Boosting Montana's economy

Max's top priority is boosting Montana's economy and creating more good-paying jobs at home.

From hosting his patented Economic Development Summits, to cutting taxes for small businesses, to bringing billions of Highway dollars, to working alongside Montanans during his "work-days", Max is committed to propelling Montana's economy into the 21st century.

As Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Max has used his national, and international, clout to bring new companies to Montana, and open new markets for Montana products. Max is proud to boast that Montana has created 35,000 new jobs since 2002.

Fighting For Jobs On Montana’s Highways

Max has helped bring more than $3.8 billion in highway projects to Montana creating and protecting more than 18,000 good-paying jobs.
Max has delivered crucial funds for Montana’s highways such as $50 million for the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, $20 million to repair Beartooth Highway near Red Lodge, $30 million for the Kalispell bypass, $6 million for Russell St. in Missoula, $10 million for Highway 287 south of Townsend, $10 million for Shiloh Road in Billings, $8 million for the I-90 near Belgrade, and billions more across the state.
Max has worked with Hi-Line leaders to improve economic development in northern Montana by delivering more than $70 million for the expansion of U.S. Highway 2, and is working with all concerned to improve transportation safety on the Highway 93 corridor, between Hamilton and Kalispell.

Giving Montana Businesses the Resources to Create Good Jobs

As a result of Max’s patented Economic Development Summit, General Electric will open a new operations center creating 150 new jobs in Billings.
Max was instrumental in recruiting Bresnan to Billings where they employ nearly 400 hard-working Montanans.
Max worked hard to land DirecTV in Missoula, which provides more than 1000 employees with good-paying jobs that include benefits.
Max helped National Electric Warranty bring more than 700 jobs to Great Falls.
Max supported an EDA project at the Great Falls Airport to allow AvMax to expand by more than 60 jobs
Max helped bring REC Silicon, formerly ASiMI, in Butte creating more than 280 good- paying jobs.
Max helped secure NASA contracts for S&K Electronics in Pablo and brought Boeing executives to Helena to help Summit Enterprises obtain important contracts and expanded business.
Max helped renew the Economic Development Administration, which has provided Montana businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in resources to help create more good-paying jobs.

Fighting To Increase The Minimum Wage And Improve Retirement Programs

Max fought for hard-working Montanans and brokered the tax package that provided a $2.10 increase in the minimum wage – the first increase in minimum wage (in over a decade).
Max was a leader in passing legislation that helped to secure pensions and protect against defaults to help promise a secure retirement to millions of Americans.
Max, as Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, pushed the Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001 through the U.S. Senate. Max’s bill provides a lower minimum retirement age for railroad labor, improve benefits for widows and widowers of railroad retirees, and enhance the investment of pension contributions from rail companies and employees. In all the bill will help more than 10,000 Montanans retire with dignity.
Max supported a bill to increase participation in employee stock purchase plans and individual retirement plans so that American workers can benefit from the hard work they provide companies.

Promoting Main Street Businesses by putting Money in the Pockets of Montana Consumers

As Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Max was a chief architect of the 2008 Stimulus Bill designed to limit the economic downturn in the U.S. by boosting Main Street economies through tax relief for individuals and businesses. Using his seniority on the Senate Finance Committee, Max co-wrote the largest tax cut in a generation, providing $1.35 trillion in relief, including more than $115 million for Montanans to pump into local economies.
Max improved the 2001 tax relief package to make sure that more than 34,000 moderate and low-income Montanans got the tax relief they deserve by expanding the child tax credit. That money is best spent in neighborhood stores.
Coming from a seven-generation ranching family, Max know how important passing family farms and businesses on to the next generation is, which is why he fought to repeal the estate tax in the 2001 tax package.
Max also supported a pay raise for America’s service men and women. Not only do the folks who protect our country deserve it, they will spend those dollars in stores near bases, like Malmstrom.

Opening New Markets For Montana Businesses Around the World

Max has taken Montana business leaders on trade missions to Cuba, China, Southeast Asia, and South America. Those missions have resulted in real business connections for Montana businesses including the first sale of Montana goods to Cuba, which was worth more than $10 million.
As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over international trade, Max has been on the frontlines in the fight to protect Montana’s timber industry from unfair Canadian trade practices.
Max has also been a leader in promoting Montana agriculture, timber, and environmental technology across the world. For example, Max not only helped lift China’s ban on wheat from the Pacific Northwest, but he also negotiated a trade deal between China, and Montana, and several other states, worth nearly $6 million.

Improving Montana’s Transportation and Telecommunication Infrastructure

Using his seniority as one of the lead authors of the Highway Bill, Max engineered a more than 40 percent increase in Montana’s highway dollars, resulting in 18,000 good-paying Montana jobs, and improving transportation, safety and commerce for Montana businesses and travelers.
Max has also been a leader in improving high tech infrastructure for Montana businesses, sponsoring legislation to provide increased broadband high-speed Internet access in rural areas. Max is also currently working to extend fiber-optic cable that will dramatically improve high-speed Internet access in Libby, Kalispell and northwest Montana.
Max has been a leader in pushing legislation to permanently ban taxing internet access.

Improving Montana Communities

Max has delivered $50 million for the Going To The Sun Road and $20 million for the Beartooth Highway after devastating mudslides.
Max pushed through legislation that authorized $175 million for the construction and operation of the Dry Prairie Water project on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and Northeast Montana.
Max helped Billings get a $1 million dollar grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to improve roads in a 104-acre industrial park known as the TransTech Center.
Max also helped Missoula get a $5 million to upgrade the Missoula Wastewater Treatment Plant, helped Troy get a $1.47 million USDA grant to improve the city’s sewage treatment system, and helped Columbus get over $2 million from the USDA to upgrade the city’s waste water distribution treatment facility.

Leading Montana’s Economic Development Effort

In 2007, Max hosted his fourth statewide Economic Development Summit which drew 2500 business and community leaders from across the state.
Max is proud that S&K Electronics continues to do business with Lockheed Martin as a result of the relationship developed at the first Economic Development Summit in Great Falls.
Even before the Economic Development Summit, Max held yearly procurement conferences to match businesses from across Montana with prime contractors and government agencies that spend public dollars to provide products and services. The results have been real contacts and contracts for Montana businesses.

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