Representative Brad Barker, Luther, MT (2026)

10/04/2026

Thank you to Montana Independent News for recording Thursday night's candidate forum at the Beartooth Elks Lodge in Red Lodge, and to Denise Rivette for the write-up. Not everyone can get out on a weeknight. Having every race on video means voters across Carbon County can hear from the candidates directly, in their own words.

There are separate videos for the State Senate, State House, and Bridger District County Commissioner races, and every question is timestamped. Topics included dark money, data centers, property taxes, income and sales tax, and health insurance subsidies. Pick a race, pick a question, and see where each candidate stands. Whoever you support, it's worth the time.

Thanks also to Elks Lodge 534 for hosting, Joel Todd for moderating, every candidate who showed up to answer questions, and the full house that came out to listen.

Watch the videos here: https://montanaindependent.substack.com/p/senate-representative-and-commissioner

The candidates for County Attorney, Sheriff, and Clerk and Recorder meet next week on October 8th at 6 pm.

Results over politics.

Carbon County Republicans - Montana Carbon County News

10/01/2026

Who's Paying to Influence Your Vote?

In February, at the Republican Winter Kickoff in Great Falls, Henry Kriegel of Americans for Prosperity-Montana said his group's mailers and digital ads in our legislative primaries were "hard-hitting for a purpose" and "honor our donors' intent." Asked who those donors are, he said he did not know.

Montana Free Press reported that four groups accounted for 96 percent of outside spending in Montana's 43 contested Republican legislative primaries, more than $4 million. Public filings identify some contributors. The donors behind Americans for Prosperity's Montana ads generally are not identified in public campaign reports.

By contrast, an individual may give a legislative candidate no more than $470 per election. Once contributions reach $50, the candidate must publicly report the donor's name, address, occupation and employer.

A 501(c)(4) "social welfare" nonprofit, however, can accept donations without a dollar cap. Candidate campaigning cannot be its primary activity. When it files as an incidental committee in Montana, it reports election spending but generally identifies donors only when their gifts were earmarked for a candidate or ballot issue, or solicited for election activity.

That means a rancher's $50 contribution to a candidate is public, while an unrestricted $500,000 donation that a nonprofit later spends on election advertising may leave the original donor unidentified in Montana's reports.

In 2027, I intend to introduce the Montana True Source Act. Drawing on a definition Alaska voters adopted in 2020, it would trace election money to the person or business whose money came from wages, investment income, inheritance or revenue from selling goods or services. Organizations passing along contributions could not conceal the original source by adding another layer. Somebody would have to answer the question Kriegel could not.

Under my proposal, contributions exceeding $2,500 in a calendar year to groups spending on Montana elections would trigger reporting by both contributor and recipient within 48 hours. Membership dues below the threshold would remain private.

Companion proposals would require year-round disclosure for covered election advertising, identify the top three funders on advertisements, and bar fundraising during the legislative session.

These proposals would not cap independent election spending. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down corporate independent spending restrictions while upholding disclaimer and disclosure requirements.

Voters deserve the same information whether an advertisement praises their preferred candidate or attacks that candidate.

Madison wrote in Federalist 52 that the House of Representatives ought to be "dependent on the people alone." Knowing who finances election advertising helps citizens judge whose interests a message may serve.

Most of my colleagues honor their oath of office, vote their conscience, and represent their constituents. But hidden donors invite suspicion and undermine public trust. A Montanan who opens the mailbox should be able to learn who paid for what is inside. A healthy democracy depends on restoring trust in our elections, our institutions, our political process, and a rule of law that applies equally to everyone.

It is an honor to serve you.

Brad Barker
Representative
House District 55 (Carbon County)
[email protected]
bradbarker.com

Montana Republican Party Carbon County Republicans - Montana Montana Conservative Republicans

09/22/2026

TAXABLE VALUE IS NOT YOUR TAX BILL.

False and misleading information is being spread about Montana’s property-tax changes to undermine homestead protection. Presenting the taxable value on an appraisal notice as “what you owe” is one example.

Regular 2026 real-property tax bills are not out yet. County treasurers normally mail those bills in late October. An appraisal notice is not an early tax bill.

