House Bill 259 is billed as a free-market, good for business bill. As a conservative, free market capitalist and business owner, I can say HB 259 is not good for business and it is not good for job
growth in Montana. It may be good for builders and developers, who have plenty of work to keep them busy in Bozeman, Missoula and Whitefish, but it is not good for manufacturing, engineering and technically based operations.
My enterprise employs hundreds of pilots, maintenance technicians, engineers and program managers and we are proud to call the Gallatin Valley our home — this is where we founded our business in a barn and have scaled it successfully with grit, focus and innovation; rooted in our amazing human capital. But with the skyrocketing cost of housing, our business cannot sustain salary increases to match and our most precious resource, our human capital, is at risk.
We have a young and well compensated workforce who are trying to move from renters to owners and build lives in Bozeman, but they can’t afford an $850,000 condo. Instead of scaling to 500 employees here in Bozeman, we are looking to open satellite operations out of state, pushing our talent to more affordable cities in the region. Montana used to be an attraction for our recruiting efforts with beautiful mountains and a low cost of living, it has become a hurdle to convince folks to move here and downsize from a four bedroom ranch home into a two bedroom condo.
These are jobs we want in Montana. They are careers that pay well, they are family oriented, they offer advancement and education and they empower downstream economic effects in our town that will create many more jobs along the way. These jobs are sticky, they will endure the next tourism downturn, and they are patriotic — our people build the next generation protective systems for our troops and they are flying the aircraft that protect our homes from wildfires.
I disagree with plenty that the city of Bozeman does and it’s a rare day one will see me stating more regulation is ever the answer, but in this case the “regulation to prevent regulation” is not helping business. Affordable housing regulations aren’t perfect. They will have unintended consequences and down the road we may need to repeal them. But in the meantime they are the best opportunity we have at managing our ballooning housing costs so that we don’t drive sustainable and lasting businesses out of our community.
Tim Sheehy is the CEO of Bridger Aeropsace, an industry leader in aerial wildfire management, relief and suppression, delivering powerful firefighting services using next-generation technology and CEO of Ascent Vision. Tim is a veteran of the United States Navy. He lives in Bozeman with his wife and four children.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Guest Editorial 3/28/21