Op-Ed: Montana's Prosperity Depends on Industry, Not Vacation Homes

Recently, the Whitehall Ledger published an article by Rep. Llew Jones arguing that Montana's economy has “shifted” from natural resource industries to tourism, service work, and high-end real estate — and that our tax system and future economic vision should shift along with it. In other words, we should accept this new direction and reshape our economic policies and tax structure to serve wealthy newcomers rather than the working industries that built Montana.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Montana earned the name “The Treasure State” long before luxury homes and tourism brochures became our call...