Thank you for participating and reading RotundaReport.com throughout the 2009 Legislative Session!This has been an exciting and revealing new experience for us and we are happy to have had the chance to interact with our constituents and concerned citizens.It is because of our neighbors and fellow Montanans that we serve in the House and Senate.
For 90 days every other year, and many times throughout the interim, we sacrifice time with our families, we leave our jobs and our homes, and we put out lives on hold to serve the people of Montana in the state legislature.We all love our state and the future our people and our land hold.Working to ensure a brighter future for our children and grandchildren make every sacrifice worth it.
For now, we will sign off of RotundaReport.com, but will return to resume constant contact with our constituents.Please feel free to submit your comments and questions even as we are not posting regularly.This forum has been a huge success throughout the 2009 Legislative Session and we can’t wait to talk to you in 2011!Thank you again for working with us and participating in RotundaReport.com!
Senate President Bob Story discusses the many accomplishments of Montana Republicans throughout the 2009 Legislative Session.
Republican Floor Leader Scott Mendenhall explains more the benefits Montanans will experience due to the work of Republican legislators.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson further details the challenges and successes of the 2009 Legislative Session.
“In most people’s minds, the legislature ended on a note of compromise,” Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson said this week upon adjournment. “Senate Republicans worked hard to communicate our conservative principles and to rise above the often contentious partisan divides of the past. I think everyone would agree we did our work with the people of Montana in mind.”
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we worked to arrive at a compromise that I think we can all live with,” Peterson added. “There’s still much that we’ll continue to work on next session.”
A top goal of Senate Republicans was to create a balanced budget for the next two years. “It’s just like our family budgets – you can’t earn $30,000 a year and spend $65,000 without ending up in debt.” he said. “In spite of a drop of over $250 million in anticipated state revenues since December, we balanced the budget but continue to monitor the trend of reduced revenues. The large ending fund balance was necessary and important because of current recession indicators.”
While receiving the federal stimulus money is controversial, Republicans focused on funneling the nearly $900 million in new funds into shovel ready projects that create jobs and stimulate the economy. They also worked hard not to fund ongoing or start up new programs that would create a financial hole down the road.
“While we held the growth in government to a little over one percent,” he added. “We did prioritize education and gave K-12 schools a three percent annual inflationary increase.”
“At the beginning of the session, we committed ourselves to seven priorities, and we feel we achieved success in all seven areas,” Peterson concluded. These are:
1.Living within our means
2.Holding or lowering tax increases
3.Making responsible natural resource development possible
Flathead Lake and other Montana streams, rivers and lakes are threatened by invasive aquatic species which are introduced from other places. Zebra and Quagga mussels from Europe were inadvertently introduced into the Great Lakes in 1988 and have spread throughout Eastern United States causing extensive damage to power plants, irrigation intakes and any structures in the water.
Congressional researchers estimated that the infestation in the Great Lakes area had an economic impact on the power industry, businesses, and communities of more than $5 billion between 1993 and 1999.
These mussels are fingernail sized, clam-like freshwater creatures that attach themselves to objects submerged in water and reproduce very rapidly by producing larva which quickly grow into adults. Eventually these mussels can become so dense they filter the nutrients out of the water and destroy fisheries. They have no natural predators in the United States.
A bill to develop a statewide program to confront the threat of such species has passed the Montana Legislature. Senate Bill 343, sponsored by Senator Verdell Jackson at the request of the Flathead Lakers and carried in the House by Representative Janna Taylor requires that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks develop and adopt an invasive species strategic plan to accomplish the purposes of the statewide program: to implement a public awareness campaign and managing and restoring infested areas, if necessary. The program is coordinated by the Department of Agriculture which has an account to receive gifts, grants, donations, securities, or other assets, to assist with this program.
Realizing that western Montana is the head waters of the Flathead and Columbia Basins, all legislators in Flathead and Lake Counties are supporting this program. Meetings are being planned for this summer by the Flathead Basin Commission. Also, a work group has been formed and is drafting a basin wide plan.
