Legislative Report

2-17-23

This week saw appropriations section c wrap up business for this legislative session. We approved the budgets of our respective departments. The next step in the process will be for me as Chair to present these recommendations to the appropriations committee as a whole. At that point the recommendations can be accepted or amended and entered into House Bill 2, the big budget, for presentation to the entire House later in the session.

As part of the Department of Natural Resources budgeting we were able to increase funding for the Montana Grass Conservation Commission. The Commission has been fairly inactive in the past. Two new members, including Nate Descheemaker of Petroleum County are breathing new life into this important body. The Commission is statutorily charged with conservation, protection, restoration, and proper utilization of grass, forage and range resources of Montana. Part of the way they do that is coordinating with counties and other government agencies, including federal, to make sure federal laws in place are followed. The importance of this has been highlighted with the Biden administration changing rules on BLM land to accommodate bison grazing on the American Prairie Reserve (APR).

On the Floor this week we started off by killing a bill by Karlan, that would have created a new statewide program of mental health screening in schools. This bill seems indicative of other bills this session that would encourage redundancy and spend lots of money. Mental health and suicide are typically emotionally charged debates that often get people to vote feelings rather than thinking, with little regard to actual results. What should be a pretty conservative legislature takes on a different look when people start viewing the $3 billion of over collected taxes from the current biennium akin to winning the lottery. Vocabularies change from calling spending what it is to investments. It’s easy to justify when you can raise taxes this way instead of actually having to vote to raise taxes. Even better we can cut some taxes by keeping most of this $3 billion. It’s magic.

With the stampede of people moving to Montana, it’s created more demand for building, water and sewer permits, causing a serious backlog in the permitting process. This results in delays in everything from construction to irrigation, so HB114 created up to 13 new positions in the Department of Environmental Quality to address that concern. Hamilton from Bozeman sponsored HB345 to make medical savings account contributions deductible for individuals. I supported this bill even though it has a fairly hefty price tag. It will encourage people to save for their medical expenses and allow them to accumulate it and carry it forward until needed. This will help put individuals on a more even keel with those with employer provided health care benefits.

HB321,another we won the lottery bill, seeks to allocate over $200,000,000 into the Coal Trust Fund. This would then be divided between a fund to permanently endow Conservation Districts and another fund to be allocated to schools maintenance. Interest off these accounts would be available annually for these uses. There is much more to it of course, but that’s the nuts and bolts of it. The school fund is currently being funded with coal tax $, the conservation fund is new. They are both worthy causes. My rub is this: like many other “worthy causes” this session, it is a huge tax increase without anyone having to vote for a tax increase. The over budget tax collection from last session is being targeted for use to fund many things. Most of the squirreling away of funds is to ensure that if the economy enters recession, State government doesn’t suffer. I’m more concerned about the taxpayers that are expected to shoulder this burden. Are your savings accounts overflowing? I hope so. 321 passed 2nd reading with only 17 of us voting no. It is now in Appropriations and likely facing a vote on Monday. It will get a critical review.

Another stash the money bill, carried by Brewster, would increase the disaster mitigation fund that the Governor can utilize in an “emergency” from about a $20,000,000 fund to $108,000,000. These funds could be used to capture federal matching funds to do projects to possibly avert future events. Again, a good idea, but would a majority vote to raise taxes to fund if the lottery wasn’t available? A majority of Republican on appropriations teamed up with a few democrats to table this bill. Doesn’t mean it’s dead, but snoozing on the sidelines while proponents regroup.

HB356 & 361 by Ler from Savage, were 1st on the Floor the 15th. Both bills drew lots of debate. 356 will prohibit State government from contracting with companies with 2nd amendment discriminating policies, this passed 67-33. 361 was the most contentious. It will prohibit schools from mandating that students play make believe. Those on the left advocate that if a guy says he’s a gal then everyone should pretend that’s true. Similarly, some don’t know who or what they are so our kids are supposed to pretend they don’t know either. Schools should not be able to punish our kids for telling the truth. One Republican joined 33 Democrats in opposing this bill. It wasn’t me.

Another bill by Karlen from Missoula, HB280 was called a circuit breaker bill. It would force the State to use your tax dollars to alleviate property tax pressure in the irresponsible counties like Missoula who are abusing their taxpayers. The State only collects a total of 91 statewide mills in property tax. 85 mills goes back to counties for K-12 education, the other 6 goes to the university system. That bill died 38-62.

HB 408 by Majority Leader Vinton, increases the cap on funding that is provided by donations that qualify for a tax credit. This money allows K-12 students to seek alternatives, public or private, for their educational needs. Democrats opposed fearing loss of public ed money, this bill does not divert any public ed money. This passed 2nd and on to appropriations.

Friday’s session was fairly uneventful, even having a number of 100-0 type votes. The bills highlighted above are what I consider to be the most impactful on everyday Montanans lives. They by no means are even close to the number of bills crossing the Floor and committees. Committee hearings go on from 8 am to 12 pm. Floor session starts at 1 lasting usually a couple of hours. Afternoon committees then proceed. Appropriations, that I’m on, start at 3, or whenever floor ends if after that. Our sessions have been typically wrapping up by 6:30 or so. Our committee isn’t supposed to be for discussion on the policy of a bill before us, that has been done by a policy committee. If a bill passes out of a committee and 2nd on the floor and involves money, it then goes to appropriations where we can pass back to the floor for 3rd reading, we can also amend or kill. It is a committee that obviously gets to see a wide variety of bills.

Thanks again for your time, it’s an honor serving HD37.

For Freedom, Representative Jerry Schillinger. 406-974-2478, [email protected], Capitol email leg.mt.gov

Don’t forget, you can watch current or past proceedings on the Mt. Legislative website and get bill information.