Lawmakers ponder shorter, annual sessions

HELENA – Annual sessions, anyone?

Some 38 state senators endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment today that would ask voters to split the current 90-day, every-other-year billfest into two annual sessions. The bill now needs 62 votes in the House.

Senate Bill 348, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, would split the current biennial session into annual 45-day sessions. One session would deal solely with budget and revenue issues; the other would consider general bills.

“This will make us more effective,” said Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula.

Supporters of the measure said it would make the Legislature more accessible for Montanans and would increase lawmakers' accuracy in predicting fiscal matters as well. Essmann also said it would allow for greater oversight of the executive branch during even numbered years.

Essmann said if an annual session uses fewer than 45 days, those extra days could be added to the next session.

Since SB 348 seeks to amend the state constitution, it needs the approval of two-thirds of the Legislature before it can go to voters for approval. The House still needs to vote on the bill.

The last time the Montana Legislature held annual sessions was in 1973 and 1974, but Montanans voted to go back to biennial sessions in 1974. Two later attempts at annual sessions were rejected by voters.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Senators line up behind anti-abortion measure

HELENA - A bill aiming to deny Montana's right to privacy as a legal defense for abortions passed its first vote on the Senate floor, 29-19.

Senate Bill 46, sponsored by Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, would would ask voters to amend Montana's constitutional provision for the right to privacy, which currently says the right "shall not be infringed without a showing of compelling state interest.” McGee's bill would add one sentence, saying, "The protection of unborn human life is a compelling state interest."

Senators debating the bill spoke for over an hour this afternoon. Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, was one of several Democrats to vote for the bill. He said humans should respect all life, with no exceptions.

"Life is life, it's black and white," Windy Boy said. "Life is precious - we don't even own our own life."

One of the few Republicans to oppose the bill, Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, said he does not support abortion, but without including contraceptives in sex education, this bill will only create larger problems in the future.

"We have to change behavior," Brueggeman said. "We can treat addiction but you can't unmake a person."

As a constitutional amendment, the bill needs the votes at least 100 of the 150 legislators . If that happens, the initiative would be on the ballot in 2010.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Bill calling for elected regents faces long odds

HELENA - Legislation calling for the election of the state's Board of Regents and Board of Public Education staggered today from the state Senate to the House, where it would need almost 80 votes to earn a spot on a future statewide ballot.

Senate Bills 80 and 81, sponsored by Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel (pictured), received 20 and 21 Senate votes, respectively. Because both measures aim to change the state's constitituion, they require two-thirds approval from the 150-member Legislature.

McGee said he sponsored the bills because the education boards need to be held accountable to the public. Under the constitution, members of both boards are now appointed by the governor.

Opponents argued that opening the boards to political campaigns would bring only partisanship and culture clashes.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Regents should run for election, senator says

HELENA – Montana's system of public education would be more transparent and accountable if the Board of Regents and other appointed officials were elected, a Laurel lawmaker told a Senate committee today.

Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel (pictured), is sponsoring Senate Bills 80 and 81, which would ask Montanans to change the state's Constitution to allow for the election of members of the state's Board of Regents and Board of Public Education. Currently, those members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

“Where do they get their power?” McGee asked the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee. “It’s not from the people.”

Supporters of SB 80 and SB 81 said elections would give that power back to the people affected by the boards’ decisions.

“It would give parents an opportunity to vote on how the state Board of Education is chosen,” said Elaine Sollie Herman, who ran unsuccessfully for superintendent of public instruction in November.

McGee said the public should have a greater voice in such matters such as the rising cost of college tuition.

“I have been, for one, frustrated by the fact that … tuition is just going to keep going up and we don’t have anything to say,” McGee said.

But opponents argued that elections would expose the governance Montana colleges and public schools to partisan politics, something the constitution's framers had hoped to avoid.

“I don’t think you’ll get more expertise,” said Eric Feaver, president of the 17,000-member Montana Education Association/Montana Federation of Teachers. “I think you’ll get more divisiveness. I think you’ll get culture wars.”

Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns said regents are accountable to the Legislature because the Legislature alone decides how much funding higher education receives.

“Just because they’re not elected doesn’t mean they don’t take those levels of accountability extremely seriously,” Stearns said.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy