Montana Governor Discusses Inflation, Education, and Healthcare

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte stopped by the KGVO studios on Wednesday on his way to Northwestern Montana to continue his second go round of all 56 state counties.

He specifically wanted to take calls from Talk Back listeners to answer any questions that may have.

The first caller asked the Governor to focus on healthcare education to place more workers in eastern Montana’s rural areas.

“I was up in Glasgow last week,” began Gianforte. I learned of a very innovative program from Miles City College. They're taking high school students for a short term program to get a certified nurse's assistant position, and here's what's interesting about it. You do your coursework online at Miles City College from any community in the state, and then you do your nurse's practicum at a local nursing home or hospital, and you can complete the whole thing and never actually go to the brick and mortar campus.”

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Gianforte was also asked about ways to ensure voter and ballot box integrity for the upcoming election.

“Well, in the last legislative session, I signed four bills into law,” he said. “They were common sense measures to ensure integrity, such as requiring a photo ID to vote. We had to clean up the voter rolls, so we got rid of same day voter registration, and all that has been done here in Montana on our watch. However, we had an activist judge here in the state overturn those laws, so that's an issue. But there's no question about what these policies should be and we've taken the steps. We have to let the courts sort this out.”

Gianforte was asked about the major issues brought up in his statewide travels.

“In the Northwest they're concerned about forest management and wildfires,” he said. “In the east, its drought, but everybody's talking about inflation and the bite it's taken out of their paycheck at the gas pump and at the grocery store. Housing shortages top the list as well and that's why we've invested so much in trades education to increase the supply so we can fulfill some of the demand that we have for housing. So these are some of the things I hear when I travel.”

Gianforte also took a swipe at the Biden administration’s energy policies and the resulting inflation for Montanans.

“On day one, the Biden administration shut down the Keystone XL pipeline,” he said. “They put a moratorium on federal leasing. They've added additional EPA restrictions, which is really a wet blanket. And the result is we have today. We had energy independence and gas was $2.00 a gallon, but now diesel is over five dollars a gallon. I've been calling on the Biden administration to reverse their anti American energy policy.”

Gianforte then hit the road to the next destination on his statewide tour.