Dems tout legislative successes

The Daily Inter Lake

Democrats in the Flathead Valley legislative delegation this week touted successes from the recently concluded legislative session.

About 50 people attended a forum Wednesday in Whitefish, at which Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish, Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, and Rep. Doug Cordier, D-Columbia Falls, discussed bills that were passed.

Jopek talked about several bills he sponsored.

. House Bill 149, which offers homeowners debt protection from creditors and protects a homestead. This legislation protects as much as $250,000 of the equity homeowners own from creditors. Forms for homeowner debt protection are available online at http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9815.pdf.

. House Bill 583 generally revises open-cut mining laws, clarifying fuzzy language which allows gravel pits to expand. It was supported by industry officials and homeowners.

. House Joint Resolution 57 studies and looks for the best approaches in allowing communities to purchase conservation easements on state lands. The Environmental Quality Council will conduct this study.

. House Bill 488 studies the effect of the cyclic property-tax re-appraisal and looks to find mitigation strategies for homeowners and schools. The legislature appropriated $50,000 for this study to be conducted during the interim by the Revenue and Transportation Committee.

Weinberg passed six bills through both houses of the Legislature.

. Senate Bill 22 expands the number of children covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program; Senate Bill 45 facilitates the building of behavioral-health inpatient facilities throughout Montana; Senate Bill 287 revises the law that governs the gifting of anatomical organs and tissues; Senate Bill 478 creates the first state-wide suicide prevention program; Senate Bill 296 doubles the number of beer and wine cabaret licenses available for restaurants; and Senate Joint Resolution 3 urges the federal government to fund the restoration of national parks, battlefields and monuments.

Cordier passed two bills through the Legislature. They are bills relating to changes for water commissioner authority and another bill to remove commerce as the ombudsman for Flathead Lake management. A third bill sponsored by Cordier, providing funding for the Flathead Basin Commission's baseline water-quality study for the North Fork Flathead River, was absorbed into the Department of Natural Resource and Conservation's water-projects bill. That bill was sent to the governor to be signed into law just before the session's end.

More information about these bills or the Montana Legislature is available on the Internet at: http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp.