|
Montana’s 62nd Legislature lurches toward halftime
By Cody Bloomsburg
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism
HELENA – Legislators head home this week for a break, with the session’s biggest decisions – how to pay for education, social services and prisons – still to come.
So are final decisions on an array of controversial topics that include repealing or reforming Montana’s medical marijuana law, rolling back environmental regulations, and the “nullification” of federal laws on subjects ranging from health care to endangered species.
All of that was in play last week as legislators scrambled to jam bills under the falling stone door of Thursday’s transmittal deadline. Any non-financial bill that fails to pass at least one house dies that day. More than 230 bills still awaited action as of late last week.
Staffers were confident that they could do the job, but last week’s crush of legislation resulted in hasty hearings and frustrated Montanans, some of whom had traveled long and far only to be told there wasn’t time for them to speak.
Such was the case in Friday’s House Judiciary Committee, which drew a crowd for emotional hearings on a pair of bills dealing with Montana’s law against discrimination. The first would add protections for citizens regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. The second would prevent cities from drafting their own ordinances granting such protections, such as one in Missoula.
Religious and social conservatives and members of the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community packed the room and spilled over into the hall outside the hearing, but Chairman Ken Peterson, R-Billings, limited testimony from each side to 10 minutes.
That drew protests from some lawmakers who said it wasn’t fair to those who made the long drive to Helena. Peterson held firm but apologized for the time constraints and encouraged speakers to submit written testimony and sign the hearing list instead.
Human rights advocates held their own “hearing” on the second floor of the Capitol. At least 40 people showed up, including Sen. Minority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, and Sen. Shannon Augare, D-Browning. Both said they felt the way the meeting was handled was an injustice.
Peterson's own effort to ease the crush of legislation was defeated 50-50 in a rushed floor session the day before. His bill would have allowed the Legislature to meet every year, alternating between budget and general bill sessions.
Battle of the budget
Amid the frenzy, Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the Legislature’s Republican leaders actually drew closer in their guesses of how much revenue Montana will take in over the next two years, but tempers boiled over the difference.
Brighter revenue forecasts released by the independent Legislative Fiscal Division drew accusations from Gov. Brian Schweitzer that the office has been short-changing projections on orders from Republican leaders, who, he said, are hoping to slash funding for social services and education.
“None of that is true,” said Amy Carlson, director of the division.
Republican leaders shot back, saying LFD’s higher projections justify their more cautious budgeting. The new forecast anticipates more money from higher-than-expected oil prices and fewer tax breaks, and not a strong economic recovery as the governor purports.
The new numbers are $97 million higher than the LFD’s November estimates but still $71 million less than Schweitzer's own projection. The number is crucial because it determines how much money the state will have to spend.
Schweitzer’s budget would increase spending on public schools, the university system and social services such as Medicaid, but his plan hinges on transferring money from other funds, including about $76 million in oil and gas revenues from resource-rich counties to schools statewide.
Republicans killed the governor’s bill to take that oil and gas money last Wednesday, saying they hope to replace it with a more modest bill that targets only those districts that truly have a windfall of oil and gas revenue.
That bill will be sponsored by Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, who said Schweitzer's plan would have forced many of the oil-country school districts to raise local property taxes. Jones’ bill would shift about $30 million from oil country to schools statewide.
Energy and environment
Republicans continued their efforts to roll back conservation and environmental laws, including incentives to develop new sources of renewable energy.
Last week they blocked a bill by Sen. Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings, to raise the amount of renewable energy utilities must buy to 25 percent of the total by 2025. That’s 10 percent more that utilities are required to offer their customers under a law passed six years ago.
Senate Republicans argued that such mandates only raise the price of energy. Instead, they are backing Senate Bill 109, which helps utilities meet the current requirement to buy renewable energy by allowing them to count existing purchases of power from hydroelectric dams.
Van Dyk said that virtually guts the 2005 law, which aimed to boost new investments in energy from the wind and other sources.
Republicans argued in last fall’s legislative campaigns that environmental laws were being used to block the development of Montana’s natural resources, including coal, oil and gas, and they have introduced numerous bills this session to counter that.
Last week’s hearings included one on Senate Bill 312, which seeks to change the Montana Environmental Protection Act to reduce delays and the risk of lawsuits for companies looking to begin projects.
Meanwhile, the House last week heard a bill from Rep. Joe Read, R-Ronan, who wants a state law stating that global warming is a naturally occurring process, not one caused by humans.
That runs counter to the findings of most climate scientists, including University of Montana professor Steve Running, a Nobel laureate who called Read’s bill “ridiculous,” according to an Associated Press story. He said lawmakers might as well pass a bill repealing the law of gravity.
On Saturday, the House voted 61-39 for a bill sponsored by Rep. Krayton Kerns, R-Laurel, to “nullify” the federal Endangered Species Act.
Bonds for buildings
Contractors, university officials and others last week supported a $90 million bonding proposal to finance construction of eight new state buildings. They said it would create much-needed jobs.
House Bill 439 would allow the state to take out bonds for new buildings at the University of Montana; Montana State University at Bozeman, Billings and Great Falls; a veterans home in Butte; and a state history museum in Helena.
Most of the projects would involve extensive renovation. Work at the universities would focus on College of Technology facilities and agriculture experiment stations, programs that directly benefit Montana’s economy, supporters said.
No money would be spent, or bonds sold, until state revenues exceed estimates for 2011 by $2 million. Most of the projects would go out for bid in 2012 or early 2013.
Abortion
Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, has proposed two ballot measures for 2012 asking voters whether abortion should be legal in Montana.
House Bill 490 seeks to amend the Montana Constitution to define a person as any member of the “species Homo sapiens at any stage of development, including the stage of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning, or condition of dependency.”
Her other measure would ask voters to amend the Constitution to say Montana women have no specific right to abortion or to receive public funding for them.
Death Penalty
By a one-vote margin, the Senate last week passed a bill to abolish the death penalty. The measure now goes to the House, where it faces a tough battle.
Senate Bill 185, by Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula, would replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole. The Senate passed a similar bill last session but it died in a House committee.
Reporter Cody Bloomsburg can be reached at 208-816-0809 or by e-mail at crbloomsburg@hotmail.com
Leave a comment on our blog Back to top
|
