Op-Ed: Governor Tells Montana Kids: "Go Hungry"

Over 80% of Montana schools are "Title I" schools. That means students in the school qualify for free or reduced lunch. Montana receives more than $2,000 in Title I funding per child, compared to the national average of $1,489 (2017 figures).

Here's what a search for data from the current administration turned up (a subject for another post):

To feed hungry kids, the Montana Food Bank Network partnered with 148 schools (as of 2022) and provided weekend nutrition to 3,600 children. In Kalispell, the food bank informed me that they distribute 1,000 food backpacks on weekends.

Beaverhead County, the largest county in Montana and comparable in size to Connecticut, has eight school districts with 12 schools, and every one is Title I eligible. In Custer County, on the opposite side of Montana, there are about 375 families on the food bank's client list. Each month, the Custer County Food Bank distributes 300 food baskets to food-insecure households.

Montana House Bill 551, introduced by Melissa Romano, aimed to eliminate reduced-price copayments for school breakfasts and lunches. The cost of feeding hungry kids? About $600,000 annually from the state general fund for each of the fiscal years beginning July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026. This meant an appropriation of $1.2 million over a two-year period.

Gianforte vetoed the HB 551 bill that would get food to these kids.

Gianforte said there was not sufficient funding. House Democratic Leader Katie Sullivan responded to the veto: "Under the Governor's watch, low-income kids will continue to enter into debt with their school cafeteria, skip meals, and go hungry in the classroom."

At the same time he was telling kids to go hungry, Gianforte signed another income tax cut. HB 337 reduces the top marginal tax rate, starting in tax year 2026. Under the proposed bill, the top rate in Montana is reduced from 5.9% to 5.65% in TY 2026 and 5.4% starting TY 2027. Two-thirds of the cuts to income taxes will go to the wealthiest 20% of taxpayers.

Gianforte's income tax cut for the top earners in Montana will reduce state revenue by roughly half a billion dollars over the biennium.

Gianforte's other excuse for making kids go hungry was that there is federal money that will fund school lunch programs.

In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture eliminated over $1 billion in funding that supports the delivery of local food to schools and food banks.

Let's look at what Gianforte's prioritizes:

Greg Gianforte uses a Pilatus PC-12/47E aircraft for official travel, which is owned by Bozeman Technology Incubator, Inc., a company co-owned by Gianforte and his wife. The cost of a new Pilatus PC-12 plane typically ranges from $5 million to $6 million or more. Used PC-12 models range from $3 million to $5 million or potentially more.

In 2023, Gianforte's 11-acre property, despite its high market value (with a house and detached garage valued at $1.3 million), paid approximately $66 in land taxes due to its agricultural designation. In contrast, a neighboring 10.2-acre residential parcel with a slightly less valuable home paid roughly $826 per acre in land taxes, totaling around $ 8,500 for the land portion of their bill. This is a difference of thousands of dollars in annual land taxes for comparable acreage in the same area. Gianforte knows how to avoid his public obligations as a citizen.

We reap what we sow.

When kids in Montana schools, from Beaverhead to Custer County, can't focus on math and reading because they haven't had breakfast, that's a choice—a choice made by the republicans who voted for tax cuts for people like Gianforte.

Can we eat some of your barley, Governor? All together.