There are many areas of Montana's economy that seem to be crumbling during the recession. The housing market is down and unemployment is up, but state leaders are working toward recovery with nearly a billion dollars dedicated to Montana in federal stimulus money.
Montana's share of the federal stimulus bill adds up to roughly $1 billion, and we sat down with Governor Brian Schweitzer to find out where the infusion of funds is going.
He said that millions of dollars are going towards state improvement projects. The recovery dollars dedicated to Montana are being used to upgrade schools with energy efficient features, work on Border Patrol stations, and pump millions into highway road projects. But some of Montana's biggest industries are dying, including the timber industry, which is facing some of the toughest times ever.
"This is one of the worst downturns in the lumber market since the Great Depression," Schweitzer said. "But, it will come back; in the meantime, we need to harvest those dead and dying trees...I think we should harvest timber on roads for people to work until we can keep these mills open."
Montana U.S. Senator Jon Tester recently appeared in Seeley Lake to promote the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, a project he says would create jobs, increase annual wages and also increase local business income.
Meanwhile, Montana's U.S. Senators have secured Bureau of Land Management money worth $17.5 million, which will be given to sites across Montana. The state is also receiving $211 million in federal stimulus money for highway construction.
"Montana's economy is almost entirely better than almost every other place in the United States," Schweitzer told Montana's News Station.
"Montana is creating jobs at one of the fastest rates in the country," the Governor continued. "There are a lot of facets to this very complicated economy, and who knows what domino its going to take to really push it to make the money forward; unemployment just continues to go down and we will continue to work on it."
The Governor also told us that he sees the harvest of dead trees in Southwest Montana as a way to help boost the timber market until it bounces back on its own. He added that there are 2,000,000 acres of dead trees in Southwest Montana due to pine beetles.
