Thirteen numbers on Friday the 13th, that Montana needs to fix.

Sep 13, 2019

By Tara Jensen

Today is Friday the 13th. Instead of our usual number of the week, we picked thirteen statistics that the team at MBPC, with the help of thoughtful people around the state, are working to fix.

1. 4,059 public school children in Montana experienced homelessness during the 2017-2018 school year
2. 15 percent of children in Montana are growing up in poverty
3. 86,000 Montanans do not have any health insurance coverage
4. At least 6,000 people will lose food assistance in Montana under the Trump administration’s proposed rule change
5. $50 million lost revenue from capital gains tax break for the wealthiest Montanans
6. 4,000-12,000 Medicaid expansion enrollees could lose their health insurance because of harsh and unnecessary work and community engagement requirements in Montana
7. $2.7 million lost revenue from oil and natural gas tax holiday
8. 3,934 children live in the Montana state foster care system
9. 39,000 children live in households that are food insecure in Montana
10. 37 percent of renter households have a high housing cost burden and pay an unaffordable amount of their income on monthly rent in Montana
11. $300 million spent on tax breaks in the last year in Montana
12. $235 billion in corporate profits shifted overseas each year nationally
13. 4.9 percent of American Indians are undercounted in the Census, more than any other group