HERE’S THE DIFFERENCE

• MARKET VALUE is the state’s appraisal of your property.
• TAXABLE VALUE is calculated by applying statutory property-tax rates to that value.
• YOUR TAX BILL is calculated using taxable value and the applicable mill levies, plus separate assessments and fees.

Illustrative example: $3,000 in taxable value × 500 mills ÷ 1,000 = $1,500 in taxes - not a $3,000 tax bill.

DOR sends appraisal notices. Your county treasurer sends tax bills.

WHAT WE PASSED AND WHY

Out-of-state buying drove up Montana home values. As residential values climbed, the tax burden shifted off industrial property and onto homeowners. Many industrial properties effectively got a tax holiday from 2021 to 2024.

HB 231 and SB 542 addressed that imbalance.

The package established new property-tax rates and a rebate of up to $400 for qualifying homeowners in 2025.

In 2026:

• Qualifying primary homes and single-family long-term rentals receive tiered rates starting at 0.76%.
• Qualifying multifamily long-term rentals receive a flat 1.10% rate. That provision is already in the legislation and took effect this year.

These percentages determine taxable value, not the final percentage of your property’s value that you pay in taxes.

WHAT DOR PROJECTED FOR CARBON COUNTY

Estimated 2026 taxes compared with 2024:

• Residential homesites: 18% higher WITHOUT the package; 23% lower WITH it.
• Long-term rentals: 17% higher WITHOUT the package; 27% lower WITH it.
• Commercial property: 6% higher WITHOUT the package; 10% lower WITH it.
• Agriculture/Timber: 4% lower WITHOUT the package; 6% lower WITH it.
• Other residential property, including vacation homes and short-term rentals: 17% higher WITHOUT the package; 71% higher WITH it.

Figures are rounded. The last comparison is DOR’s broader “Residential-Other” category, not a separate estimate for vacation homes or short-term rentals alone.

These are countywide projections for property categories—not individual tax bills or guaranteed savings for every owner.

WE MADE A POLICY CHOICE

We prioritized reduced rates for the homes people live in as their primary residence and homes occupied by long-term renters. Vacation homes and short-term rentals generally do not receive those reduced rates.

The changes also moved the taxes on industrial properties back close to where they would have been without the large increase in residential values.

The package is not perfect. But it is substantially better than allowing another two years of substantial increases on Montana residents’ primary homes and homes occupied by long-term renters.

I am open to refinements in 2027, including reviewing the treatment of cabins and vacant lots and simplifying enrollment, while preserving the homestead reduced rate.

WHERE PROPERTY TAXES GO

Property taxes fund local services and education, including statewide school equalization and university levies. They do not provide unrestricted funding for general state operations. Claims that portray property taxes as general state-government spending mislead taxpayers.

Your final bill depends on your property’s value, classification and applicable levies. A higher mill levy alone does not establish higher spending, just as a taxable-value figure alone does not establish your tax bill.

The Montana Constitution requires the state to appraise, assess and equalize taxable property. It does not require lawmakers to leave the old tax rates unchanged as residential values rise.

Those seeking to repeal homestead protection owe taxpayers an explanation of their replacement and who would pay more. Anyone knowingly presenting an appraisal notice as a tax bill is deliberately providing false and misleading information.

CHECK THE INFORMATION YOURSELF

Property information and homestead status:
https://property.mt.gov

DOR’s 2026 rates:
https://revenue.mt.gov/property/property-tax-changes/2026-property-tax-information

How appraisal notices and tax bills work:
https://revenue.mt.gov/property/residential/

Carbon County tax records:
https://carbonmt.gov/departments/treasurer/

Montana Cadastral:
https://svc.mt.gov/msl/cadastral/

Legislative Finance Division school and local-government spending dashboards:
https://www.legmt.gov/lfd/interactive-tools/

Check the document. Check the year. Check the math.

Rep. Brad Barker | House District 55

Carbon County Republicans - Montana Montana Republican Party

09/19/2026

Montana's Teacher Pipeline

I was in Helena for three days of interim committee work this past week. Tuesday brought a joint meeting of the Education Interim Committee and the Education Interim Budget Committee. Wednesday the budget committee met on its own. Today I'm with the Legislative Finance Committee, where we begin shaping recommendations for the 2027 session.

