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A campaign is only worth what it's candidate is willing to acomplish.
I have watched politics from the same perspective as everyone else. We get lots of promises and hopes of some alternative future. Let's walk through the dark truth that everyone on TV seems to be avoiding.
Click the link below to see a breakdown of just how bad it is here in Montana. Our campaign has compiled our very own Affordability Crisis Tracker for you.
The collapse of the young generation's economy.
First time homebuyers has hit a record low of 21% in 2025, at the average age of 40. A collapse from the average age of 28 in 1991.
To afford a median-priced home now requires about 141,000 dollars of income, roughly twice the average U.S. income.
Nearly half of 18–29‑year‑olds now live with their parents, the highest share since the Great Depression era. This comprises 27.1 million people.
Over half (52%) of Gen Z in one survey say debt is on their mind most of the time, making it hard to feel at peace.
69% of Gen Z identify inflation and living expenses as their top financial worry, more than taxes or government spending.
Living in Montana makes this even worse.
About 30% of all Montana households are cost‑burdened, meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on housing.
Among renters, about 46.6% are cost‑burdened, and in areas like Billings it’s over 51% of renters paying 30%+ of income to landlords.
Groceries in Montana went up 6.4% from July 2024 to July 2025, and residents already spend one of the highest shares of income on groceries in the country.
A 2025 statewide poll found almost 3 in 4 Montanans are concerned about being able to afford housing in the next five years.
Total average cost of living in Montana is estimated around 55,264 dollars per year (about 4,605 dollars per month), across housing, food, transport, health care, etc.
Raising a family? In this economy?
The state itself estimates the average cost for a child under five at nearly 19,000 dollars per year, and notes that 93% of voters say childcare is too expensive.
For a family with one income in the 70k range, a median‑priced home plus property taxes, insurance, and utilities can easily consume 40%+ of take‑home pay, leaving childcare, food, and health care to fight over what’s left.
Montana families spend more of their income on groceries than any other state, with average non‑restaurant food costs around 4,957 dollars per person per year, or roughly 16,000–20,000 dollars a year for a family of four.
25k+ in childcare for two young kids, 16k–20k in groceries, 3.6k+ in utilities, and 20k–30k or more in annual housing costs quickly push a typical Montana family of four well past what a 70k–80k income can comfortably support.
Did your elected officials do anything about this?
The short answer is no. The long answer is "kind of."
The tax rebates that are being awarded to home owners are a good sign of trying to ease costs. I support legislation that directly helps us afford a home and legislation that aids in the reduction of rental costs. But who wins and who loses?
In the 2025 State Legislative Session they passed legislation that eased housing construction costs and hurdles for low-income and moderate-income housing projects. This will certainly help ease housing costs if we can more easily increase housing supply. Which is one of the reasons why the cost of a home and your rent is so bad.
The issue is that this helps those who build residential projects more than those who buy them, at least for right now. We can lower costs to build houses, but we can't force realtors or owners to lower their prices.
This legislation also completely ignored renters and left 130,000 renters without any tax rebate. I suppose you can hope that your landlord will push his savings down to you. You know, hopefully.
Let's have some fun seeing our wins in the 2025 session.
They passed legislation to cap parking rates on streets where you rent. That extra $20 a month is surely to end our suffering (and I know this is a real problem for some people but I have to poke fun at it anyway.)
This same legislation (HB 492) made it so as a renter your obligated to one spot per unit. It also obligates that they need to offer you at least half a spot for units under 1200 square feet (and yes, you heard that right, so you better find a way to own only half a car pal.)
In reality, they passed some menial and non-life-changing legislation to help with our cost of living situation. I will commend the tax credits passed for the elderly that own and rent to help them afford rising costs, but the overarching problems we face persist.
Housing isn't our only problem.
NorthWestern Energy has increased our power bills by 30% since 2020 even after rollbacks forced by the PSC (Public Service Commission) to quell huge hikes.
Auto insurance rates are up 55% since 2020 even after regulators in Montana blocked over $21.6 million in "unjustified" insurance hikes.
ACA marketplace premiums in Montana for 2025 rose 11–29%, depending on the plan, before subsidies. Despite $1.7 trillion dollars (7% of total GDP) being paid to health insurers to keep costs lower. This might be the largest corporate welfare scheme in American history and calls on the federal credits expiring as immoral for consumers really stand on the shoulders of the insurance companies holding America hostage for our tax money. Party doesn't matter on this one, this should outright piss you off.
Escrow payments (taxes+insurance) on your home mortgage are up 63% since 2020, now comprising almost one third of your total payment on your mortgage.
Junk fees (or rather a tax on the poor and one that is personal to me) have pulled in billions of dollars on late fees for missed payments on everything to credit cards, bank accounts, recurring bills, and others. Have a hard time making that payment on time? Don't worry, we will make sure you have to grow even more money from your money tree out back. In 2022, credit card late fees pulled in more than $15 billion. Overdraft fees in 2024 pulled in more than $12.1 billion.
Finals thoughts and death by a thousand fees.
Young people are hitting the job market to find that a median Montana home has jumped 66% in four years, while incomes rose only about 26%. They face rent and childcare costs that can easily chew up half a paycheck, student loans and consumer debt piling interest, and a housing ladder where Gen Z and Millennials own at far lower rates than earlier generations at the same age.
The elderly and long‑time homeowners were sold the idea that if they paid off their house, they’d be safe and then watched property taxes and insurance/escrow jump 60%+ and utility bills climb 25–30% since 2020. Fixed incomes don’t inflate with 17% spikes in electricity prices, double‑digit health‑insurance increases, and grocery costs up 6.4% in a single year, that becomes a punishment for getting old.
A Montana family of four is staring at $25,000+ dollars a year in childcare, $16,000–$20,000 dollars in groceries, rising utilities, and $20,000–$30,000+ in housing costs stacked on top of a median income around $72,000 dollars. That math does not work. It's not “bad budgeting" but a collapse in the structural: wages and small‑business margins simply have not kept pace with the basic price of living.
Banks and card issuers take about $15 billion dollars a year in late fees and over $12 billion dollars in overdraft/NSF fees, with typical hits around $27–35 dollars a pop, concentrated on the poorest customers. Airlines have raked in $12.4 billion dollars in seat fees alone since 2018, and nearly half of passengers now pay more than the advertised fare. Add “convenience” fees on bills, penalties on every missed payment, and the creep of junk charges in telecom and travel, and you’ve built a system that quietly taxes anyone with irregular income or a bad month.
The ridiculousness is not that people are struggling, it’s that the data make it crystal clear why they’re struggling, and yet most public debate still blames “the kids,” “the boomers,” or “bad choices” instead of confronting the policy design that turned housing, energy, childcare, health care, and basic banking into extraction machines.
If there’s a statement to make, it’s this: the collapse we’re seeing in the young generation’s economic prospects and the squeeze on the working and retired, is not just a moral failure, it’s a math problem we created, and we absolutely have the tools to undo it if we stop pretending this is normal.
It's time we take an actual stand and stop writing pathetic political rhetoric on campaign websites and in speeches that don't do a damn thing. Help us win and join a movement that finally represents the rest of us.
