Legislature remains deadlocked over budget bills

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Simmering frustration and parliamentary jousting marked yet another day in which Montana lawmakers failed to find a compromise over a budget to guide the state through the next two years.

As the 90-day session draws to a close, the House today voted to dissolve a special committee attempting to patch together a bill that specifies funding for children’s health insurance and education, key points of contention between Democrats and Republicans.

House Bill 676 is the partner bill to the state budget bill, House Bill 2. It provides implementation language needed for appropriating state funds. This bill also contains the amendments from the GOP-controlled Senate cutting House proposals to fully fund the voter-approved Healthy Montana Kids Plan and to finance K-12 schools.

“All the bad things that the Senate did to us are in there,” said House Speaker Bob Bergren, D-Havre.

Bergren said his decision to dissolve the conference committee on HB 676 does not kill the bill itself, because another committee could be appointed. But it was meant as a warning to Senate Republicans, he said.

“Let’s negotiate and go home,” Bergren said. “They’ve wasted four days on me.”

But Senate Republicans said the House’s actions did nothing to quicken the pace of budget negotiations, which have been at a stalemate for days.

“I think that does pose some very serious problems with being able to go on ahead and complete the process,” said Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter and chairman of the Senate's budget committee.

“I think that progress was being made, but I think that the sheer fact that the House has, in essence, taken away one of the tools that we need to solve this problem is unfortunate at this time.”

Funding for children’s health care and K-12 schools have been the major points of contention this session. Republicans say the state does not have enough money to fully implement a voter-approved expansion of a program providing health coverage to some 30,000 uninsured Montana children. Nor does it have enough state money to fund schools at the level Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Democrats want, they say.

Democrats disagree, saying Republicans are ignoring the will of the voters on children's health care and will also lead K-12 schools over a fiscal cliff if it lowers state funding.

At a Thursday morning budget meeting, House Appropriations Chairman Jon Sesso, D-Butte, did not elaborate on the House’s actions, but instead pushed for full funding in both schools and children’s health insurance. He said there is money available, even if it means not meeting the governor’s goal of keeping $250 million in reserve at the end of session.

“There’s no fix in it unless we come to agreement on these two major issues,” Sesso said.

However, Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, said he was “disappointed” in the House’s decision on HB 676, and added that it would not help lawmakers finish their task of creating a state budget by the 90th legislative day.

There will be significant funding changes if HB 676 does not pass. A 2 percent cut across all state agencies put in place by Senate Republicans earlier in the session would be removed. So would the decreases to the base funding for K-12 school districts.

When the GOP lawmakers decided to lower state K-12 funding and backfill the difference with federal stimulus money, they put language into HB 676 to make this move permanent. This would mean the reduction in state funding would be permanent when federal dollars disappear in two years. Without HB 676, the reduction would only apply to this biennium.

HB 676 also allows the state to use money from a special revenue fund to pay for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan. Bergren said this language could be put in the stimulus bill.

The bill also allows Montanans covered by Children’s Health Insurance Plan to use CHIP money for contraception.

As of Thursday afternoon, conference committees took no further action on the nearly $8 billion budget bill or companion legislation to spend nearly $800 million in federal stimulus dollars.

The 2007 Legislature was the first in Montana’s history to finish a 90-day session without fulfilling its principal constitutional duty to create a state budget.

Montana lawmakers hope to head off rustlers with mandatory fines and community service

By SHANDA BRADSHAW
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

In late March of 1885 two men trailing horses from Canada were surrounded in a saloon near Dupuyer by a “committee” of two-dozen armed men, most of them carrying Winchesters.

According to the Sun River Sun, the horse traders, suspected of being horse thieves, eventually “accepted an invitation to take an active part in a neck tie sociable.” They were buried on Birch Creek, about a mile above the saloon.

They don’t hang rustlers these days, but Montana’s Legislature has passed a bill this session to jack-up the penalties for stealing livestock.

Senate Bill 214 requires that a person convicted of the theft or illegal branding of any livestock pay a minimum fine of $5,000 and not exceeding $50,000 or serve a jail sentence not exceeding 10 years or both. The current law has no mandatory minimum fine.

The bill also says that if prison terms are deferred, offenders must contribute a mandatory 416 hours of community service. In addition, any equipment used in the crime – trucks, horse-trailers, etc. – could be confiscated. An earlier version of the bill would have allowed authorities to seize a rustler's ranch.

“The reason for the bill is to put more teeth in the law so we can somehow punish these people,” said Sen. Don Steinbeisser, R-Sidney, who introduced the bill.

SB 214 passed by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate, though the frequency of livestock thefts is difficult to gauge.

The state Public Defender’s Office says it defended two cases of rustling last year. The state’s special Crimestoppers hot line for livestock crimes received eight calls last year, though officials say other reports are made to local law enforcement officials and county hot lines.

