Legislators sum up first half of session

The tribal water compact under consideration in Helena was a major issue Monday during a gathering of Republican lawmakers in Kalispell.

Several Republican lawmakers gathered at a town-hall meeting at Sykes’ to update constituents on the Legislature’s first 45 days.

While hot-button issues such as Gov. Steve Bullock’s spending proposals, Medicaid expansion and pre-kindergarten education got some play, it was the controversial water rights compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes that drew the most questions from the audience.

Sen. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, explained her role in the compact bill’s contentious journey through the Senate, where she tried multiple times to attach amendments that the bill’s sponsor said would have killed the bill. However, she argued the amendments were a matter of transparency regarding the $55 million price tag attached to the bill and objected to the agreement’s “take it or leave it” nature.

“I have the right to amend any bill in the Legislature,” she said, adding that there is no way to attach the transparency provisions to the House’s appropriation because it was stripped out of House Bill 2.

Rep. Randy Brodehl, R-Kalispell, spoke to the future of Senate Bill 262, which would ratify the compact and is now before the House. He said it will go to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Majority Whip Jerry Bennett, R-Libby, who also opposes the compact.

“We may have the votes to kill it in committee,” he said, but added he expects it could be blasted to the House floor.

House Majority Leader Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, said he opposes the compact based on the first line under Article I in the massive document, which he said fails to note that the tribes also ceded their historic territory in the treaty.

Regier, however, focused most of his commentary on other initiatives, such as his House Bill 488, which would force a DUI suspect to submit to a blood test if he or she refuses to take a breath test. It would also force the suspect to pay for the blood draw.

“It’s an easy one to justify: If you don’t want to pay for it, just blow,” Regier said.

Sen. Mark Blasdel, R-Kalispell, said his first Senate term was a welcome change from his eight-year career in the House, where he served as speaker last session.

“It’s been nice to switch from the House to the Senate, not have to worry about keeping all the balls in the air and get back to working on policy,” he said.

Similarly, Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, said he was glad to be back in the state’s upper chamber, returning after reaching his four-term limit in 2005.

“I love the Capitol, I love the beehive of activity [and] I love the people that are there ... but state government has changed slightly in recent years.”

Specifically, Keenan said the Legislature has been weakened compared to the executive branch since he left eight years ago. Traditionally, Keenan said, the Governor’s Office and the Legislative Fiscal Division would independently project state revenues for the next two years, usually coming within $30 million of one another, then meet to hash out the difference, since Montana is required by law to pass a balanced budget.

“This year, there’s a $359 million difference,” Keenan said. “I don’t know how that’s going to be reconciled.”

Blasdel agreed, saying the budget projection process had become a “political football” that gives the governor too much latitude to “promise the world” in his budget proposals.

Brodehl, who serves on the Appropriations Committee and the joint subcommittee that deals with judicial appropriations, said the Legislature’s appropriations bill would be based on the legislative services’ projection.

“We will not let the governor drive our spending,” he said.

Speaking at the beginning of the meeting, Taylor left open the possibility of pursuing legislation similar to Senate Bill 199, which would have prohibited state courts from relying on any provisions of foreign laws in their rulings. The bill died in the Senate Judiciary Committee after a tie vote, but Taylor said she will continue educating her colleagues on the issue during the interim.

“It would have been a tough fight in the Senate, and maybe in the House, and then the governor would have vetoed it,” she said.

Similarly, Regier anticipated a veto to his bill to reduce individual income taxes by 0.2 percent in each income bracket, stressing that the largest effects would be felt by those at the bottom.

“If you leave money in people’s pockets, they’re going to spend it,” Regier said.

He was also clear about his expectations for Bullock’s Early Edge Montana plan, in which the governor is pushing for funding to expand pre-kindergarten classes in public elementary schools.

“I don’t see much of an appetite, even among Democrats, for preschool,” he said, adding that school administrators were telling him they wouldn’t have anywhere to put the additional students even if they wanted to implement the program.

Keenan said he had been hearing the same thing from administrators and that support for the proposal was coming primarily from teachers’ unions and the Governor’s Office.

Blasdel, who also opposes the preschool expansion, said the state board of education had already begun creating the rules to administer the program and circumvent the Legislature.

Using up to $40 million from the federal government, the state’s executive branch could start the program without a state appropriation, Blasdel said, adding political pressure on the Legislature to start picking up the tab when federal money dries up.

Despite some legislative successes for his party during the first half of the session, Blasdel noted his party was far from unified.

“Right now, the Republicans may be in the majority, but the conservatives are not.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 58-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com