Lawmakers share accomplishments with Kalispell chamber

A panel of Republican state lawmakers addressed the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday afternoon, touting their accomplishments on a range of local initiatives during a session that was in part characterized by the 65th Legislature’s inability to pass a major infrastructure bonding bill for the third straight session.

“People tell us we didn’t pass any infrastructure bills. I beg to differ — we did,” said Bigfork Rep. Mark Noland, pointing to several bipartisan measures that used cash to pay for infrastructure projects throughout the state.

Noland also noted that another major initiative of particular importance to the Flathead Valley — strengthening Montana’s program to combat aquatic invasive species after invasive mussels were detected in state waters for the first time — was recently signed by Gov. Steve Bullock after passing both chambers by resounding votes.

Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell, placed himself at the center of one of the biggest controversies of the session, shepherding through the Legislature a bill to increase Montana’s tax on gas and diesel fuel for the first time in 24 years. The measure was part of a larger package of bills introduced during the session to address both immediate and long-term infrastructure needs across the state.

Garner, a former Kalispell chief of police, cited statistics from a traffic study released earlier this year, including the finding that Montana has one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the country.

“As a public safety guy, that’s something that’s just unacceptable to me,” he said.

Garner saw several of his other bills reach the governor’s desk this year, including measures to fund technology upgrades for 911 centers and expanding the use of naxolone, a drug that can save lives by reversing the effects of opioid overdoses.

Bigfork Sen. Bob Keenan, a veteran of eight legislative sessions stretching back to the ‘90s, echoed remarks he made during a speech on the Senate floor near the end of the session, expressing concerns with how the state’s budgeting process had changed while he sat out several sessions after initially serving the maximum Senate terms.

While the state’s lawmaking body had traditionally focused its energies on a single, two-year appropriations bill subject to multiple public hearings and deliberations over the course of a 90-day session, recent years have seen the rise of multiple “companion bills” that take shape during the final, chaotic days before the Legislature adjourns.

“In the last couple of days of the session, these bills all of a sudden become major-policy, decision-making bills, statutory changes ... that then go to conference committee,” he said. “Those are executive action meetings, there’s no public testimony, so it’s clearly disenfranchising us from our constituents and the people that we represent.”

The other state senator on the panel, Kalispell Republican Mark Blasdel, acknowledged that the budget-focused tension throughout the session left many legislators short of their goals. But he characterized the final biennial budget as an improvement over the “house-of-cards” proposal from the governor’s office, which he said had been built on the assumption that a range of new or increased taxes would pass.

“It was kind of a false assumption that all these tax increases ... were going to pass to all help offset the budget pressure we were under,” Blasdel said.

While the gas-tax increase ultimately passed — despite “no” votes from most of the Flathead Valley’s delegation — he said the Republican-controlled House and Senate had successfully resisted other proposals to place taxes on tobacco products and raise income taxes on the state’s highest earners.

Blasdel, who chaired the Senate Taxation Committee, also pointed to several tax-reform policies that had been supported by the local and state chambers of commerce, including reductions in business-equipment taxes, a tax reduction targeted toward new data centers and tax credits for businesses that hire vocational apprentices.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.