A recent case of large-scale rustling in northeast Montana made news because it was so unusual, but John Grainger, administrator of the Brands Enforcement Division at the Montana Department of Livestock, said small-scale thefts involving an animal or two are persistent.

That's why he supports the passage of SB 214.

“I agree with it,” Grainger said. “There needs to be a bigger penalty to deter the crime.”

The bill's opponents in the Legislature argued that rustling is already covered under state’s laws against felony theft, which give judges leeway to tailor the punishment to fit the crime. They also noted that any revenue raised by increasing fines will not go to compensate ranchers for stolen stock.

Rep. Mike Menahan, D-Helena and a prosecutor in Lewis and Clark County, also argued that no other property crime carries a mandatory minimum fine or mandatory community service. Others asked why the law should treat rustlers more harshly than someone who steals a flat-screen TV.

Supporters said Montana should make a special case of rustlers because flat-screen TV’s don’t produce other TVs.

Stealing a cow, with its potential to produce calves, "is stealing someone’s livelihood,” said Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, a rancher himself.

The bill's mandatory minimum fine of $5,000 drew support, though some supporters considered that too low. Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, said she preferred the $10,000 minimum mandated in the Senate's version of the bill.

“We used to hang these people in Montana, and, unfortunately, we went from hanging them to a pittance right now," Warburton said.

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Tony Belcourt, D-Box Elder and also a rancher, noted the recent conviction Roosevelt County in what officials described as the biggest Montana cattle rustling case in decades. The bill would serve as a deterrent, he said.

Richard D. Holen, of Wolf Point, was convicted earlier this month in Roosevelt County District County of eight counts of felony theft for allegedly stealing cattle from eight neighboring ranchers.

During the investigation, officials said they found 33 stolen cows, calves, bulls and heifers in addition to six other cows and calves that Holen had previously sold. The prosecutor told the Associated Press that he couldn't find a comparable case in Montana since the early 1900s.

Under current laws, Holen faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each of the eight counts. He has yet to be sentenced.

The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his signature.

- Photo by CNS photographer Alison Smith

Montana 'states' rights' resolution fails on tie vote

HELENA – A resolution that would either assert Montana’s sovereignty or sow “seeds of secession” died on a 50-50 vote in the House Wednesday after lengthy debate.

House Resolution 3, sponsored by Rep. Michael More, R-Gallatin Gateway, declares that Montana is not completely submissive to the will of the federal government and has the right to declare any federal law that impinges state-granted liberties unconstitutional.

“This is a debate that has been a long time coming,” More said. The resolution may be labeled as “right wing extremism,” but it really deals with states' rights versus federal laws, he said, adding that secession is not the goal, but neither is it out of the question.

Supporters of the resolution, which is a declarative letter to Congress and not a law, said it is merely telling the federal government to “be good” and remember Montana has state rights.

Rep. Krayton Kerns, R-Laurel, said though the resolution does not imply that Montana will secede from the union, there is always the possibility.

“(Secession) is the big stick in the room that we have to occasionally display,” Kerns said. “This resolution is a shot over the bow.”

Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, said this resolution would be a response to what he called the rapidly increasing overreaching of central government.

However, opponents said the resolution's anti-government language clearly paves a pathway for secession.

Rep. Mike Menahan, D-Helena, said the resolution echoed the complaint list of the Declaration of Independence.

“Do we not concede to federal authority by being American?” Menahan asked. “If this isn’t the groundwork for secession, I don’t know what is.”

In jest, House Speaker Bob Bergren offered an amendment to the resolution that said if Montana is no longer a part of the United States it can seek admission as a Canadian province. He withdrew the amendment before anyone could speak on it, but said that if the House passes a resolution about seceding from the federal government, they should have options elsewhere.

Lawmakers in other states have heard similar resolutions. The so-called "Tenth Amendment Movement" has supporting organizations in 26 states, including Montana.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

House OKs regulations for 'carbon sequestration'

HELENA – The Montana House today approved a heavily amended bill to regulate a fledgling industry that seeks to pump the carbon dioxide produced by coal-fired power plants into the ground. The vote was 77-23.

Senate Bill 498, sponsored by Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter, would set up rules and regulations for “carbon sequestration,” the process of capturing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as it is emitted from a plant and storing it underground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

The version approved by the House came with 58 amendments from committee, changes Rep. Mike Phillips, D-Bozeman, said were necessary to get the bill out of the deadlocked Federal Relations, Energy and Telecommunications Committee.

“It represents a sufficient regulatory framework,” Phillips said.

Some of the most significant amendments give regulatory authority to the Board of Oil and Gas Conservation but also requires the board to consider comments from the Department of Environmental Quality before a CO2 injection certificate can be granted. Phillips also said the amended version of the bill left no role for the Board of Environmental Review.

The issue had been a sticking point for some Democrats and environmentalists who argued the DEQ would provide a more scientific review of permits than the Board of Oil and Gas Conservation, which they say tilts toward industry’s views.

