Legislative Report

1-3-23

This week started off with nasty roads for many returning to the Capitol from home, tis the season! One nice thing about being a greater distance from home, I tend to not be on the roads.

Fish Wildlife and Parks was first up in subcommittee this week. One of the points of interest for Eastern Montana, especially Garfield County, was this will be the first year of a long term lease between the Little Shell Tribe and the Army Corp of Engineers. The Little Shell Tribe has replaced FWP as the lessee on the Hell Creek State Park. This was several years in the works and should improve the situation there. The last couple of years especially has put a lot of extra pressure on parks, fishing and hunting resources. This increased utilization is likely to continue given the influx of new residents and Montana being discovered as a recreational destination. The state spends over $13,000,000 to promote tourism and $1,500,000 studying it at the University of Montana. I think it’s time to redirect at least some of that money to better use. It seems the show Yellowstone has taken over as the lead promoter across the Country. Even a buddy of mine in northern Saskatchewan said it’s their favorite show.

Tuesday, on the Floor, we approved a bill by Representative Moore that would ban Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations when managing state investment funds. We are seeing more and more corporate boards being infiltrated by “woke” ideology. The result is often hostile attitudes towards traditional , dependable energy sources. Other social issues are often targeted as well. Hopefully this bill will help create a better investment atmosphere and a less adversarial situation for traditional energy producers to attain financing.

Tuesday evening the Sheriffs and Peace Officers had their legislative get together. It was good to see Sheriff Harbaugh from Fallon County and get to visit about home country. Most evenings of the week there are 1 to 3 of these types of events. They create a good opportunity for trade groups and individuals to touch base on an informal basis with various legislators. It’s often difficult to determine which one to attend, can’t be everywhere!

Tuesday I introduced HB284 to the Local Government Committee. This was a request by Commissioner Todd Devlin from Prairie County. Montana Association of Counties (MACO) and Jason Rittal worked hard to get a bill that various parties could live with. In the end this bill will help ease the audit costs and bureaucratic expense that local governments have to deal with. Todd and Jason both did a good job of testifying. Hopefully we can get this across the line.

Wednesday I introduced HB307 at the Taxation Committee. This is a Montana Freedom Caucus priority. I mentioned this in last week’s report. This bill will return up to $3500/person, $7000/couple of income tax paid, totaling about $1,000,000,000. It would also return up to $1000/home in residential property taxes or about $275.000,000. $100,000,000 in long term debt would also be retired. Combined these three items total approximately $1.375 billion out of the estimated $3 billion in taxes collected in excess of what we budgeted for this biennium. This would be a good start in returning the excess to the taxpayers.

Speaking of tax refunds, Wednesday on the floor we passed 68-32 a number of bills. Two separate bills when taken together, return about $755 million to taxpayers and a third retires about $150 million of debt. If these bills become law, the debt reduction portion of HB307 should be amended out. The income and property tax portion should go forward. It goes without saying that there are lots of ideas about how this $3 billion of over budget tax collections should be appropriated. In my opinion, as closely as possible, it should be returned to the ones that paid it. In reality not all of it will be. The challenge then will be to sift through the many proposals and settle on items that state government is charged with providing for. In my opinion, long neglected hard assets that provide for public safety such as prisons, transportation and health care are among these kinds of possibilities. An increase in the business property exemption from $300,000 to $1,000,000 also passed. These items are all expected to pass the Senate and be signed by the Governor.

The Democrats have been complaining that we are moving too fast and “spending” too much on these rebates of taxes. I responded on the floor that many of us wanted to do this in special session last summer, so it’s not too fast. I also said these bills didn’t “spend” one nickel but simply refunded over budgeted collections from the taxpayers. Surplus is a more favorite term used by most to describe this overcollection. I reminded the Body that the State doesn’t have much money that wasn’t taken from the taxpayer.

In the early weeks of session, most bills are housekeeping or cleanup bills. This results in lots of 90 or 100 to zero type votes. As the session progresses, the more controversial bills start working their way through committees and the vote counts change dramatically.

Thursday after floor session, I was notified someone was waiting outside the chamber. I was delighted to be met by my cousin, Don Schillinger from Baker and this time of year Helena. He and Nancy are able to spend time visiting family and other activities. It was fun seeing Don.

Friday we had the Department of transportation back in subcommittee to dig a little deeper into their appropriations requests. It was informative and should help when trying to make those decisions.

Several legislators walked across the street to take a tour of the construction progress of the addition to the Historical Museum. It will add about 65000 ft2 to the complex. We just listened to an appropriation request for more money to help finish up the project. Inflation, no surprise.

I enjoyed a zoom meeting during lunch hour with a group of Prairie County Residents covering a wide range of issues. If anyone would like to arrange that type of communication, I’d be glad to fit it in. I appreciate your input.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen has a new band that is playing out at East Helena tonight. I might have to go see if he’s as good of musician as A.G.!

As always, it’s a privilege serving HD37, let me know what’s on your mind.

For Freedom, Representative Jerry Schillinger 406-974-2478, [email protected]