Shortly after the start of the last legislative session, the Republican majority took a Saturday to invite business leaders from all across Montana to come to the Capitol to talk about the economic climate of the state, everything from taxes to regulations to workers’ compensation and other hot-button issues. Several of the issues that were aired that weekend became the basis for legislation throughout the session. In a session otherwise memorable for its extremism and deeply partisan rancor, that weekend jobs summit struck us as a comparatively party-neutral attempt to improve the state’s economy.

Now comes Chuck Hunter, a Helena Democrat, and a handful of his party colleagues from around the state, embarking on a statewide tour to talk with local businesses and collect job-creation ideas to take to the next legislature, in 2013. The tour kicks off this week in eastern Montana and will continue after the holidays.

At first glance this might appear to be little more than a campaign ploy for Democrats ahead of next year’s elections — but we don’t see it in that light alone, for a number of reasons.

For one, primary elections aren’t until June, and November’s general election is almost a full year after this “jobs tour” takes place. The tour may indeed give Democrats ideas for tailoring their campaign messages, but we can’t imagine voters have long enough memories to consider this to be an outright campaign tour.

Plus, Hunter invited and encouraged Republicans to take part in the meetings. And with good reason: the GOP has solid majorities in both chambers of the legislature, and no matter how many good ideas surface on this tour over the next couple months, Democrats won’t be able to pass them without at least some support from the other side of the aisle.

Then there’s Hunter himself, one of our area’s more thoughtful lawmakers — and one of the less partisan. He may not be good for a sound bite, but Hunter waded full-on into the workers’ comp debate last session and worked to craft a solution that, while not perfect, helped drop businesses’ insurance rates by some 20 percent. Everyone pays lip service to bipartisanship, but in this case we’d like to believe it’s more than just talk.

Hunter announced the tour last week at Allegra Marketing Print and Web downtown (other lawmakers held similar events in their own cities), and owner Toni Broadbent said businesses are anxious for some reliability from the government, whether it’s consistent tax policy, regulation or other policy matters. She makes a good point: knowing how the playing field will be situated has value — even if the rules aren’t entirely favorable, at least businesses know how to plan within them.

We don’t know what messages will ring loudest on this jobs tour, but we hope the ideas floated are taken to heart by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Democratic state lawmakers Thursday mapped out plans for a statewide tour to talk with local businesses, to gather job-creating ideas that can be taken to the 2013 Legislature.

“We want to hear their ideas and thoughts on what we can do at the state level to make things better,” said Rep. Chuck Hunter, D-Helena, appearing at a Helena printing-and-design business. “(We’ll) turn those ideas into some responsible solutions and legislative strategy next session.”

Hunter and five other legislators were in six separate locations Thursday to announce the touring plans, including Billings, Missoula, Helena and Butte.

The actual tour will start next Monday with stops in Billings and then move on to Miles City, Glendive and Sidney later in the week.

Hunter said lawmakers would then start working their way back westward across the state, at yet-to-be-determined dates in January and February.

While the events are organized by Democratic lawmakers, Hunter said they’ll be open to anyone, and that he hopes Republican lawmakers will show up and be part of the discussion.

“One of the themes we’re hearing is that people want (policymakers) to work together,” he said. “That’s really a theme and a value that we bring to this whole tour.”

Republicans currently hold majorities in the Montana Legislature, with a 68-32 advantage in the House and a 28-22 edge in the Senate.

When asked Thursday about the Democrats’ tour, Republican Party Executive Director Bowen Greenwood said the GOP would be happy to “work with Democrats to create jobs in Montana by moving the Keystone XL pipeline forward and developing coal, oil and natural gas resources in Montana.”

Keystone XL is a proposed 1,700-mile pipeline that would cross eastern Montana and its oil fields and offer new transportation outlets for oil produced in Montana.

The Obama administration has postponed a decision on the pipeline’s permit until late next year. Montana’s top Democratic officeholders — Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester — have said they support the pipeline.

Hunter said being in the minority party in the 2013 Legislature won’t stop him or other Democrats from pursuing ideas developed by the listening sessions with businesses.

“If you’re in the minority, you can still have good ideas,” he said. “Democrats certainly passed bills in the last session.”

Toni Broadbent, co-owner of Allegra Marketing Print and Web, which hosted Hunter’s appearance in Helena, said Thursday she thinks businesses are looking for consistent policy so they can plan ahead over several years.

“Americans are going to have to do something different, but nobody has really described that or spelled that out or created a vision for that,” she said. “I think that (vision) would really create some stability and some confidence from consumers.”

She noted that many corporations have plenty of cash, but aren’t investing it because they’re unsure which way general tax, regulatory and other policy is going to go.

Hunter said Democrats expect to hear a wide range of ideas from businesses and their workers on a wide range of subjects, from housing to job training and education to tax and regulatory policy.

What they hear may be developed into campaign material for Democrats in the 2012 election, but Hunter said that’s not the priority of the tour.

“I really see it as something that we could bring to the next session,” he said. “I think doing our homework in advance, coming to the session, with an organized set of ideas of things that we’d like to accomplish, is what we hope to bring.”