NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2006

CONTACT: Jackie Boyle 406.443-3374

A coalition representing Montana business, health care, seniors, firefighters, educators and other groups responded today to the qualification of CI-97 for Montana's November ballot.

Jackie Boyle, coordinator for Not In Montana: Citizens Against CI-97, said the coalition will work hard to defeat the initiative.

"The Not In Montana coalition represents a nonpartisan, broad-based commitment to fight this extreme idea that came to Montana from out-of-state," she said.

"Even with an army of mercenary out-of-state signature gatherers, the backers of CI-97 just barely managed to get enough signatures to qualify," Boyle said. "We know that the more Montanans hear about CI-97, the less they like it. We will continue working hard to reach Montanans, urging them to read the fine print in this initiative."

Boyle noted that over $600,000 has been channeled through a group called Montanans In Action to pay mercenary out-of-state petitioners to gather signatures for CI-97 and two other initiatives.

"Where did that money come from? Montanans In Action refuses to say," she said. "Their funding and their tactics are both very questionable and shadowy. The mercenary petitioners that swept through Montana used coercion, deception, and fraud to mislead Montanans into signing CI-97. Complaints from across the state have been filed with the commissioner of political practices on their tactics."

Boyle continued, "CI-97 is an empty promise, a gimmick that creates more problems than it claims to solve. It will gut public services that Montana families, children, and seniors need. And it will make average Montanans pay more as government is forced to raise fees to keep services alive, just as happened in Colorado."

Colorado adopted a measure similar to CI-97 in 1992. Under Colorado's version of CI-97, Colorado fell drastically behind in the quality of schools, emergency services, roads and highways, and health care.

The problems became so bad that a large, broad, and bipartisan coalition, led by the Colorado business community, successfully passed a statewide referendum to suspend the law in 2005.

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