WEB EXTRA Helena update Rep. John Fleming

Hello from Helena as we finished week twelve of the legislative session.  Some milestones were reached this week as well as serious economic recovery work.  HB 190 is being touted as a historic consensus between landowners and sportsmen.  This bill, dealing with access to the state’s rivers, passed through the Senate . . .

Committee on a 7-2 vote and needs only a positive vote on the Senate floor before heading to the governor for signing.

 A bill of high local interest, SB 234 “Brandon’s Bill”, deals with insurance coverage for autism and passed the Senate on its way to the House for committee assignment and scheduled hearings.

 Another important bill to all of us is HB 654, the property tax reappraisal mitigation bill.  This complicated bill passed the House Taxation Committee on a bipartisan 11-9 vote.  The passed version was heavily amended from the earlier version.  Some highlights are “phase-ins” to ease the impact of higher appraisals, retention of the homestead-exemption system, and the tax multiplier rate for residences will be phased down from 3.01 in steps to 2.25 by 2014.  Again, these are efforts to insure no net increase in tax collections, ease the burden on elderly homeowners, low-income homeowners, disabled veterans, and some who face large increases in property values.

 An entire legislative day in the House of Representatives was dedicated to the passage of the stimulus act (ARRA).  The House debated and passed on to the Senate its choices on how to spend roughly $300 million federal money dedicated to increasing jobs lost due to the recession.  The cities of St. Ignatius, Ronan , Polson and Lake County each will receive funds to finance “shovel ready” projects out of a $20 million fund.

 In the next weeks, I look forward to school groups from Charlo and St. Ignatius visiting the Capitol and would appreciate any of you dropping by anytime.  My cell phone is 207-3188 and e-mail is fleming@stignatius.net.