Congressman Greg Gianforte Visits KGVO Studios on Monday
Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte made a visit to our KGVO Studios on Monday to answer questions from listeners about what’s happening in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as his gubernatorial run.
Gianforte was asked what he would do with the extra tax monies that have come into the state’s treasury.
“Montana tax revenue goes up every year, and we spend it every year,” said Gianforte. “I would ask the Legislature to give me a zero-growth budget in that first legislative session, and whatever the surplus is I would use every penny to buy down tax rates, including property taxes, income taxes and other taxes across the board. I believe, as President Trump does, that when you let people keep the fruits of their labor they know better how to spend it than some bureaucrat in government does.”
Gianforte placed some of the blame on overspending on state agencies.
“I know this from balancing budgets in businesses that it’s much harder to say no than it is to say yes,” he said. “We have state agencies that just haven’t had any accountability in a long time. Fish, Wildlife and Parks is at war with the landowners, the DEQ has become the project prevention department and the Commerce department runs around handing taxpayer money out in return for press releases. We can do much better than this”
Gianforte then focused his attention on the national climate change debate.
“I have been surprised just by watching clips,” he said. “I just can’t sit through one of these long debates, but it is crazy the ideas they are putting forward. They want to get rid of all the cows and they want to get rid of all the airplanes. They’re trying to ‘out-left’ each other. They want to be taken seriously, so I’m taking them seriously. This is a scary vision of America’s future.”
Gianforte said the KGVO visit was his last stop before heading back to Washington, D.C.