Preventing the introduction of Zebra and Quagga mussels is far more cost effective than controlling them after they appear. The education program will start this summer with the boating public and will quickly spread throughout the entire state. There have been no live sightings of the mussels in Montana. However, all of the states that border drainages out of the Great Lakes have infestations as well as Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
The boating public will likely be the first affected by the Zebra and Quagga mussels. They ruin equipment, clog cooling systems in motorboats, foul hulls, jam the center board wells under sailboats and degrade fishing success.
These mussels are spread primarily by boats that have been in infested water. The mussels and larvae attached to boats live about 5 days in dry hot weather. Larvae are too small to be seen, but feel like sand paper on the hull of a boat. The bilge of a boat and other wet or damp areas inside the boat can host live mussels and larvae much longer.
The statewide program also includes checking boats at fishing events such as fishing derbies as well as boats coming into Montana from states that have infestations. If an infestation gets started in Montana, a management area will be set up to prevent it from spreading and measures will be taken to try and eradicate it.
By far the most effective means of preventing the introduction of mussels will be the educated Montana public. The only sighting of the mussels in Montana was reported by an alert citizen who saw the mussels on a trailered boat and reported the information. Fortunately the boat never entered Montana water before it was cleaned.
Report potential sightings of mussels to the Department of Agriculture, 406-444-3144 or Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 406-444-2535 before you disturb them if possible. More information and pictures of these mussels can be found of the following website: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggamusssel/.
THE FOLLOWING PRECAUTIONS NEED TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE BOATING PUBLIC:
Clean your boat inside and outside when you take it out of the water before winter and clean it again before you put it back into the water in the spring. Do not clean your boat adjacent to water bodies and after your boat is properly cleaned it should be dried to confirm that no residual plant or animal debris remains on the boat.
Before launching and before leaving, inspect everything-dock lines, anchor, live wells, bilge, motor, axle, hull, trailer and rollers. Remove any visible mud, plants, fish or other creatures before transporting equipment. Eliminate all water from boat and equipment.
Never release plants, fish or other creatures into a body of water unless they came from that same body of water.
Note: Mussels can be killed by spraying with water greater than 140 degrees or with a sprayer filled with a 6% solution of chlorine (bleach).
Contributed by Senators Bob Story and Jim Peterson
So what’s the problem with the Legislature?It should be simple - balance the budget, fund schools, finance free children health insurance, then go home.
So, why are Republicans holding the line on the budget?Well, here’s why.Given the state of today’s economy, we believe in standing firm on the following three objectives for the long term benefit of Montana taxpayers:
1)Having a structurally balanced budget – balancing projected expenses with projected income for the upcoming two year period only makes common sense.
2)Maintaining a $250 million ending fund balance – we will likely need that important cushion if revenues continue to drop because of the current recession.
3)And having a budget that is sustainable into the future – meaning one where ongoing expenses can be paid for with ongoing revenues.
It’s fairly common knowledge that projected state revenues have dropped over a billion dollars since October.At this point, we don’t know how much the economy will continue to decline before it begins to rebound and grow, but current projections are fairly grim at this time.
If we adopt the Senate version of the budget, we will still face significant shortfalls in the next budget using current projections of 3.2% growth per year.At that rate, and with the current average growth of 4.7%, we would be $49 million dollars short of a balanced budget for the next biennium.
If we include the two priorities that the Democrats are pushing - guaranteeing K-12 education a base increase of 3% a year, plus fund the Montana Healthy Kids program at 250% of the national poverty rate, then we will be in the red to the tune of $154 million by the end of the biennium using the same assumptions.
We firmly believe that it would be wrong of us to obligate the people of Montana to a budget that the state cannot afford.As Montanans tighten their family budget belts, so must state government.This is the time to be conservative in building a budget for Montana.We need to keep our options open so that Montana is in a better position to respond to economic trends as they unfold in the upcoming months and years.At this time, it would be foolish to obligate taxpayers to pay for ongoing programs without corresponding ongoing revenues.
So, no, it’s not a simple task.It never is when expenses exceed the income.But this is the job we were elected to do – to make the tough choices to protect the future of Montanans and not to plow a financial hole we cannot dig ourselves out of…. similar to what is currently happening on the national level.
Yesterday we voted on HR 3 which basically declared that Montana reserved the rights to itself that are guaranteed under the 10th amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
I gave a floor speech in favor of the resolution using a quote from Thomas Jefferson. I believe that the founders of our great nation knew better than anyone alive today what the intent of the Constitution is.
In the Kentucky Resolutions, Thomas Jefferson said:” [t]hat the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that by compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
This resolution failed along party lines with all 50 Democrats voting against it. Their concern was that this was a vote to allow secession from the United States. This is 100% incorrect and the bills sponsor, Rep. Mike More, said nothing could be further from his intent when he introduced this bill. The intent of this resolution was to let the Federal government know that Montana is not happy with the Federal government over-stepping the authority granted to it by the Constitutions of Montana and the United States. When Montana joined the union, it gave up certain rights, but it did not give up all rights and roll over to be stepped on by the Federal government. The Federal government needs to be reminded of this. Several other states have passed similar resolutions – I am disappointed that Montana could not show some independence and join them.
Today the Montana House of Representatives voted to send HB 658, the property tax reappraisal bill, to a free conference committee. No one in either house of the Legislature made any effort to incorporate the Governor’s recent suggestion of a five percent property tax increase into the bill.
On Tuesday, April 14, the Governor announced his plan for property tax mitigation.It’s a five percent increase on property taxes for the next two years.
I find the Governor’s suggestion of a five percent property tax increase puzzling. It does not fit with Montana’s constitution, which requires that property taxes be reappraised based on fair market value, not an arbitrary percentage. It also doesn’t fit with the Governor’s promise that there would be no net increase in property taxation.
Simplistic solutions are usually offered by individuals who don’t understand the problem. It’s troubling that the Governor would publicly suggest such a “solution.”
Legislators, in conjunction with the Governor’s office, have been working on property tax reappraisal since January.Why hasn’t he ever talked to us about this idea before?Now, the work is 95 percent done.It’s too late to float a dishonest unconstitutional trial balloon.
This kind of behavior is putting us at risk of a special session. It bears all the hallmarks of the Governor’s behavior in 2007, which led to the special session that year: complete lack of interest in cooperation, weak communication, and disregard for anyone who doesn’t simply take orders from the executive.
Indeed, Representative Mike Jopek has already begun suggesting a special session. But I believe we should be able to finish the job in the allotted time, if people will work together.
Today, House and Senate leaders made their appointments to the Montana Redistricting and Reapportionment Commission, a committee of five members charged with redrawing the state’s voting districts based on population.This last redistricting process created significant concern and examples of disproportionate populations among the districts and, as a result, disproportionate elections results.As legislative leaders appoint members to the commission, Republicans are stressing the importance of a fair, open, bi-partisan process.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson appointed Linda Vaughey to the commission.Linda is a past Commissioner of Political Practices and has served on the State Tax Appeal Board as well as the Commission on Unauthorized Practice of Law.Throughout her career, Linda has earned a reputation of being fair, impartial and level-headed.
In response to being appointed to the commission, Linda said, “I don’t approach this from a partisan standpoint.We’ve been handed a huge responsibility and the way I look at this process is as four Montanans working together to come up with a plane that’s fair through a process that’s open.Anything less and we’re just going to continue all those partisan fights we’ve seen in the legislature recently.”
House Republican Leader Scott Sales appointed Jon Bennion to the commission.Jon is an attorney and author of Big Sky Politics, a book detailing Montana elections.He has served as a district court judge clerk and legislative assistant.Jon currently works closely with Republicans and Democrats alike in his position with the Montana Chamber of Commerce.
