Erickson keeps focus on education, environment

Four-term Democratic representative and retired professor founded UM's environmental studies program

MISSOULA...Ron Erickson has no qualms dealing with the “inconvenient truths” of Montana’s environmental policy.

When Erickson co-founded the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program more than three decades ago, he saw it as a marriage of the two most important things in his life: education and the environment.

“The Environmental Studies Program was kind of my baby while I was at the University,” recalled the 73-year-old Erickson. “I’m still fighting for its benefit here at the Capitol.”

As a four-term Democrat in Montana’s House of Representatives, representing Missoula’s University district, those issues remain his priorities today.

“Funding education at all levels has always been my first priority,” the tall, bearded, retired professor said. “And as long as I am here on Capitol Hill, it will always be first.”

That’s why during this session Erickson has been a vocal supporter of Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s aim to freeze college tuition over the next two years. If it passes, it would bring an end to nearly 16 consecutive years of tuition increases beginning in 1991, the year Erickson retired from teaching.

To help ease the heavy debts many students have taken on over that time, Erickson also sponsored a bill that would have given Montana college students a $500 per year tax credit for five years after graduation.

In boosting education or protecting the environment, legislative debates often boil down to money, and Erickson has made himself into one of the Legislature’s experts on taxation.

He’s been a member of the powerful House Taxation Committee in every session he’s served in the Legislature, twice as vice-chairman. But as a Democrat, he’s always been in the minority.

“The committee oftentimes tries to approve bills that allow tax breaks for corporations that, in their mind, will bring business to Montana,” Erickson said. “Though I am not always successful, I try to fight them every step of the way.”

That’s true again this session, in which the most divisive issue is how much of the state’s $1 billion budget surplus should return to taxpayers in the form of rebates or tax cuts.

Erickson has argued against permanent cuts, preferring to use more of that money to boost education, health care and other needs.

So far, Erickson said, he is “not at all pleased” with the direction of the current Legislature. Last month the GOP dismantled the governor’s budget, including his proposal to freeze tuition.

Also, Erickson’s bill providing more funds for affordable housing loans isn’t getting as much support as he had hoped. The tax credit bill had a hearing the first day of February, but has lingered in limbo since.

Even so, Erickson’s frequent Republican opponents, including House Majority Leader Michael Lange, of Billings, concede that Erickson is a force to be reckoned with.

“While I don’t often agree with his politics, Rep. Erickson is a man who is listened to,” Lange said. “His ideas are unrealistic at times, but he presents them well.”

Professor Harry Fritz, a former legislator and chairman of UM’s history department, said that Erickson’s rapport with students and expertise in taxation and the environment makes him a good representative in a district that covers the University area.

“Ron knows environmental issues from teaching and has become an expert on taxation since becoming involved with politics,” said Fritz, who has known Erickson since he began teaching at UM in 1967.

“He is one of the few guys on the Dems’ side who can argue with the Republicans on taxation,” Fritz said.

It was through his work in developing the UM Environmental Studies Program that Erickson found his way into politics.

Erickson helped build the program into one of the most renowned environmental studies programs in the Pacific Northwest. Erickson served as its director from 1976 to 1984 and taught courses until 1981.

Among other things, the program has produced four current Montana legislators, all Democrats: Sen. Christine Kaufmann of Helena, and Reps. Kevin Furey, Betsy Hands and Michele Reinhart, all from Missoula.

Vicki Watson, a professor of environmental studies at the University since Erickson hired her at its inception, said that Erickson has always had a strong connection with his students and genuinely cares for students’ well-being.

“Ron has a connectivity to the students on campus that may be unique in the Legislature,” she said. “I think he does an outstanding job sticking up for students, who can sometimes go unheard in the world of politics.”

Earlier this month, at the eighth annual Montana Conservation Voters meeting, Erickson was honored with the group’s first-ever MCV Conservation Champion Award for his work in the Legislature on behalf of the environment.

“Ron has been a constant and forceful advocate for Montana conservation,” said MCV co-chairman, UM economist Richard Barrett.

Erickson is one of the few legislators to ever obtain a 100 percent voting record for siding with MCV’s conservation values.

During this session, Erickson has proposed bills to promote responsible urban growth, to enact standards for monitoring carbon dioxide emissions and to slow global warming.

It has proved to be a difficult session for Erickson, with many of his bills biting the dust in the first half. His bills to slow global warming and promote responsible urban growth failed to make it to the Senate, while his bill to limit carbon dioxide emission has a hearing on Monday.

“My bills have not fared well this session, clearly my worst session in that narrow sense, but it was necessary to take on crucial issues like global warming, stronger environmental laws, better planning laws, affordable housing, an improved medical marijuana law and bills to tax major corporations that are not paying their fair share,” he said. “But, all of these ideas do not meet Republican standards – or lack thereof.”

For Erickson, being patient and persistent is the best strategy for achieving what he feels is best for his constituents.

“This has been a frustrating session,” Erickson said. “Being in the minority in every session does lead to tests of patience, but taking bad decisions with a sense of humor helps.”

After receiving the MCV Conservation Champion Award, Erickson quoted a line from one of his favorite poems, one that he first read when he was 19: “Knowledge comes,” he said. “Wisdom lingers.”