Tuesday's agenda included updates and a panel discussion on the teacher workforce pipeline. Deans and program chairs from Montana State, UM Western, and Carroll College presented, along with reports on Grow Your Own from the Commissioner of Higher Education's office and on the Teacher Residency Program from the Office of Public Instruction (OPI). The Department of Labor and Industry also briefed us on teacher registered apprenticeships.

The numbers the Montana Council of Deans of Education brought are concerning. In 2012–13, 808 people finished a Montana teacher preparation program. In 2024–25 the figure was 486, roughly a 40 percent drop in a dozen years. Elementary education fell from 369 to 203. English from 98 to 24. Mathematics from 35 to 10. Special education from 63 to 27. Technology education went from nine to zero.

Two cautions belong with those numbers, and the deans offered both themselves. First, this is a national pattern, not unique to Montana. The national count fell from about 192,000 to 147,000 over the same stretch. Second, the federal measure here is the "program completer," and that is not the same thing as a graduate, a licensed teacher, or a teacher standing in front of a Montana classroom. The 2023–24 federal workbook counts 1,479 candidates enrolled and 495 program completers, but those are not a before and after. The first is everyone in the pipeline across all years of study; the second is the group that finished in a single year.

In 2023 I sponsored House Bill 833, which established the Montana Teacher Residency Program. It passed the House 73–26 and the Senate 45–5, and was signed into law that May.

The idea is borrowed from medicine: put a teacher candidate in a real classroom for a full year alongside an experienced mentor and pay them enough that they can afford to be there. A resident receives a stipend, housing or living-cost support, and a last-dollar tuition grant covering what other aid doesn't. In exchange, the resident commits to teaching in a Montana public school for three of the next five years. If they don't, the tuition grant converts to a loan. The state's investment comes back as a Montana teacher in a Montana classroom, or it comes back as repayment.

OPI's report to us shows 41 participants in the first two years across six preparation programs and 20 districts, 22 participants in year three, and 14 in year four, 77 residents in all, with 23 districts having taken part at some point. The retention design appears to be working where it's been tried, but the cohort sizes are not growing. A program built to scale is not yet scaling.

That is a budget question as much as a policy question, and it's the kind of question the Education Interim Budget Committee exists to ask. We also heard about HB 499's Grow Your Own program at $500,000 for the biennium with 40 students served, up to $10,000 per student, aimed at place-based preparation in communities like Browning, Glendive, and Busby. UM Western's accelerated model lets paraprofessionals earn a paycheck while finishing a degree in three years, with 85 percent retention in its first cohort. These are small programs doing real work in places that have the hardest time filling a classroom.

The budget committee spent Wednesday on quarterly reports from the Board of Public Education, the Arts Council, the Commissioner of Higher Education, the Historical Society, the School for the Deaf and Blind, and the State Library. The afternoon belonged to OPI: countywide BASE levies under HB 156, the 95-mill estimate and guaranteed tax base impacts, the teacher licensure account balance, and a progress update on the teacher pay dashboard.

Thursday the Legislative Finance Committee reviews the fiscal year 2026 financial overview, state employee health insurance changes, statewide IT costs, and state special revenue dedications. Then we will turn to what we recommend to the appropriations subcommittees ahead of the 2027 session.

Public comment is welcome at every one of these meetings, in person in Helena or remotely at participate.legmt.gov. Recordings, materials, and minutes are posted to the legislative website.

It is an honor to serve you.

Brad Barker
Representative
House District 55 (Carbon County)
[email protected]
bradbarker.com

09/13/2026

Watch this Iowa ad which is ultimately about the corrosive impact of Dark Money.

The man is Zach Lahn. Americans for Prosperity hired him in 2014 to run its Montana operation. He spent the 2015 session working to strip health coverage from tens of thousands of Montanans and pressuring Republican legislators to sign pledge cards on bills that had not yet been written.

