The Blog at MSPC

The dinner is part of an MSPC flagship fundraising series which also includes the organization’s Fall Dinner and Montana Liberty Dinner. Collectively, these events are among the largest free-market policy gatherings in the nation, regularly drawing more than 1,400 citizens, business leaders, and policymakers each year.

By working together, educators and industry leaders can ensure that students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in the future AI economy. Through thoughtful collaboration and forward-thinking policies, Idaho is working to prepare students not only to navigate the AI age but to lead it.

Allowing patients, in consultation with their providers, to decide which drugs are best clinically and financially for them should be the goal of health care reform, not damaging price controls.

Officials should be cautious of a bridge program that may be a “rent-seeking” opportunity for two transit agencies that have seen a decline in their usefulness to the traveling public. Instead, officials should look for practical solutions without light rail to build a new bridge that will last for another 100 years.

The people of Washington must now consider a question once familiar to Americans: what recourse remains when government refuses to listen?

Policymakers must now decide whether the overwhelming demand is worth additional investment. No bills this session have offered to expand the program, but there have been plenty of pieces of legislation by opponents wishing to cut it.

The impulse behind House Bill 542—the Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act (what lawmakers are calling the Shazam act) —comes from a legitimate concern: protecting kids online.

The agency has cost taxpayers more than $2.3 trillion. Yet despite this enormous investment, student performance has shown little meaningful improvement.

Transparency is high on the list of every politician’s priorities. They should follow them instead of opting to promote a more opaque government that gives unions a massive gift in the form of easy fundraising.

It is now far too late to challenge the constitution’s legality. However, Montanans deserve a constitution that is not under a legal cloud. A state constitutional convention could propose such a document.

With one single vote, lawmakers have decided to defy legal precedent, blow up the state’s business climate, and deny citizens their right of referendum. A trifecta of bad policy that firmly signals “Choose Washington” is a slogan and strategy of the past.

Supporters of the current system often emphasize that the federal government pays the majority of the cost. That is true. But it misses a key point: the state share still approaches $1 billion annually, and it grows as the program expands.

HB 583 establishes a clear statewide standard for short-term rentals (STRs), ensuring that local governments cannot impose arbitrary restrictions that effectively prohibit homeowners from renting their property.

While the goal of reducing bias in government technology is reasonable, the bill’s approach could discourage innovation, reduce competition, and ultimately limit Idaho’s access to the very tools policymakers want government to use responsibly.

If Idaho had the same population as Texas, the current participation rate would translate to roughly 184,000 students.

U.S. energy demand is expected to rise by about 3.5% each year through 2040. There is already severe stress on our aging energy infrastructure, even before accounting for the power-hungry needs of new technologies.

A new policy analysis released today by the Mountain States Policy Center raises questions about Idaho’s licensing requirements for journeyman electricians, finding that the state requires additional classroom hours that are not required in several other states with which Idaho maintains license reciprocity.

The reality today is that policymakers are making it increasingly harder to thrive and innovate within the ever-increasing tax and regulatory burden. The numerous economic reports are a loud warning that, unless a course correction is made, more entrepreneurs will be looking elsewhere to do business.

Parents in Idaho and Montana are among the most satisfied in the country with their children’s schools. In Montana, 51% of parents say they are very satisfied with their child’s school, well above the national average of 47%. Idaho parents report similar confidence, with 48% saying they are very satisfied.

The best way to defend the constitution is not to dig in one’s heels to protect an inaccurate and distorted version. The best way is to call a convention to, first, clean up drafting mistakes that tend to discredit the document, and, second, to correct judicial distortions of it.