Jon Bennion accepted his appointment by saying, “Partisan data has no place in redistricting.This commission is supposed to create districts that keep communities together, and treat all Montanans fairly by making the districts as equal in population as practicable.We’re going to go by the concept of ‘one person, one vote.’”
Contributed by Representative Mike Miller, Helmville
On December 16th, 1773, the famous Boston Tea Party took place. The colonists protested taxation without representation. We still have Taxation without Representation. We are taxing our unborn and unrepresented grandchildren with paying for the excessive spending of our generation.
What power do we have to change these things? We have the power of the ballot box. We need to vote out the big tax and spend politicians on both sides of the aisle and replace them with people that will not lead us down the path towards bankruptcy or Socialism.
I say that when the risk of failure is removed there is no incentive to succeed. There is no incentive to not make bad decisions like Wall Street, the banks, the mortgage companies, AIG and many others did. I say let them fail or succeed based on the decisions they made. That is what capitalism and free markets are all about. I am strongly opposed to these taxpayer funded bailouts of private companies that made bad decisions.
When I worked at Boeing about 20 years ago we had a term we used for things that sounded good but did not meet the time and budget limitations – WIBN – Wouldn’t It Be Nice.
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had “free” health care? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was no poverty?
Wouldn’t it be nice if our taxes were lower and our hard earned money was not re-distributed to someone else? I recently saw a bumper sticker that said “Your fair share is NOT in my wallet”. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were true?
The majority of today’s politicians vote for too many WIBNs. We need to reduce spending and we need to reduce the size of government now.
Our elected representatives have no problem spending billions of our tax dollars. I urge you to use the power of the ballot box to change that. We need to take back control of our country before it is too late. I urge you to vote for those that believe in the Constitution and that believe we are taxed more than enough already. Thank You for listening.
Montana’s Governor wants political advantage so much that he jeopardized Medicaid when he directed the legislative Democrats to cut 40 Million out of the base Montana Medicaid budget to fund the I-155 ChildrenHealthInsuranceProgram. After taking the Medicaid dollars the Democrats backfilled Montana’s Medicaid program with onetime stimulus monies that will only last two years. What this means is without the 40 Million in the base Montana Medicaid program the federal govt. will not provide 120 million in matching funds over our two year budget cycle. This sacrifices our poor seniors and the handicapped, for a child’s health insurance program that pays for the well to do. Why is the Governor playing this game? Political advantage is the answer. Make the Republicans look like they won’t fund the CHIP program when they won’t go along with this budget gamble.
The I-155 initiative program was sold to Montana voters as a poor children’s medical insurance program. That is a misrepresentation. We were told Montana had the funds for this program, we don’t. Also, we weren’t told everything about who could receive this child’s health insurance program, because we assumed that I-155 was a poor kid’s health insurance program. It isn’t.
The truth is the new I-155 program sets poverty at the 250% level. This means a family of six will be able to make $73,000 in income and still receive free health care for their children. A family of eight can make up to $93,000 and still receive free health care for their children, paid for by Montana taxpayers. Also, there is no limit on the resources a family can have.Let’s say, for an outrageous example, a family of four has 2.5 million in stocks, and owns their home. They are not working because they receive 2% interest on their investments equaling about $50,000 a year. You got it, Montana tax payers still have to pay for their children to have free health care. Is that what the citizens of Montana voted for?
Obviously this program is a socialized child’s health care program paid for by Montana’s taxpayers and in two years our Governor and the legislative Democrats will have left us with a Titanic problem. We will have hit an iceberg that will raise our taxes, devastate our seniors, or sink the children’s health insurance program. This is your Montana Governor and legislative Democrats working at their worst. Somebody asked why most Republicans voted against the budget and the stimulus package! Now you know one part of the story.
Contributed by Senator Verdell Jackson, Kalispell
Contributed by Senators Bob Story and Jim Peterson 
Contributed by Rep. Mike Miller, Helmville
Contributed by Representative Bob Lake, Hamilton
Contributed by Rep. David Howard, Park City