3-24-23

Legislative day 56, Tuesday March 21st we convened our Floor session at 8 a.m. to begin presentation and debate on House Bill 2, which I described last week in some detail. HB2 is the State’s main operating budget for the coming 2024-2025 biennium, it was presented in five main sections A-E. I presented C, Natural Resources and Conservation. This budget consists of nearly 50% federal funds, primarily in Transportation and Department of Health and Human Services. Total HB2 is over $13 billion, when I was a teen the entire federal budget hit $200 billion for the first time under President Nixon. It’s a big budget that we worked hard in Appropriations to keep as low as possible given the inflationary pressures brought on by disastrous federal policies. Even at that, the Democrats offered numerous amendments on the floor that would have added about another $140 million in spending. All of the amendments died by 68-32 party line votes except one 67-33 vote. HB2 passed 68-32 even though each section chair was complemented by the minority members for our bipartisanship. Politics.

We had another interesting vote on Tuesday, Senate Bill 30 by McKamey, a left leaning Republican from Cascade County. SB30 sought to remove from statute a law called the Clean Campaign Act which required disclosure to the Commissioner of Political Practices, any negative ads against a candidate in the last 10 days of the election. A leftist district judge has declared the law unconstitutional; the argument was, it should come off the books. Second reading was 58-42 to remove, many of us thought we shouldn’t buckle because of one judge. Wednesday on third reading, we killed the bill 38-52, quite a turnaround. Further evidence, it isn’t over til it’s over!

Another big vote on Wednesday was on SB99 that limits children under 18 from receiving so called sex transitioning hormones or having sexual body parts removed. Needless to say there was an emotional argument on both sides. It’s hard to believe issues like this are even a matter of debate, but such is the world we live in. In the end 65 Republicans voted to protect kids while they go through a confusing time of life, all 32 Democrats voted against. Thursday SB99 passed 3rd reading by a similar margin and goes back to the Senate for approval after minor amendments in the House, then off to the Governor.

A major infrastructure bill HB817 by Fitzpatrick, cleared the House to FastTrack the replacement of some of the housing structures at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. These structures were built in the early seventies and are in very poor condition. This is going to be nearly a $200,000,000 project, a big investment, too long neglected.

Friday, the 59th legislative day, we passed several long-range maintenance, construction and technology bills out of Appropriations. These bills involved a number of funding sources including, State and Federal. These are for projects all over the State, but concentrated mostly on universities, the capitol and a variety of locations around the State.

Saturday morning found us on the Floor for an unusual morning session to get caught up on some bills and to allow some committees the opportunity to do the same. I was pleased to be able to introduce the Tyrel Massar family, from Circle to the House. They were in Helena for state gymnastics as were the Bryce Hove family, also from Circle, visiting the day before. Ryan and Leslie Bogar from Vida were at the Capitol as well, Ryan as the chair of the Montana Pulse Committee.

It’s hard to believe that we likely have less than 30 working days left in this session. Much has been accomplished but much remains. The days ahead will see an increased intensity over other spending priorities, how big of reserves to maintain in these tumultuous times, while we conservatives fight to return more $ to the taxpayers that over paid in the current biennium. The Governor is pushing for historic reserves, not wanting to come up short going into 2024 elections. That’s not an unreasonable precaution except that taxpayers that overpaid are not in that comfortable position. Any advice you have is appreciated!

For Freedom, Representative Jerry Schillinger, HD37, 406-974-2478,[email protected], watch hearings or floor sessions at leg.mt.gov