Don’t buy the liberal lies propagated by so called Republicans like Rep. Ken Walsh and their  swamp boss, Rep. Llew Jones — Montanans deserve a real tax cut and true fiscal responsibility. 

Walsh recently wrote a letter trying to deflect criticism of a tax shift that he helped pass with the  support of Democrats. While the bill was pitched as property tax relief, it actually resulted in  higher taxes for numerous Montanans and grew the government’s coffers instead of returning  money to hardworking taxpayers. 

Now, Ken Walsh is trying to play the victim by claiming that out-of-state groups are responsible  for the flack he’s getting. At best, Walsh is so detached from Montanans that he doesn’t believe  the many stories of tax hardship we all hear about; I hate to think he’s knowingly distorting the  facts to deceive voters. 

Walsh catastrophized the situation, ridiculously claiming that criminals would walk free, bridges  would crumble, and smoke would persist all summer if the tax-shift bill didn’t pass. In reality,  there were better alternatives that returned surplus funds to Montana taxpayers without creating  more government bloat. 

When Ken Walsh uses the term surplus dollars, let’s be clear: these are your dollars. The only  way the state generates surplus dollars is to overtax you, the taxpayer. We had around a billion dollars of “surplus dollars” that should have been returned to the taxpayers, yet Ken Walsh and the rest of the Llew Jones loyalists decided they knew what was best to do with your money. 

Montanans know best how to spend their hard-earned money, and we should take every  opportunity as a legislature to return revenue to taxpayers when we have a significant surplus.  Hoarding away the money in state accounts and growing government budgets is what Democrats  do. 

I believe Montana voters and Madison County voters recognize that Walsh’s Democrat actions  speak louder than his “Republican” words.

Senator Tony Tezak
Senate District 35

Published in Lee Enterprises newspapers, December 6, 2025
https://helenair.com/opinion/column/article_04c378bc-35f4-52f8-a714-c840ba4d4267.html

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