase.
Recruitment & Retention is extremely difficult, causing staffing to be at crisis levels. Looking at opportunities to increase funding to pay better and offer better benefits is critical.
Again, I support Early Childhood, K-12 & Higher Ed. I am proud to have a 100% voting record for public education.
