House endorses bill to require autism coverage

HELENA – The state House gave its initial approval today to a bill that would require insurance companies to cover a variety of childhood autism treatments. The vote was 77-23.

Senate Bill 234, carried by Rep. Kendall Van Dyk, D-Billings, would compel insurance providers to fund treatments that have been shown to improve the quality of life for autistic children.

“I stand here, as sure as I ever was, that we’re going to do the right thing by Montana families,” Van Dyk said.

The House Appropriations Committee originally placed a two-year sunset provision on the bill, meaning the mandated insurance coverage would end in 2011 if the next Legislature decides not to renew it. Rep. Walter McNutt, R-Sidney, said the sunset was not meant punitively, but as a safety valve in case insurance rates rise too high as a result of the mandated coverage.

“We don’t really know what this is going to do to insurance premiums,” McNutt said. “We just wanted to say we better take another look.”

But supporters of the bill said the sunset would prevent many families from getting benefits from their insurance companies because the bill would not take affect until 2010. In the end, the House voted 58-42 to strike the sunset provision.

Minority Leader Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, said though the bill has merit, the state cannot afford $1.4 million price it will cost to provide such coverage for state workers.

“At some point we’re going to break the bank,” Sales said. “That day is coming sooner than later.”

But supporters asserted the benefits of treating autistic children early on outweighed the future problems that could come with untreated children.

“We can’t afford not to do this,” said Rep. Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

Animal hoarding bill stalls in House committee

The sponsor of a bill to ban "companion animal hoarding" under Montana's animal cruelty laws says he's disappointed that the measure has been tabled.

Sen. Mitch Tropila, D-Great Falls, sponsored Senate Bill 221, which was tabled last week in the House Judiciary Committee. “I was pretty disappointed because I worked hard on the bill,” he said.

The bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 33-17, would have considered companion animal hoarding as possessing 20 or more pets and failing to provide necessary care for those animals in a severely crowded environment.

But it also would have required anyone convicted of the crime to undergo psychological examination and treatment, at the person’s expense. It was that controversial provision, more than any other concern, that led to the bill's death, Tropila said.

“The mental health community was worried that the bill would be making criminals out of people with mental disabilities,” Tropila said.

-by CNS reporter Shanda Bradshaw

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.