Legislative Report

Last week was a short one in Helena as we recessed on Wednesday. The budget was put into the Governor’s hands and he had until this past Saturday to veto, amendatory veto or accept it. The Speaker of the House, the Senate President and the Governor did come to some agreements last Friday. There will be a lot of amendments waiting for us when we return Monday afternoon and start back in session Tuesday morning. We will especially be looking at how many dollars have been added back and how much is left in the ending fund balance.

School funding also has an agreement coming out of conference committee. This should be decided quickly as it is a very large part of the budget.

Medical Marijuana is also going to be decided this week. SB 423 is out of committee and going to be discussed on Tuesday. It is the last remaining opportunity to make some real changes to this out of control situation. The repeal was vetoed so this bill will be directed at reining in growers. It will also mean you will need a real doctor’s prescription to become a legal user.

Hopefully we will know the answers to a lot of these questions by the end of this week. Thank you for all of your comments. I can be reached at dansalomon12@gmail.com or 253-9724.