Another point of contention was how long a sequester would be liable for any environmental problems associated with the practice. Lawmakers compromised at 30 years.

The bill also defines ownership of “pore space,” or the underground space where the gas will be stored. It now says that if the ownership cannot be determined by deeds through law, it will be assumed the surface owner owns the pore space.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle supported the bill. Rep. Art Noonan, D-Butte, touted the bill as essential for future coal development because coal companies, fearing future federal carbon regulations, will not build plants in the state if they do not have access to underground places where they can store CO2.

“There is no future in coal if we don’t get our hands around this,” Noonan said. “You don’t like coal? Vote against this.”

Noonan, who heads the House committee that forged the much-changed bill, predicted that the issue will need more work in future sessions. If the measure passes, Montana would be one of only a few states with such legislation.

“This is a scary proposition,” Noonan said. “This is a big deal.”

Many Republicans agreed with Noonan. Rep. Duane Ankney, R-Sidney, urged lawmakers to vote for the measure even if they do not believe in global warming.

“This bill is essential to any development going forward in coal,” Ankney said.

But opponents said the science of carbon sequestration has yet to be developed or tested. They argued that the Legislature would be acting prematurely if it passed such regulations.

“There is no such industry and there is no such technology,” Rep. Brady Wiseman, D-Bozeman, said. “None of this (legislation) advances the cause of carbon sequestration.”

Wiseman added that since the industry does not exist, SB 498 has become a political talking point to show support for coal development in general.

“If you want to pledge your allegiance to coal, let’s not do it with 30 pages of legislation,” he said.

Rep. Gordon Hendrick, R-Superior, also expressed concern about the lack of scientific study on carbon sequestration. He said the effects on Montanans and the environment should be carefully considered before passing any laws.

But Phillips disagreed, saying Montana could be a front-runner in the development of carbon sequestration, bringing in more business and responsible natural resource development.

“This is a most timely issue,” Phillips said.

The Senate will need to approve the House amendments before the bill can be sent to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who must decide whether to sign it. Only four legislative days remain.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Bills, bills, bills: Who carried the most? The least?

From left: Brueggeman, Cohenour, Hollandsworth and Regier

ALISON SMITH and MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

Getting a bill from concept to the governor’s desk isn't easy.

That’s why most legislators avoid sponsoring too many each legislative session. More than 1,300 bills were introduced this session, but the average lawmaker carried only nine.

But then there are the champions. This session two lawmakers led the pack, each sponsoring 31 bills, most of which died somewhere along the way.

Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, and Rep. Jill Cohenour, D-Helena, were easily the session’s most prolific lawmakers. Both agreed it was hard work, but as experienced lawmakers, said they felt that it was important to touch on the issues they care about.

"It's a lot of plates to keep spinning at once, to say the least," said Brueggeman, who has one Senate session to serve under the state's term limits law. It takes so much work that Brueggeman employed an intern to help him keep everything in line.

Cohenour, who is in her final House term, said she's hoping to accomplish as much as she can. Experience with the process helps, she added.

"After you've been here for a long period of time you get pretty good at tracking what goes where,” she said.

On the other end of spectrum are Rep. Roy Hollandsworth, R-Brady, and Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, both House freshman. Neither sponsored a single bill this session.

Hollandsworth said he wasn’t asked to sponsor any bills because most requests for sponsors often go to more experienced legislators. He does hopes to carry his own bills in future sessions.

“Part of me feels like I missed out on something,” he said.

Regier attributed his record - or lack of one - to ideology and the fact that other legislators were already carrying the bills he cares about.

"There's enough laws on the book," he said. "If we need any more, it doesn't need to be 30 apiece for legislators."

Regier said his first legislative session taught him that most bills deserve to die.

"It should be a long, onerous process to get a bill passed,” he said.

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

Lawmakers see red over traffic-signal surveillance

HELENA – The House and Senate both gave initial approval today to a bill that would prohibit all Montana police departments from using unmanned cameras at traffic lights to help them issue tickets.

House Bill 531, sponsored by Rep. Bill Nooney, R-Missoula, says traffic tickets must be administered by police officers and not automated services. Supporters of the bill said cities use traffic cameras not because they enhance safety, but because they increase revenue from traffic tickets.

“It’s a perverse incentive … to collect more revenue,” said Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson.

But opponents of the bill, mostly Bozeman lawmakers, said the cameras encourage safer drivers who stop at yellow lights instead of trying to beat them.

Bozeman already has traffic light cameras in place. The city uses a private vendor to supply the cameras and services, but there is an escape clause the contract allowing Bozeman stop using the vendor’s services if Montana law prohibits it.

The latest vote removed an amendment that would have exempted Bozeman from the new law, allowing the city to keep its cameras. The House voted 67-33 to reject that amendment, as did the Senate, 36-14.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer must sign HB 531 before it can become law.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy