Lawmakers compromise on gun 'brandishing' bill

HELENA – Lawmakers reached a compromise Tuesday on a controversial bill that seeks to broaden gun rights for Montanans.

House Bill 228, sponsored by Rep. Krayton Kerns, R-Laurel (pictured), asserts that Montanans have the right to defend themselves if threatened instead of retreating or calling the police. They would also have the right to brandish a weapon to ward off a potential assault.

The bill also says landlords or hotel owners cannot curb tenants' gun rights and it puts the burden of proof in self-defense shootings on the state instead of the shooter.

House and Senate members in a conference committee worked out their differences on the bill after the House rejected the Senate’s amendments last week.

The original bill gave all Montanans, with the exception of felons or those guilty of violent crimes, the right to carry a concealed weapon in town without a permit. The Senate removed that section of the bill, but compromised to allow concealed weapons in hospitals. The bill also says concealed weapons can not be worn in state or local government buildings, banks or their drive-up windows, or anywhere alcohol is served.

The bill has been a matter of contention between gun rights groups, such as the National Rifle Association, and law enforcement. Supporters have said the bill reinforces a constitutional right and protects Montanans who can’t always count on police to respond in time to volatile situations.

Opponents have worried that the bill will lead to more shootings.

The amended version of the bill still needs House and Senate approval before it can be signed into law by the governor.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Demos protest GOP cuts in children's health plan

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Democratic lawmakers went on the offensive Monday, blasting Senate Republicans who recommended cuts last week in proposed funding for the voter-approved expansion of state-funded children’s health care.

“This is a travesty,” said Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula. “I’m outraged about this.”

In a press conference held on the rotunda steps, 25 members of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, led by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, lambasted the GOP decisions to cut government services during a recession.

“These are irresponsible and cowardly actions,” Kaufmann said. “Will we choose pavement over peoples’ lives?”

The decision to cut the expansion for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan came late Friday night as the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee recommended cutting $120 million out of the state budget bill, House Bill 2.

Of that savings, $50 million would come from scaling back the Healthy Montana Kids Plan, according to Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena.

Lewis said expanding any program during a recession is dangerous for state finances, even if the federal government promises to match the state’s dollars, as it does in the children’s health insurance program.

“You still have to have the match,” Lewis said during the budget hearing. “You can go broke at a clearance sale.”

The health care expansion has been a contentious issue this session. After being approved by more than 70 percent of voters in November, the Legislature needed to grant funding authority before the program could expand to cover an estimated 30,000 uninsured Montana children.

However, Republicans in both the House and Senate have said the state can’t afford to expand that program during this economic crisis. They also said voters in November didn’t know the expansion’s true costs.

Democrats disagreed.

“Republicans said we didn’t know what we were voting for,” Kaufmann said. “Yeah, right.”

Wanzenried said that because state-funded health insurance is one of benefits of being a legislator, maybe those perks should be reduced as well.

“Half of the people in the Legislature who oppose funding it should give (up their insurance), don’t you think?” Wanzenried said.

But Senate Finance and Claims Chairman Keith Bales, R-Otter, said the budget decisions were not cuts but actually reduced increases.

“We think that it is important that the state not spend more than they’re taking in during the biennium,” Bales said. “In this time when we are faced with problems on funding, we thought it would be prudent to phase (Healthy Montana Kids) in.”

Bales also said he believes the reductions do reflect the views of the voters today. He said Montanans were more optimistic about the economy in November than they are in today’s recession. He also said he was confident the reduced expansion will still help children in need.

“If a person gets laid off or has trouble, their children will automatically qualify for CHIP,” Bales said. “The people that do need health insurance for their children will get health insurance for their children.”

As approved by voters, the expansion would have offered health coverage for children whose parents earned 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $50,000 for a family of four. Bales said that providing state-funded health insurance for families making $50,000 is not a priority.

The Senate amendments in HB 2 still expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid, but only for those who earn 200 percent of poverty level.

In addition to recommending cuts in CHIP, Bales’ committee also voted to reduce state spending by 2 percent across the board for state agencies and use more one-time stimulus money to fund education.

'Special treatment' cut from horse slaughter bill

If investors want to establish a horse slaughter industry in Montana, they will have to do it without special protection from legal challenges and lawsuits, Gov. Brian Schweitzer (pictured) said late last week.

Schweitzer used his amendatory veto power to strip special legal protections from House Bill 418, sponsored by Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred.

Butcher and other supporters have argued in long, emotional hearings that Americans needing to dispose of horses have to go to Mexico or Canada because legal challenges have effectively shut down the horse slaughter industry in the U.S.

Horse slaughterhouses are not currently banned in Montana, but they would almost certainly draw protests from animal lovers who have testified against the bill so far.

In his veto message, Schweitzer said horse owners need “access to a legal method to put their horses down as necessary and appropriate – due to age, infirmity, or other legitimate circumstances.”

However, such facilities should not receive the “unnecessary and potentially harmful special treatment that would be granted to one particular industry under this bill.”

The bill passed the House by a vote of 66-33 and passed the Senate 27-23.

Bridge access bill wins approval, governor's praise

HELENA – The state House gave final approval today to a bill that would allow anglers, floaters and hikers to gain access to the state's rivers and streams via public bridges on public roads.

House Bill 190, sponsored by Rep. Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings, allows recreational access to waterways at bridges, while also allowing landowners to connect fences to bridges and abutments to contain their livestock.

Landowners would have to modify those fences to allow access. Such work would be administered and paid for by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The measure initially passed the House in January and was amended in the Senate last week. These amendments included allowing landowners to use wood-rail fences on their property and changing the number of access points along a stream from four to one.

The House accepted the Senate’s amendments today, with a 96-3 vote.

In a press release, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said the bill provides a bipartisan solution to a 20-year dispute between anglers, hunters, environmentalists and landowners.

“This bill will protect our Montana tradition of public access to our world-class blue ribbon trout streams and lets out of state landowners know that in Montana our streams and rivers are not for sale,” Schweitzer said.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Senators struggle over plans to slash spending

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Senate Republican and Democrats on a key budget committee clashed Thursday over spending priorities as the GOP majority laid out ideas to reduce all state agency funding and scale back children’s health care coverage.

Republicans on the Senate Finance and Claims Committee said reductions in House Bill 2, the state budget bill, are necessary if the Legislature wants to have a $250 million rainy day fund in 2011.

“I would like to see us get to structural balance and I think we’ve had indications that if we don’t reach a $250 million ending fund balance, the governor will probably veto things to get there,” said Committee Chairman Keith Bales, R-Otter. “I would rather see the (Legislature) decide where the money is spent … than (have) the governor do it.”

Republicans said they want a structurally balanced budget, meaning the state can only spend the amount of revenue they collect in the next two years. Since revenue projects look to keep falling, lawmakers say this means cutting state spending.

In one of only two ideas discussed to reduce state spending, Bales suggested reducing every state agency by another 2 percent, which he said would save $30 million over two years.

The other idea to reduce spending, introduced by Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, would be to scale back the Healthy Montana Kids Plan. The program, approved by voters in November, would expand health care insurance for Montana children.

Lewis suggested reducing the number of children eligible for such coverage by reducing the amount of money their parents can make and still qualify. Currently, families with incomes at 250 percent of the federal poverty guideline can qualify. Reducing that to 200 percent would save the state $50 million, he added.

“It’s one of a series of bad choices, but we’re going to have to look very hard at any proposed expansion,” Lewis said.

But Democrats said getting pure structural balance could mean downsizing important services people may need as the recession continues.

Every budget decision “has a human face on it,” said Sen. Carol Williams, D-Missoula. “I don’t have the view that we have to have the structural balance that I think Sen. Bales does.”

Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula, said cutting public services would hurt those who feel the recession the most. “Do you think we can do that without affecting the public we’re supposed to serve? I don’t,’ he said.

Democrats said the state’s revenue estimates may be down right now, but no one knows how the fiscal picture will look in two years. What looks like excess spending now could be equalized by higher future revenues, they said.

Decisions on HB 2 are expected on Friday, with numerous amendments from both sides of the aisle.

GOP legislators decry failure of anti-abortion bills

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Twenty-nine Republican lawmakers gathered in the capitol today to blast Democrats for the Legislature’s failure last night to revive five anti-abortion bills that remain locked in committee.

“Last night, Democrats essentially voted to muzzle the people of Montana on one of the most important issues of our time: abortion,” said Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre (pictured).

Warburton said most of Democrats vote for pro-abortion measures, whereas Republicans are “fighting for life.”

Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, sponsored two of the bills, Senate Bill 46 and Senate Bill 406. Both sought to amend the state constitution to set the foundation for future abortion bans. Republicans last night fell short of the 60 votes necessary to "blast" the bills from committee to the House floor.

“It is truly unfortunate that the big business of killing babies has so persuaded the Democratic Party,” McGee said.

McGee said Republicans attempted to work with Democrats on these issues but it did not seem to take. He also compared abortion with slavery and predicted an upheaval comparable to the Civil War. “You bet there will be,” McGee said.

Democratic House Speaker Bob Bergren said these failed "blast" motions are typical fare for the Legislature and his party. “Democrats support the constitutional rights of all women,” Bergren said.

Bergren said he found it ironic this same group of legislators opposes “proactive measures” against abortion, such as sex education and contraception for the poor. He also said it was indicative that 23 of the 29 Republicans at the press conference were men.

“Where are all the women if this is good for women?” Bergren said.

Allyson Hagen of the Naral Pro-Choice Montana Foundation, said despite GOP assertions of civic upheaval, Montanans do not support these measures.

“Montanans are actually grateful that these bills didn’t pass,” Hagen said. “In Montana, we greatly value the right to keep the government out of our personal, private medical decisions.”

SB 46 would have defined unborn human life as a compelling state interest, allowing the state to interject itself in personal privacy issues. SB 406 would have defined personhood at conception in the Montana Constitution. Previous attempts to ban abortion have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because of privacy concerns.

The other failed bills included Senate Bill 374, which would make parental notification of a minor’s abortion mandatory; Senate Bill 327, which would heighten charges brought against someone who assaults a pregnant woman and hurts the fetus; and House Bill 661, which sought to create licenses and more regulations for abortion clinics.

The four Senate bills passed out of the GOP-controlled Senate with narrow margins, usually running on party lines. They hit a partisan wall in the evenly split House committees, where a tie vote means means the bills are probably dead.

House OKs bill to blunt effects of reappraisals

HELENA – The House gave initial approval today to a bill seeking to prevent the recent statewide property-tax reappraisal from automatically raising many Montanans' taxes.

By a 75-25 vote, lawmakers approved House Bill 658, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish (pictured). The bill would follow a similar model used in past sessions by reducing tax rates and offering exemptions for residential and business properties.

Property reappraisal in Montana occurs every six years. Since 2002, property values in Montana have risen by an average 55 percent statewide.

Jopek's bill would blunt that increase by jacking up one of the major property-tax exemptions for residential property called the "homestead" exemption. The exemption would increase gradually from 35.9 percent to 42 percent by 2014.

Supporters called the bill a good starting point, adding that there are additional exemptions and tax credits for elderly homeowners on fixed incomes. They also said they expect the Senate to continue shaping the bill with amendments.

But opponents said the bill won’t help lower- and middle-class taxpayers because they will be subsidizing the tax exemptions for the rich.

“If you don’t live in Lake County, Flathead County or Madison County, this is a bad bill for you,” said Rep. Wayne Stahl, R-Saco.

Rep. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to have property taxes based on a “circuit-breaker” system, which a person’s property taxes would be based on their income and ability to pay them.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy