The Policy Institute, based in Helena, Montana, blends authoritative research and hands-on political engagement to create public policy based on economic justice, fair taxation, corporate accountability and environmental responsibility.

Keynote Speakers from Past Seminars

Jon Tester, United States Senator

Whether in the U.S. Capitol or on his farm near Big Sandy, Montana, Sen. Jon Tester isn't afraid to roll up his sleeves to get work done. Tester and his wife, Sharla, farm the same land his grandparents homesteaded nearly 100 years ago. He was elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 7, 2006, after a long history of public service in the Big Sky State. He served as chair of the Big Sandy School Board and on his local Soil Conservation Service Committee before running for the Montana Senate in 1997.

Tester served two four-year terms in the Montana Legislature, quickly gaining the respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle and rising to leadership roles soon after being elected. In 2005, he was chosen to serve as the President of the Montana Senate. He credits his leadership success to the values he learned growing up on the farm--hard work, straight talk, honesty and integrity.

Under Tester's leadership, the Montana Legislature improved funding for public education and cut taxes for thousands of small businesses. Tester also led the fight to implement a statewide Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) program. He sponsored legislation requiring all public utilities to gradually use more renewable energy, and he carried a bill giving tax credits to companies that generate wind power in Montana. Tester also fought to make employee health insurance affordable for small businesses. Tester was born in Havre, Montana, on August 21, 1956. He graduated from the College of Great Falls in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in music. In addition to farming and running a custom butcher shop, Tester also worked as a music teacher for Big Sandy Public Schools.

The Testers now grow organic wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat and alfalfa. They plan to come home to Montana as often as possible to hear from Montanans, take care of chores and visit their children and grandchildren.

Dan Bucks, Montana Department of Revenue Director

Director Bucks was appointed the director of the Montana Department of Revenue in 2005 and has extensive experience with tax policy and administration. He is committed to a tax system that ensures taxes are equitably administered. He believes in saying "thank you" to those taxpayers who pay their fair share of taxes under the law. For the minority of taxpayers who do not, he believes they should be asked to join in paying their fair share.

Prior to his appointment as director, he was the executive director of the Multistate Tax Commission in Washington, D.C. for nearly 17 years. The commission is a joint agency of state governments that assists states in administering taxes affecting multistate businesses and protects state taxing authority. Director Bucks previously worked for the Montana Department of Revenue, serving as the agency's deputy director from 1981-88. Prior to that, he was director of science and natural resources for the National Conference of State Legislatures. He served as South Dakota state planning commissioner from 1973 to 1977 and director of reorganization in that state from 1971 to 1973. Throughout this period in South Dakota, he also served as chief tax policy adviser to the South Dakota governor.

Director Bucks has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Montana. He and his wife, Jane Bucks, live in Helena. They have six children and five grandchildren. His personal interests include gardening, reading and enjoying time with his family.

Laura Flanders

Laura Flanders is the host of "GRITtv"* the new, daily, news-discussion and take action program seen on Free Speech TV (Dish Network ch. 9415) and online at the popular blog site Firedoglake.com as wel as at GRITtv.org. She also serves as the host of RadioNation, the nationally-syndicated weekly radio program of the Nation Magazine. In election year, 2008, she's hosting a five-part series of live, town-hall events in five different states in the run up to the General Election, Live from Main Street with Laura Flanders is produced by the Media Consortium with GRITtv.

Flanders is also the author of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Books, 2007), an investigation into what people at the grassroots know that Democratic party leaders could learn, and BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004), an expose of women in George W. Bush's Cabinet. Publisher's Weekly called Flanders' New York Times best-seller, "fierce, funny and intelligent."

She wrote on Hillary Clinton in The Contenders (Seven Stories Press, 2007) and edited The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush, in 2004 for the Feminist Press. Before joining Air America when it launched in March 2004, Laura hosted the award-winning " Your Call," Monday-Friday, on public radio, KALW, 91.7 fm in San Francisco.

Flanders' TV appearances include "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and " Larry King Live " on CNN as well as "The O'Reilly Factor," and "Hannity and Colmes," (FOX News) "Washington Journal," "Donahue," "Good Morning America" and the CBC news discussion program, "CounterSpin." Her writing appears in The Nation, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, and elsewhere and her op-ed pieces have appeared in papers including The San Francisco Chronicle.

Flanders was founding director of the Women's Desk at the media watch group, FAIR and for more than ten years she produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's nationally-syndicated radio program. She is also the author of Real Majority, Media Minority; the Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (Common Courage Press, 1997) about which Susan Faludi wrote, "If only there were a hundred of her." Katha Pollitt called it "Funny, angry, factfilled and brilliant."

Dennis Kucinich

Having been elected to Cleveland's City Council at age 23, Dennis J. Kucinich was well-known to Cleveland residents when they chose him as their mayor in 1977 at the age of 31. At the time, Kucinich was the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city.

Since being elected to Congress in 1996, Kucinich has been a tireless advocate for worker rights, civil rights and human rights.

In Congress, Kucinich has authored and co-sponsored legislation to create a national health care system, preserve Social Security, lower the costs of prescription drugs, provide economic development through infrastructure improvements, abolish the death penalty, provide universal prekindergarten to all 3, 4, and 5 year olds, create a Department of Peace, regulate genetically engineered foods, repeal the USA PATRIOT Act, and provide tax relief to working class families.

Kucinich is the chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He is also a member of the Education and Labor Committee. In November 2008, Dennis Kucinich was reelected to a seventh term in Congress.