MISSOULA — Timmothy Garrison, who is seeking a two-year term to represent Ward 2 on the Missoula City Council, says he is running so he can address concerns from his neighborhood at the city level.
“I'm running for City Council because right now I serve with the northside-westside leadership team. And we get a lot of questions that come through us about issues within the city. And at our level, we can't address those specifically but attend the city council meetings and all that stuff. It just seems like that I'd be able to better address some of those issues that the community has in a position on the city council," said Garrison.
Garrison says that one of the ways to drive down housing prices in Missoula is to grow the city and make land cheaper for developers.
“I know a lot of people use urban sprawl in a negative fashion. But urban sprawl is how you add more land to the city. And by adding more land and availability of land, you drive down the cost of that land for developers to develop on, And so affordable housing really, we have to drive down the costs in multiple ways. One of those ways is to use city land or to grow the city and to use land that is cheaper in value, less expensive for the developers to start with."
Garrison also says that he wants to help with the housing crisis so renters in Missoula don’t get forced to move their residences.
“And that going in cost is going to drive down the affordable housing on the backside, and then other areas are for affordable housing. And fixing some of those problems is getting it affordable is to put less emphasis on the property owners for taxes. And when you put emphasis on the property owners for taxes and you tax them more and more every year, they're passing that down to the renters and that does not affect the affordable housing because renters are just paying more and more every year again for the same place. And eventually somebody is going to be charged to the point where they can't afford it anymore, and they're going to be forced out of their house and there's somebody else standing by to move into that house."
Garrison says that the housing shortage is impacting everyday Missoulians.
“Right now, we have a shortage of housing here, shortage of affordable housing. You go online, you can find lots of housing that's in the million-dollar area. So, we're not short on housing necessarily, but affordable housing for the common person like myself — it's expensive and it's hard to get a house."
When it comes to the budget, expanding the city limits to expand the tax base could be the key to solving the budget problems the city is facing, according to Garrison.
“I think some of that is expanding further west with the city limits and including more people as we develop, bringing them into the city. Now we're going to provide them with city services, city bus, city, fire, water, sewage. But by having more property within the city that is a larger area to tax and developing that property within the city that exists already or expanding the city, developing that property is going to increase the value of that property and increase the tax base in which the city has to work with.
Homelessness is another issue that concerns many Missoulians. Garrison says that while some of the homeless population is from Missoula and others aren’t, they come to Missoula and stay here. The people who stay here are putting a strain on the programs of Missoula.
“There is a lot of rhetoric out there that the unhoused population in Missoula are our neighbors — are from this area. And in many cases, it is true but not in all cases. And in some cases, we have people that are moving through the area that are unhoused, that need a place to live and they find Missoula has that place for them through the winter and then spring comes and they stay here,” Garrison said.
Garrison says that local government may not be able to solve the homeless problem on its own and that working with county, state, and federal agencies could be the next step to managing the homelessness problem.
“So we have a growing population because we can support it. But we are supporting it on the tax dollars and again — on the tax dollars of the property owners. In many cases, we have to find a way to realize that one, this is not a Missoula City problem. This is a regional problem. It is a national problem and we have to be able to get the county, the state and the federal government to put in money to fix this problem. It can't be on the backs of the citizens in Missoula. And there are grants out there for infrastructure growth and we can include that in there. But it, unfortunately, it's our problem because it is in our neighborhood and we do want to take care of these people I think I love Missoula because they have a big heart and they want to help each other. But funding-wise, it can't be on Missoula as a city. It has to be something that we tie into the county. We might need more shelters, but those shelters don't necessarily have to be within the city or within the city limits. And by putting it as a county issue, we can get more funding into it and from the state and from the federal government."
Ward 2 is growing at the fastest pace out of any other ward in the city. Garrison says, that an important part of infrastructure is making sure our roads are protected and taken care of. And taking care of the roads means keeping cars off them.
“So the traffic issues, a lot of it is that and this is from what I've seen in other cities as well is developing a traffic system that flows. And we have a lot of traffic in Missoula where you get to a red light and then it turns green and you drive forward to the next red light by synchronizing the traffic signals. Then we are able to get the traffic moving. That also cuts down on emissions of vehicles sitting and idling. There's a lot of benefits to the green movement as well through that. But keeping traffic moving will keep less traffic sitting on the streets and backed up on the streets as far as the streets themselves. There are some areas where we just spent on Higgins Street — we spent years, it seems like redoing that bridge and as soon as it's done now, we're talking about increasing the traffic through there again and expanding on the corridor through there. But none of that really talks about the amount of traffic,” Garrison said.
Garrison also says that he would want to look at the current projects that the City is doing and see what road projects are actually going to help and be a good use of money that comes from the city.
“In fact, they've already identified that it does tend to slow traffic a little bit more as they go from four lanes to two lanes. Plus a turning lane down the middle. So some of those things are — they sound really good when somebody that can speak to them stands up in front of you. But when you sit down and think about it, it doesn't make as much sense as spending that money. And again, that's our taxpayer dollars and making sure that we can spend that more appropriately. And additionally, when you're talking $1.5 million with an election coming up — and I don't know the exact amount on there — but for Higgins Corridor, I believe it was around $1.5 million. But when you're talking that amount of money, sometimes that's easier to put on the entire city to vote on in a general election coming up rather than sit in City Council and make that decision for the city. And a lot of people were upset about the way that decision,” Garrison said.
Taxes are also a major issue for Missoulians as taxes have continued to rise in the last two years. Garrison says that he wants to find a way to get tax money out of the tourists who visit Missoula.
“Taxes is really — it's a process in the budget — and we have funds that are available through taxes and we have bills that are required to pay. So the taxes have to be there. We just have to find more appropriate ways to tax. And it's not necessarily taxing the population here. We have a large industry of tourism and tourists come through the area, but we don't effectively tax them. And it's not that we're going to burden them. But the fact is that they use our roads and they use our sidewalks and our parks, but they don't pay for that. They do pay for the roads a little bit through the gas tax. But [the] general infrastructure that we provide to those tourists, we don't tax those tourists on, and finding ways to tax that visiting population will take some of the burden off the City. But cutting spending within the city that usually doesn't help anybody because all that stuff is there for a purpose. And we need to continue to support those who are here with funded programs."
Garrison — who is already involved in the neighborhood councils in his ward — says that he wants to hear the complaints of his constituents and bring them to the City if he is elected.
“Ward 2 has from Scott Street all the way out to [the west side of Missoula, north of the river. But specifically in the westside neighborhood, we have from about Scott Street — both sides of Scott Street —out to Reserve Street. And Reserve Street has a lot of issues with the traffic out there. A lot of traffic accidents. And so from the City Council side, I feel that we can better influence traffic safety in that area. Also, we have issues with affordable housing and [the] westside has some of the most growth in the area of Missoula because we have some area to grow. We have land available to develop on and we have the ability to continue to grow westward in that urban sprawl,” Garrison said.
When asked why constituents should vote for him, Garrison says that he wants to be able to speak for the residents he represents.
“I say that I'm going to represent the constituents of Ward 2. I'm going to speak from their voice. It's not my voice. And I think that we are just at a point where we're tired with some of what we're seeing at [the] City Council level — the spending and things in the budget, the decisions that are being made and it's time for new faces to be sitting at that table."
The election takes place on November 7, 2023.
