Legislative Roundup - Week 9

By Caven Wade and Elinor Smith, UM Legislative News Service, University of Montana School of Journalism

Lawmakers Adjourn For Mid-Session Break After Marathon Voting

HELENA -- The Montana Legislature is finished for the first half of its 90-day session.

At about 10 a.m. on Friday, March 3, the House of Representatives adjourned after a three-day, almost-48 hour series of floor sessions. The House passed 180 bills between Wednesday and Friday.

The Senate adjourned at 11 the night before, after almost 24 hours of voting over the span of two days. According to the Legislature’s database, the Senate advanced 119 bills in that time, covering topics ranging from education to wildlife management.

Bills introduced and passed in the Senate will now move onto the House and vice versa. This week is the transmittal deadline -- meaning any general bill that hasn’t passed through its first house yet is just as well dead. Lawmakers will now spend the second half of the session voting and discussing the general bills that made that deadline and all of the bills that include using state money, including House Bill 2, which will decide Montana’s budget for the next two years.

Issues like parental rights, abortion access, the housing crisis and taxation have taken center stage this session, with a supermajority of Republicans holding the reigns. Lawmakers have also debated issues relating to healthcare and the expansion of the trades in Montana.

The Republican triple-threat – holding the majority of both Legislative houses and the governor’s office – isn’t the only thing that’s unprecedented this session -- the state is currently sitting on a $2.5 billion surplus.

Republican Speaker of the House Matt Regier said at a press conference after the House adjourned that members of his party are particularly happy about the success of bills that reduce taxes and restrict abortion.

“This historic tax relief package is on its way to our governor's desk. Putting money back in Montanans’ pockets will help create more jobs and grow the local economy. Montana sent the Republican supermajority to Helena this session, and we are delivering to our constituents the income and property tax rebates that they deserve,” Regier said.

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has called the tax package one of the largest cuts in Montana history. It would lower Montanans’ income taxes from 6.7% to 5.9% and give Montana homeowners property tax breaks. It would also include increasing business equipment tax breaks.

Meanwhile, leaders in the Democratic party criticized the tax cuts, saying they wouldn’t help working Montanans, only rich Montanans. House Minority leader Kim Abbott also said putting some of the $2.5 billion surplus into the state’s investments could not only give money back to Montanans now, but pave a way for Montana to pay for its future.

“We have a generational opportunity right now to invest in real problems in our communities, in childcare, affordable housing and things that we're hearing from businesses every day, from families every day that are real issues in their communities and, for permanent property tax relief, which the GOP refuses to consider seriously,” Abbott said.

Debates over how the state will use the surplus are likely to take up a large chunk of the second half of this legislative session, which will reconvene on Thursday, March 9 after a short break.

-Elinor Smith

Lawmakers Table Bill That Would Have Moved Large Chunk of the State’s Surplus to Long-Term Investment

The Senate Local Government Committee tabled a bill on a party-line vote that would have moved $2 billion of the state's surplus into the coal severance tax trust fund.

Sen. Ryan Lynch, D-Butte, sponsored Senate Bill 346, which would have taken 80% of the state’s surplus and set it aside in the state controlled trust fund that would accrue interest over time.

“It’s a very simple bill, and it builds on the legacy that has been laid out before us by a number of different folks that have sat in your seats, and my seat,” Lynch said.

The state’s more than $2 billion surplus, and where it should go, has been a dominating debate in the first half of the 2023 Legislative session.

The interest rate on the coal endowment trust lies at about 3-3.5% which currently generates around $35 million every year, with it currently sitting at around $1 billion. The addition of $2 billion could generate close to an additional $80 million a year in interest.

Lynch said right now there’s an abundance of money, and that the state constitution lays out the ability for this money to be moved from the general fund into this trust so that the money can flow steadily and touch every part of Montana.

“I think as we save money, really you could put this in the category of a long-term property tax reduction, when you start talking about infrastructure and water, regional waters, when you talk about jobs and economic development,” Lynch said.

Sen. Dan Bartel, R-Lewistown, was a supporter of the bill and said that he wants to see another option being left out there for the legislators when it comes to balancing the budget and what to do with the surplus.

“We need to put this option in our toolbox to address the revenue surplus that seems to be growing every day,” Bartel said. “I just think this would be great and I think it would be a great opportunity to put money in for the future generations.”

There were no opponents at the bill’s hearing, but the committee raised several concerns about the impact this would have on other legislation currently going through, specifically the tax cut proposals.

“Budgets are about decisions and options, certainly I think that with the tax cuts that have already gone through there's enough room in the general fund balance for this to go,” Lynch said.

The Montana Legislature has a constitutional requirement to provide a balanced budget each session.

-Caven Wade

Caven Wade and Elinor Smith are student reporters with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.