Dems hopeful for second half

With the Montana Legislature resuming after its midsession break this week, the Flathead’s two-member Democratic delegation is looking forward to working on major bills still chugging through the House.

Democrats are outnumbered in both legislative chambers this session, but Rep. Ed Lieser, D-Whitefish, said that hasn’t stopped the party from advancing some important elements of their agenda.

“Considering we’re in the minority party, I don’t think we’re doing too bad,” Lieser said Thursday. “But we’ve got probably the most important bills to deal with in the second half, and it’s hard to say how those are going to turn out.”

In particular, he said he will pay close attention to the water rights compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, which passed the Senate on a 31-19 vote and is now beginning its journey through the House.

“It’s a fair deal, it gives us assurance and predictability, and at the very root of this it acknowledges the treaty that was signed and [that] the courts have interpreted that water rights were included in those treaties.”

Lieser added that he will continue fighting proposals to transfer federal public lands to the state. Lieser, who is retired from the U.S. Forest Service, sponsored a joint resolution to oppose such a transfer, and although it died in a House Committee before the transmittal deadline, he said he will continue to educate his colleagues on the potential problems associated with such a move.

“The state of Montana is doing an awful lot to try to work with the Forest Service and the [Bureau of Land Management] in recognition of the fact that their capacity has declined and they’re struggling to meet their mission,” Lieser said. “There’s some work to be done, but transferring federal lands to the state is not the solution.”

Specifically, he said the proposal is unlikely to meet legal muster, but even if it did, the state would be unable to afford the services provided by the federal government such as wildfire fighting, for which the Forest Service manages a nationwide force that can be deployed where it is needed most.

He added that the proposal would likely end up hurting ranchers, who currently lease federal grazing lands at a tiny fraction of what the state and private landowners charge. Ultimately, he said the state would likely end up selling off the land just to balance its budget.

Lieser said he hoped to see several of his bills signed into law, including a bump in monthly pensions for volunteer firefighters, a bill to establish an advisory group to propose updates to state asbestos laws and a proposal to provide means-tested property tax breaks for low-income Montanans.

Those bills passed the House are now working their way through the Senate.

Freshman Rep. Zac Perry, D-Hungry Horse, said that his introduced bills have all wrapped up, having been either passed by both chambers in the first half of the session or failing to meet the transmittal deadline.

“The majority of my work going forward is going to be in committees,” said Perry, who sits on the House agriculture, energy and telecommunications, judiciary and administrative committees.

Looking back, he said he was particularly proud of his work on several mental health bills that passed the House with strong bipartisan support.

“I think a huge hallmark for the first half has been all the mental health legislation we were able to get through the House,” Perry said. “That was a huge thing for me to be able to see and one of my priorities going to Helena.”

One of Perry’s proposals has already been signed into law by the governor, and while he described it as “nothing earth-shattering,” he said it will provide significant benefits to schools in the state. House Bill 157 extends school districts’ leasing authority for property and equipment, bumping the limit on leases for buildings and equipment from three to seven years.

“The change allows for better interest rates with lease structures, and provides more flexibility for school districts,” he said.

Bills related to health care have received considerable attention during the session’s first half, with Governor Steve Bullock’s proposed Medicaid expansion at the top of the list. Perry said he expects the ultimate outcome will fall somewhere in between the two parties’ visions for low-income health-care options.

“I know that there will be a compromise between the governor’s ‘Healthy Montana’ plan and the plan the Republican leaders have brought to the table,” he said. “Overall I’m confident we’ll leave the session with a lot more health care access for the people of Montana.”

Lieser also cited health-care expansion as a top priority for the Democrats, saying that the Montana Department of Health and Human Services’ estimated cost of expanding Medicaid was at odds with the amount cited by Republicans.

“The number I got [from the department] was $30 million. That’s a far cry from the $100 million number that’s being bandied about. It’s not chump change by any measure, but it’s far more affordable,” he said. “When you consider the economics of it, people being able to go to work, the lack of lost time from medical conditions, the jobs created to accommodate health care and hospitals not providing as much charity care, to me it’s a no-brainer.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758.4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com