Major Economic Events of 2020: A Year We Won t Forget.

• Author: Barkey, Patrick M.
• Position: State Revenue Report

I doubt that many of us want to live this past year over Again--2020 served up enough major economic events for a lifetime. These included:

* The global pandemic roared into the state economy, changing mobility, consumption patterns, school instruction, business prospects and just about everything else. Job losses were severe, and in some cases temporary, with no end to the public health crisis yet in sight.

* The passage of the CARES Act by Congress opened a lifeline of federal spending into Montana, in the form of forgivable Paycheck Protection Plan loans to businesses, extended unemployment benefits to workers and $1.25 billion in support to state government to offset the ravages of the economic downturn.

* The state's largest coal mine, the Spring Creek Mine owned and operated by Navajo Transitional Energy, laid off and then rehired miners in what turned out to be another tumultuous year for Montana coal production.

* Two of the four coal-fired electricity generation units of the Colstrip power plant ceased operations at the beginning of the year, several years earlier than originally envisioned. The older and smaller Units 1 and 2 of the plant were closed as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Montana Environmental Information Center and the Sierra Club.

* Montana's farmers and ranchers enjoyed a better year in 2020, thanks to better crop conditions, slightly better prices and a generous dollop of government support. Between crop insurance, trade war support and CARES Act payments, the proportion of agriculture cash...