Elliott helps small businesses

Editor,

I would like to respond to Carla Parks’ letter in last week’s edition of the Valley Press, with regard to her comments about Jim Elliott. I have lived and worked in Heron for well over 30 years and three years ago I sold a company that I started in 1990. This business went from two employees to over 90 currently employed.

We manufactured many millions of turbocharger parts and shipped them to Europe, Mexico and Japan over the 15 years that I owned the company before selling it and retiring in 2005. I suppose that makes me a ‘small businessman.’

As the business grew, it became more complex with increased numbers of employees and investment in production machinery, land and buildings. There were many times Jim Elliott as a state legislator, aided our company with information, contacts in Helena (agencies and departments) and general help with Montana state issues relating to businesses.

Jim arranged conference calls with people at the Department of Commerce in relation to our export business and with the Department of Labor concerning employment issues such as workmen’s compensation and labor law. Jim never needed to be called back to get the information I had asked for. Information kept

coming until I had enough to move on with.

Year after year I was able to draw on Jim Elliott’s wide and deep understanding of Montana state government, his willingness to understand what I needed and his ability to get answers from the source.

Jim Elliott is a skilled and experienced legislator and an expert on tax policy. I feel that he has been willing to discuss and explain the often confusing issues that come before the legislature. There have been times when some vote by Mr. Elliott has not been to my liking but he has always been clear and open when I called him for an explanation of the ‘other side of the story’.

I would like to comment specifically on the comment in Carla Parks’ letter concerning Jim Elliott’s low ratings by various interest groups and in particular the state Chamber of Commerce. In general, I feel that these groups focus entirely on narrow interests that they want to promote by influencing legislation under consideration in Helena.

Some legislation is specifically written to benefit these narrow interests and often such legislation creates winners and losers. It is worthwhile to look a little deeper to see who wins if the Chamber of Commerce gets what it wants. If a legislator earns a 100 percent rating from the Chamber of Commerce, who benefits?

The statewide Chamber of Commerce supports the really big guns of Montana business — the huge, out-of-state corporations that have little interest in Montana other than as a market for their services – PPL, Northwestern and Qwest. All three of these corporations have protested their taxes in Sanders County with serious consequences for all of the other tax paying individuals and small businesses in the county. Why wouldn’t Jim stand up to the Chamber on our behalf? I will continue to support Jim Elliott because of his experience, his willingness to work for all of us and keep us informed.

Dave Lyman

Heron