Kaufmann is a member of the House Rules and Appropriations committees and the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Long Range Planning.

Her e-mail address is KAUFMANN@MT.NET.

Democratic Representative Christine Kaufmann, whose 53rd legislative district covers much of central and south-central Helena, expects to be busier this spring as she enters her second term in office.

“I certainly feel more comfortable heading into my second session,” she said, and to that end, she expects to carry more bills on a wider variety of subjects than she did in 2001. “My constituents have asked me to do more things and I have a higher comfort level with that.”

Balancing the state’s hemorrhaging budget will be the biggest task of the upcoming session, and Kaufmann isn’t impressed with a number of the elements in the proposed budget of Gov. Judy Martz.

“All the cuts (in services) proposed by Republicans, primarily the governor, are just impossible for the state to live with,” she said.

Kaufmann, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said she’ll oppose Martz’s “revenue neutral” plan to trim the income tax rate in exchange for a tax on selected goods and services.

“The bottom line is that’s a sales tax. The people of Montana don’t want a sales tax and the legislators know that,” she said.

“To shift from taxing people’s income, where the wealthiest are asked to pay more, to where everybody is paying a tax on certain purchases, that’s regressive, and I’m certainly not supporting that tax. The nature of a sales tax is that low-income people disproportionately feel the burden.”

Likewise, Kaufmann disagrees with the Martz plan to tap the coal tax trust fund to the tune of nearly $100 million, a sum Martz insists will be paid back when the economy rebounds.

“That money is off limits in my mind,” Kaufmann said. “I think that would be a very foolish move. It’s only being thrown in as a political chip, and I think everyone knows that.

“Republicans want to be able to hang Democrats with not being willing to fund social services because we won’t use the coal tax trust fund. We’re using that interest (from the trust fund) well, and it should continue to be there well into the future.”

Instead, Kaufmann said she believes an increase in the tax on tobacco is gaining traction among legislators, and she wants to take a hard look at various taxes on businesses as possible sources for increased revenue.

“That’s where I think we should be looking, and Republicans — and a lot of Democrats — seem unwilling to do that,” she said.

“If you look at where tax cuts have been made in the last dozen years, it was corporation taxes. I think we should freeze the business equipment tax cuts or even raise them back to former levels. The threat that businesses will move out of Montana if we raise those taxes is just a scare tactic.”

Beyond the budget, Kaufmann has requested bills in a number of areas, from traffic control measures requested by the Department of Transportation to several dealing with land use and other fish-and-game regulations.

“I volunteered to carry some of those bills because in the past I’ve been labeled an activist only willing to carry socially liberal bills, and I’m really interested in seeing government work better,” she said.

“I hope these are non-controversial and can move through the process without partisanship. I don’t want to have a fight on every bill.”

She’ll also carry some bills relating to environmental protection.

“What happened last session with MEPA (the Montana Environmental Policy Act) has left some serious gaps and holes in our net of environmental protection,” she said.

“There has been alarming rhetoric around environmental activism in the last year, and attempts to label environmentalists like me as obstructionists and extremists. It’s very important that Montanans look at what’s happened to the environmental protection laws.”

Kaufmann also plans to carry bills that would implement I-146, the voter-approved initiative for funding tobacco use prevention, force insurance companies to cover contraception and outlaw the death penalty in Montana.

“I continue to believe the state should not be taking people’s lives in my name with my tax dollars,” she said. “It’s clearly not going to pass, but it’s a philosophy worth examining in that many bills pass after 10 years of trying.”