Update from Helena

One of our local newspaper editors asked me to write a legislative wrap-up of the session. Well, there are still many things not decided. Last Wednesday nearly one hundred bills were transmitted to the Governor for his action.

He can veto, sign, or just wait ten days and the bill becomes law. The most important bill, the budget bill, HB 2, was put on his desk May 2nd. So, we will soon know what he decides about that. HB 2 is the only bill that he can line item veto.

In my previous three sessions, the budget was never reduced. This time, the general fund is down more than 6 percent. That is really remarkable considering the nearly $1 billion in stimulus money we spent last session. We were able to hold down more increases. Democrats in the House offered more than $200 million in amendments to the budget and in the Senate, $400 million.

The Governor has already vetoed more than 30 bills. But many more had his amendatory vetoes that we agreed with during the session. Those are now law.

We are most proud of our jobs bills. Some of them didn’t make it all the way through the legislature, some were vetoed by the Governor, and some are now law. The highlight was HB 334 by Representative Reichner of Bigfork.

Montana has the highest workers’ compensation rates in the entire country. Our neighboring states have among the lowest. HB 334 will lower these rates somewhere between 22% to 40%. Our rates will still be higher than North Dakota, but we will now be competitive.

School funding will be reduced by the Governor’s veto of HB 316. This bill took some of the money from metal mines and tourism tax to fund schools. Now this will come from the general fund, but the dollar amount will be reduced.

SB 329 is the main school funding bill. SB 329 takes some of the oil and gas money the eastern school districts have. Those counties are not happy, but the dollar amount is less than the Governor‘s original proposal. Also SB 329 has a pathways to excellence plan to put each school district’s information on a website and tract some accountability.

Last Thursday in Whitefish, the Governor said that we have survived the recession. Our constitutional requirement to balance our budget sure helped, but jobs are still hard to find in the northwest. And there are serious concerns for the future. Our ending fund balance is somewhere between $100 and $150 million.

If we have a bad fire season, that reserve may be gone. Also, we did not pay the $43 million in a Libby lawsuit, the $80 million Otter Creek coal sale could fall through, and we still have the huge unfunded liabilities in the retirement systems.

I had a great bill to actually start paying down the retirement problem using new coal tax interest. The public employee and the teachers’ unions supported the plan. Regrettably, the Senate did not.

All of the Flathead area legislators are disappointed that we were unable to make major improvements to the property tax problems. We did pass a bill to allow a once anytime appeal instead of just within the first thirty days. But all the other fixes failed. The rest of the state is just not concerned.

Please keep the comments and questions coming. My home number is 849-6096, my email is jannataylor@montana.com and my address is PO Box 233, Dayton, MT 59914. I never forget that I work for you.