Bullock, Juneau Oppose Otter Creek Jobs Project; Hill Supports
Posted on October 8, 2012 by Montana Statesman in Steve Bullock
Bullock, Juneau vote against Schweitzer, say Montana doesn’t need 4,340 jobs, $92 million a year for schools
HELENA — A widely-supported plan would create thousands of jobs, reduce property taxes and fund Montana’s schools by opening up the Otter Creek coal tract.
Republican candidate for governor Rick Hill proposed the plan before the Montana Taxpayers Association on Sept. 11. Montana has $1.4 trillion in unused coal reserves.
Steve Bullock, the Democrat candidate for governor, has promised the Washington, D.C.-based Sierra Club that, if elected, he will kill the jobs project.
Bullock and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau were the only members of the state Land Board to vote with the D.C.-based group to kill the Otter Creek jobs project.
The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research released an economic study showing about 1,740 new permanent year-round jobs would be created while the mine is operating. The project would increase Montanans’ household income by $125.4 million per year.
2,648 new construction jobs would be created in Montana, in just the peak building year.
The study also shows the project would bring $92 million in new state and local tax revenues to Montana. The new revenues would be from both coal-specific taxes and growth in the overall tax base, without raising taxes on residents.
Wyoming uses its hydrocarbon resources to provide 90 percent of its school funding.
Bullock’s opposition to new school funding and jobs was the central theme of the Sept. 28 debate between Bullock and his Republican opponent Rick Hill, an advocate of coal jobs.
“Gubernatorial hopefuls Steve Bullock and Rick Hill clashed Thursday night over who would do a better job developing Montana’s natural resources and bolstering education, sharpening their tone in their second debate of the campaign season,” Helena Independent Record reporter Mike Dennison reports.
“‘I am a strong advocate for natural-resource development in Montana, and the reason I am is that we are second-to-last in this country in terms of what we earn in salaries and wages,’ Hill told attendees in the Montana Tech auditorium in Butte. ‘There is no reason, with all the wealth we have in this state, that we’re next-to-last in take-home pay.’”
“Hill used his question to attack Bullock’s record on coal development, asking why Bullock failed to join 24 state attorneys general from coal-producing states this year when they challenged new Environmental Protection Agency rules Hill said would harm coal-fired power plants,” the Independent-Record reports.
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