Lyn Hellegaard will help more Montanans achieve the American Dream
Americans For Prosperity works to remove obstacles that prevent people from using their unique gifts to achieve the American Dream. Too often, burdensome regulations, high taxes and fees, and rigid education policies and other barriers keep individuals from realizing that dream.
Lyn Hellegaard, who is running for a seat in Montana’s House of Representatives and has been endorsed by AFP-Montana, will break down the government hurdles that keep Montanans from learning, working, and innovating.
A fiscal conservative with a 20-year banking background, Hellegaard is no stranger to drilling into financials. She wants state lawmakers to better analyze how taxpayer money is spent and would like to give more money back to Montanans in the form of tax cuts.
Montana’s general election is set for November 8. Hellegaard is running in District HD-97.
A record of fiscal responsibility
Hellegaard is a former member of the Missoula City Council. While representing the 4th Ward, she earned a reputation for fiscal responsibility by voting against reckless spending projects and tax increases. Hellegaard even testified with AFP-MT activists in 2018 against a proposed 3.6 percent general tax increase and an increase in Tax Increment Financing, a system that increases homeowners’ tax burdens and gives the money to well-connected developers.
While serving the 4th Ward, Hellegaard demonstrated a willingness to stand on principle against corporate welfare. She opposed direct subsidies for a $2 million funding initiative for a new baseball stadium and was a highly vocal and active opponent of specialized tax districts, which often are used to provide corporate welfare-related tax carveouts. She and four fellow council members lost that vote, but Hellegaard did not give up the fight. She took her case to the Montana legislature, which unfortunately failed to nullify the districts.
Hellegaard also understands how unnecessary and burdensome regulations can harm people and businesses. If elected to the statehouse, Hellegaard has promised to fight to reduce taxes and enact policies to encourage businesses to bring better paying jobs to the state.
Ensuring more choice in education and health care
Hellegaard supports policies that provide funding more directly to students and teachers. She will fight to institute and expand educational saving accounts, school choice vouchers, and the use of charter schools.
Hellegaard also will work to ensure Montanans’ have more choices when it comes to accessing and affording health care. She has said she will support:
- Reforming occupational licensing laws for health care and other professions;
- Loosening government controls on the health care industry to increase flexibility and supply within the health care market;
- Eliminating or modifying state requirements for physician assistants so that these professionals can better help meet patients’ demand for care; and
- Expanding the number of pharmacy technicians that a pharmacist can oversee at a time.
Hellegaard will act to decriminalize poverty
State criminal justice systems should keep communities safe, rehabilitate people, and recognize the potential in every person to transform their life and contribute to society. Unfortunately, Montana’s current criminal justice policies do not embody that ideal. They criminalize poverty and disproportionately harm minorities and low-income communities.
Hellegaard has consistently opposed increases in fines, fees, and surcharges. When the Missoula City Council raised these levies despite Hellegaard’s opposition, the state Supreme Court ruled the increases were unconstitutional.
Hellegaard has said she will support:
- Expanding the number of infractions where law enforcement may issue a citation in lieu of arrest
- Creating certificates of rehabilitation where people who were previously incarcerated and meet specific requirements can gain easier access to a home, continued education
- Implementing a uniform data collection system for people currently in Montana’s criminal justice system
AFP-MT will mobilize grassroots in support of Hellegaard
AFP-MT engages in grassroots outreach to advocate for long-term solutions to problems that prevent people from realizing their full potential.
The organization will leverage a wide range of tactics to help Hellegaard and other endorsed candidates achieve victory during their primary and general elections.
Paid for by Americans for Prosperity
Emily Seidel, CEO, 205 Haggerty Lane, Bozeman, MT 59715.