Frank Garner, a Republican, Kalispell’s police chief of eight years and former Montana legislator, called him inherently dishonest. Garner was right. Lahn lost, left, and turned up in Kansas. He is now asking Iowans to make him Governor while, by multiple reports, still living in Kansas.

Now the part Montanans should not forget.

At the Montana GOP Winter Kickoff in Great Falls this February, AFP Montana Deputy State Director Henry Kriegel was asked about the attack ads his group was running against sitting Republican legislators. He said those ads “honor our donors’ intent.” Asked who the donors are, he admitted he did not know.

That is not advocacy. It is a purchase order.

AFP opposed the homestead exemptions in HB 231 and SB 542 because, in their own words, those exemptions “benefit Montana residents as opposed to non-residents.”

Jesse Ramos runs AFP Montana. Kriegel is his deputy and their lead lobbyist in Helena. The mailers in Carbon County mailboxes go out under their names. They call it grassroots. They pay door knockers $27 to $29 an hour.

It is worth knowing who delivers that message. In 1993 the Los Angeles Times reported that Kriegel was still a member of Church Universal and Triumphant and that, for him, joining such a group was “a voluntary decision based on the group’s beliefs and practices.”

Montanans are entitled to know who paid for the ad in the mailbox and who is carrying it in Helena. Now you know.

Montana Republican Party Carbon County Republicans - Montana Americans for Prosperity-Montana Montana Conservative Republicans

09/12/2026

Data Centers and AI: Real Threats, Real Opportunities

Two weeks ago the Modernization and Risk Analysis Committee (MARA) spent a morning on data centers: our nonpartisan fiscal staff on how Montana taxes them, and Professor Eric Masanet of UC Santa Barbara, a co-author of the 2024 national data center energy report prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, on what the research says about water.

The Fight We Are In. There are real risks in moving forward and even greater risks in standing still. But when you are in a fight, you are not the only one who gets to choose when it ends. The race to build computing power is a fight the United States is in whether Montana takes part or not. If our adversaries get ahead of us, they will dictate how this technology is built, how it is used, and the path forward for everyone else. I would much rather have American leadership, American information housed in American data centers, on American soil and under American rules, than overseas. That is why I do not support a moratorium. But we must also do it right.

Montana’s standard corporate income tax rate is 6.75 percent of Montana taxable net income, with multistate business income generally apportioned using Montana’s share of sales. For a campus whose customers are mostly out of state, that sales factor is small. Energy taxes add up to less than $1 million a year even at 500 megawatts. Permanent jobs are real but modest in number. At the estimated 0.18 to 0.35 jobs per megawatt, a 500-megawatt campus would employ around 90 to 175 people.

Property tax is where the money is. Qualified data centers have a 0.9 percent classification rate, compared with a top rate of 3 percent on other business equipment. The classification rate determines taxable value; mill levies determine the bill. Staff estimated first-year property taxes on a 500-megawatt, $7.5 billion campus at about $6.8 million to the state and $27 million to local governments and schools. Staff’s most important point was that the data behind all of this is scarce and mostly self-reported by the industry. That is why we should take another look at the rate.

Water: The Golf Course Test. Professor Masanet illustrated direct onsite water consumption using assumptions of 0.1 to 3 liters per kilowatt-hour of computer electricity. Actual consumption depends on the cooling system and climate. A closed liquid loop inside the building can still reject heat through evaporative equipment outside. Nvidia’s latest platform uses warm-liquid cooling that can reject heat through dry coolers to ambient air without chillers in suitable climates.

Consider 50 megawatts of computer capacity averaging 70 percent utilization. At 3 liters per kilowatt-hour, onsite consumption would be about 243 million gallons annually; at 0.1 liter, about 8 million. The larger figure is roughly the irrigation water applied at four or five regional golf courses, although applied water and net consumption are different measures. These are illustrative scenarios, not predictions for a particular project, and exclude water used in electricity generation. Fully dry cooling can consume close to no cooling water. Montana should require low-water designs and verify water usage effectiveness, or WUE, using metered water consumption and computer electricity use.

