I serve on the board of Access Billings, a disability-led organization working to make public spaces in this city usable by everyone. Disability-led is the important part. Our bylaws require that disabled people direct the work, and that the people affected by any project help shape it. I am there to listen and to help. The direction comes from the people who live it.
That is how I would like to legislate, and it is why I am comfortable being plain about where I stand. All work deserves a livable wage, with no separate lower tier for any group of workers.
Four things need attention in Helena.
Subminimum wage. Federal law still allows some employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the minimum. The U.S. Department of Labor withdrew its proposal to end that practice in July 2025, saying it lacks the authority to do it alone. That leaves the decision with the states, and a state can end the practice inside its own borders. I will push for Montana to phase it out.
The direct-care workforce. Living independently often depends on a paid helper, and the people who help a neighbor stay in her own home do skilled work while earning less than jobs that ask far less of them. The Legislature sets the rates that pay them, so this is a budget decision, and budgets are choices. I will vote to raise those rates and to require that the raises reach the paychecks.
A fair shot at a first job. Transition planning and vocational rehabilitation are how a young person moves from school into working life. Funding them to meet demand keeps support steady through graduation and into that first job.
The hiring decision itself. The harder barrier comes after the training and the resume. A qualified disabled applicant interviews, the interview goes well, and the offer goes to someone else. In 2025 the unemployment rate for people with disabilities was 8.3 percent, double the 4.1 percent rate for everyone else, and that figure counts only people actively looking for work. Montana law already forbids hiring discrimination on the basis of disability. Every one of those decisions still has an explanation that sounds reasonable on its own, which is why the pattern holds while each choice looks lawful.
Two things help:
- Fund the Human Rights Bureau well enough that a complaint gets a timely investigation.
- And make Montana a model employer, with hiring goals, an accessible application process, and its own numbers reported publicly. A state that expects employers to hire disabled Montanans should be first in line to do it.
Independence is a Montana value. So is work that pays enough to live on. There are disabled Montanans ready to work right now, and Montana is better off when they are hired.
I will carry that to Helena.
Help us build a Montana that pays for the work it depends on at smithformontana.com/donate