As my wife and I drove back from Billings last night, stopping off for
some beers and boudin at High Plains Brewing
and Cajun Phatty’s,
I told her how my Facebook feed had shared the news of my home state’s governor
inviting
PayPal to set up shop there after rebuking Charlotte, citing all the amenities the Green Mountain
state has to offer. I lamented the fact that even if our state leaders here in
Montana wanted to send such an invitation, they couldn’t honestly do so.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jon Tester and Gov. Steve Bullock followed
shamelessly on the heels of other state leaders in inviting
PayPal to come to our state, citing the inclusive business environment, and
Montana’s many positive attributes. The problem is, unlike Gov. Shumlin of
Vermont whose state has actually led the way on social issues, Tester and Bullock
had to bend the truth more than just a little bit.
While Montana does have an inclusive business environment, with some
very strong anti-discrimination statutes hard-wired into the founding documents,
there is a simple fact that stares anyone in the eye who looks closely enough.
Despite our Supreme Court’s recent decision, gay marriage is still legally
prohibited according what is written in our constitution. So no matter how much
you may want to say that we mirror PayPal’s values of “fairness, inclusion and
equality”, we don’t. And as wrong as it is to have this prohibition codified in
our laws (despite being null and void according to the Court’s ruling), it is
even more wrong to insult the intelligence of any vested party and say that
Montana believes in equality.
Senator Daines came out quite forcefully after the decision to voice
his disagreement.
"The Court is overriding the will of the people of Montana and numerous
other states that have defined marriage as between one man and one woman. I
believe marriage is between one man and one woman." That doesn’t sound
very inclusive to me. And the fact that the letter sent Wednesday was partisan
and did not include Daines or Rep. Ryan Zinke suggests that maybe only half of
our state’s leaders would even want PayPal here.
After all, this is the same state that fought
for sixteen years to remove a law from the books the criminalized gay sex
even after the state highest courts struck that down. The law didn’t even come
off the books until 2013 – just three years ago.
Dig deeper and you’ll see a few more things that Tester and Bullock got
wrong. Though Montana ranks well for entrepreneurship, in areas where real
growth is happening, Montana retains arcane and oppressive anti-competition
laws. Our restaurant and hospitality industries are hobbled by the expensive
and oligopolistic liquor licensing laws, while breweries and distilleries can
only serve customers during the hours the state tells them they can.
Then there is the simple fact that our power companies can’t get out of
their own way. With the Colstrip situation hanging out there with no resolution
in sight, where on Montana’s earth can they put a facility and feel certain
that their investment will continue to be powered well into the next decade at
rates that aren’t usurious? All the folks at PayPal would have to do is read a
recent issue of the Billings
Gazette to see how fearful existing Montana employers are of the situation.
The truth is, PayPal doesn’t just want to put their business someplace
where it can be built, they want it to be put someplace it can grow. To do
that, you have to have and open an accepting economy overall, one where people
are willing to uproot themselves from comfortable surroundings to take an
opportunity with a multi-national company. They want to buy their home, raise
their family, and live their lives as they see fit – not how the government
tells them they can. This is why Silicon Valley startups have started to flee California
for Boulder,
Austin, and other locales. What do these locales have in common? They’re
far more socially tolerant than Montana. Yes, even Utah - who showed this with
their recent welcoming
stance on Syrian refugees.
So let us at least be honest if we are going to extend PayPal such an
invitation. Tell them that like a big-armed quarterback singing with a Division
II school that they can be a cornerstone in our development, building the state’s
thriving economy. Show them that we have two first-rate universities that can
pump out students eager to stay and work in Montana. Tell them we have made
strides on social tolerance, but still have a ways to go. And tell them, most
of all, that we can provide the most dedicated and hardest-working employee
population that they will ever encounter.
Just don’t lie to them. Or to us.
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