Doing It Right. Ratepayers first. A data center must be neutral for other ratepayers or, better, lower their rates. The company that creates the demand for new generation and transmission should pay for it, not a family in Bridger or a ranch outside Joliet. A large customer that pays its full share spreads the fixed costs of the grid across more kilowatt-hours, which can lower rates for the rest of us when the customer covers the costs it causes.

Lower property taxes, if we keep the base. A large campus, even at 0.9 percent, still puts tens of millions of taxable value on the roll. That can cut mills for everyone else. It does not if a local abatement or a TIF gives the increment away.

A grid made stronger, not more fragile. Many data centers have backup generators and batteries. Poorly coordinated transfers to backup power can create risks: in July 2024 about 1,500 megawatts of data center load in Virginia tripped off the grid in seconds after a line fault. Voltage jumped about 7 percent, and operators had to switch out capacitor banks to bring it back to normal. Used the right way, the same equipment is a tool. Severe winter weather can drive peak demand on NorthWestern’s Montana system. In January 2024 a cold snap drove market prices to $600 to $1,000 a megawatt-hour and added about $39 million to customers’ power costs.

Riding through small disturbances helps stabilize the grid. Reducing grid demand during shortages can free capacity for homes and businesses. Exporting surplus power can also help where equipment and agreements allow it. Texas law requires covered large customers to disclose qualifying backup generation and allows them to be directed to use it or curtail demand during emergencies. Montana should make that flexibility a condition of connection.

Good neighbors. Cooling fans and generators are loud. Montana should require setbacks from homes, noise limits measured at the property line, and enclosed equipment where needed.

Transparency throughout. Too much of this development has happened behind nondisclosure agreements and code names. Water rights, power agreements, tax classification, and any local incentives should be public and open to comment before decisions are made. Montana should expect written commitments on rates, water, taxes, and reporting from every developer before it is classified or connected. I’ve sponsored legislation that is now law requiring advance agendas and online meeting recordings so people can follow decisions like these.

Local governments decide. Helena should set the minimum requirements, not take the decision away from local governments that are closer to the nuances of each proposed project and more accountable.

In Remembrance. This Friday marks twenty-five years since September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, including 343 members of the New York City Fire Department, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers. We remember the lives lost, and we honor those who responded and those who served. God bless them and their families.

It is an honor to serve you.

Brad Barker
Representative
House District 55 (Carbon County)
[email protected]
bradbarker.com

09/06/2026

Childcare Shortages in Montana

The Modernization and Risk Analysis Committee (MARA) that I serve on heard testimony on childcare from the Legislative Fiscal Division, the Child Care Trust, and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Here is some of what we learned.

Montana has about 68,000 children under age five, and in two-thirds of those families every available parent is in the workforce. Roughly 45,000 of those children potentially need care, while licensed and registered providers offer about 25,000 slots. That leaves a gap of more than 21,000 children, or 47 percent. The national gap is 28 percent.

The shortage is worst in rural Montana. Our rural gap is 55 percent, compared with 36 percent in urban counties, and licensed capacity statewide has fallen by about 1,700 slots since 2020. According to the Department of Labor and Industry, licensed capacity in Carbon County covers only 27 percent of the demand from children under six.

Cost squeezes from both sides. Full-time center care for an infant averages about $15,000 a year in Montana, and care for two children in a center runs about $29,000, against a median household income of roughly $71,000. Yet the people providing that care earn an average of $26,500 a year. Labor is about three-quarters of a provider’s cost, so a center cannot raise wages without raising tuition that families already cannot afford. Turnover runs near 44 percent.

What Montana Is Already Doing

Most of the state’s effort runs through the Best Beginnings Scholarship, which helps working families below 185 percent of the federal poverty level pay for care. It spent about $46.9 million in fiscal year 2026, roughly $41.3 million of it federal. In July the federal government restored state flexibility on family copayments, and the committee will want to understand what that means for families and for program costs.

The 2025 Legislature also passed HB 924, which directs a share of the Growth and Opportunity Trust into a Montana Early Childhood Account. Its board has launched a $6 million, two-year Flexible Workforce Support Grant to recruit and retain childcare workers, and a $2.5 million Infant and Toddler Capacity Expansion Grant offering up to $10,000 per provider to add the slots hardest to find. This adds to the state’s early childhood apprenticeship which has the capacity to train about 30 caregivers a year toward a Child Development Associate credential. Workers with a CDA credential or an associate degree in early-childhood education have higher retention rates.

