HELENA — The Democrat candidate for House District 83 is Jill Cohenour. Cohenour previously represented East Helena in the Montana House of Representatives and the Montana Senate.
Cohenour, a long-time resident of East Helena, told MTN she is running for another term in the legislature to represent the community where she has lived in and raised her kids.
The top issues she wants to see addressed by the legislature are property taxes, the cost and availability of housing, and education.
House District 83 comprises south Helena to the Lewis and Clark county line and East Helena. The Republican candidate for HD 83 is Wes Feist, you can learn more about him here.
Watch our full interview with Jill Cohenour
Q: Why are you running for the legislature?
Jill Cohenour: Well, I'm running for the legislature to represent my community. It's really about the voice of the community in the legislative process. I care about this community. I've lived in this community. I've raised my kids in this community. I was a part of building the playground here in town. I was a part of crafting the bill that got East Helena, its high school. I shop here. I bring my grandkids to this playground on Main Street Park, all because I really love this community and I really want to take the voice and the values of this community forward in the legislature.
Q: What are three key issues you believe need to be addressed by the next Montana legislature?
JC: Well, we have a lot of work to do in this next legislature. To basically take care of property taxes. That's the number one issue that's going to be addressed in this next session. We didn't do what we should have done during the last session, so we've got our work cut out for us to make sure that property owners, individual homeowners, get the property tax relief that they should and we should also include renters. East Helena has a lot of renters, and they pay property taxes through their rent. So we need to take care of this community. I also believe that education is going to be a number one issue. We have the decennial study coming up that will be crafted in this next session for doing school funding in the upcoming years, and we want to be a big part of that because East Helena really cares about its community and cares about its public schools. One more issue, housing, housing is the next issue that I think is going to be in my top three. We didn't address housing in the last session as well, and it's important that we increase our inventory of homes in the state of Montana, because we want to make it cheaper for people to actually have access to quality housing. And I'm so excited about the work that's being done by Habitat for Humanity and we're going to be opening a new subdivision in this area, and we're going to have a lot of quality housing that will be accessible to our residents.
Q: Housing and property taxes are a key issue for many Montanans, what actions if any do you think the legislature should take?
JC: Well, the one thing we should have done during the last session was to reduce the property taxes on homeowners. We didn't do that work. So we need to do that walking in the door and as soon as possible. And then we need to make it long-term. We got a property tax rebate check in the last couple of years, but that's not enough to offset the increases that we've all experienced. So we need long-term property reductions for people who live in this state.
Q: This fall Montanans will be voting on access to abortion. What do you think the legislature’s role regarding abortion should be following that vote?
JC: So I don't think the legislature has a role in that. It's about the people who are involved in it, the families, the women, and their doctors. The legislature shouldn't be involved in that decision-making. We in Montana are liberty loving group of people. We believe that our personal liberties are number one, and they are protected in our Constitution, right to privacy in the Constitution, and we need to make sure that we don't interfere in that government doesn't belong in a doctor's office doesn't belong anywhere.
Q: Another issue impacting Montana families is childcare, are there actions you think the legislature could take to address the issue?
JC: Yeah, and we've done a little bit of work on child care in the legislative process. Wasn't enough. We had put some money aside to allow for people to get an education and to come into the workforce. But I think what we should be doing is also incentivizing families to assist them in paying for the cost of child care. Childcare costs have ballooned, and we in Montana, if we don't have quality childcare, then we don't have families that are able to go to work. And we want an educated workforce, and we want them to be able to fully participate in the workforce in Montana. So having childcare, so quality childcare that people can access, so that they can work, is very important to me, and it's something that the legislature needs to take on, and they can do that by providing more assistance to families in the state of Montana.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say that we haven't covered so far, or that you think voters should know?
JC: believe that I just want to finish up this interview with talking about the fact that I think my opponent has said that I don't live in the district. Well, I got redistricted 60 feet out of my district in the last redistricting. This is the community that I've represented since 2002 and it's my home. I care about it. It's where my grandkids come. It's where my family is, and my son-in-law built the pavilion here on Main Street Park. We're a large part of this community, and we really care about what happens here.