Learning From Other States

NCSL highlighted several recommendations developed by a bipartisan group of 13 legislators. Utah’s HB 190 (2026) raised its small business tax credit to 30 percent of what an employer spends helping employees afford care, including off-site providers. Iowa’s WAGE$ program pays education-based salary supplements to caregivers and reports 86 percent retention. Kansas consolidated 20 early childhood programs from multiple agencies into a single accountable office.

None of this means the state should run childcare. It means we should be clear-eyed about market failures, spend the dollars where the evidence says they work, and remove obstacles of our own making in licensing, zoning, and paperwork.

Strong families, a working economy, and towns where young people can afford to stay depend on childcare. I will continue to evaluate potential solutions as we prepare for the 2027 legislative session and welcome your ideas, especially from Carbon County parents and providers who live this every day.

It is an honor to serve you.

Brad Barker
Representative
House District 55 (Carbon County)
[email protected]
bradbarker.com

08/30/2026

Knocking at the College Door: What Montana's high school graduate projections mean for our schools, colleges, and workforce

Last Tuesday I was back at the Capitol for the Modernization and Risk Analysis Committee (MARA), with the Revenue Interim Committee sitting in. The agenda covered a lot of ground: how Montana taxes data centers, what the research says about data center water use, projections of Montana's future high school graduates from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), a comparison of child care programs in Montana and our peer states, and water use trends across Montana from the Montana Water Center at MSU. Our nonpartisan fiscal staff also updated us on their work on water data, ballot data, a local government fiscal model, a cost of living study, and federal funds flowing into Montana. I will come back to data centers and water in future updates. This week I want to focus on the WICHE presentation.

The Numbers

WICHE has been projecting high school graduating classes for decades, and its latest report, Knocking at the College Door, carries a clear national message that the number of high school graduates peaked with the Class of 2025 at about 3.9 million and will fall to about 3.4 million by 2041. The West is the hardest hit, down 20 percent, with California down 29 percent and Wyoming down 23 percent.

Montana is one of the few states projected to grow, about 5 percent overall, but that number isn't the full story. Our graduating classes rise about 15 percent from now to a peak of nearly 12,000 in 2034, then fall about 12 percent to roughly 10,500 by 2041. That peak is already set. Those students were born in 2015 and 2016, and Montana births have declined since. Migration has been volatile, and all the data we've seen shows that more people moving to Montana does not necessarily mean more children or more working-age adults.

Why It Matters Here

Two findings stood out. First, our colleges have leaned on out-of-state students, and four of the five biggest states sending students to Montana campuses, Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado, are shrinking. Only Idaho is growing. Meanwhile, in-state first-time enrollment in the Montana University System fell from 4,600 in fall 2012 to about 4,000 in fall 2024, even though our graduating classes were essentially flat at just over 10,000. Out-of-state freshmen grew to nearly 1,400. Second, only 53 percent of Montana's Class of 2024 went straight to college, compared with about 60 percent in North and South Dakota. College enrollment declines started well before the demographic decline arrived.

What I Take From This

Not every Montana kid needs a four-year degree. Apprenticeships, trades, two-year programs, and military service are just as important. The measure that matters is whether our kids can earn a living and afford to raise a family here. But a 53 percent college-going rate, shrinking neighbor states, and a graduate pool that shrinks again after 2034 all point the same direction: we cannot count on growth to carry our colleges or our workforce, so we have to do better for the students we have.

WICHE's evidence-based solutions, wraparound support for students, a simpler path to enrollment, lower costs, and reaching adult learners, line up closely with the at-risk student work the School Funding Interim Commission is recommending to the 2027 Legislature. That is where I will continue to focus: helping our kids reach their full potential, whatever path they choose.

It is an honor to serve you.

Brad Barker
Representative
House District 55 (Carbon County)
[email protected]
bradbarker.com

Representative Brad Barker

10/04/2026

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09/22/2026

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