Successes at the half way point

We have now finished the 45th Legislative day and are officially halfway through the legislative session in Helena. Most members of the Legislature have a week or so break as the general bills are all transmitted over to the opposite legislative chamber. I will be staying in Helena in order to get infrastructure ready for when the Legislature returns, and members of the House Appropriations committee will be back early on Thursday in order to start the committee hearings on the full state budget.

In the first half of the legislative session, we have worked 940 bills through the committee and floor process, passing 420 bills over from one chamber to another. We processed over 100 bills on the house floor the last two days before the transmittal break. At this point, any general policy bill that did not pass the chamber it started in is effectively dead.

So far, the session has been quite successful. We have been getting major pieces of legislation done significantly sooner than in previous sessions. We got K-12 funding and the employee pay plan done in record time. We have multiple bills dealing with reforming the appraisal system for property taxes as well as bills providing property tax relief moving through the legislature. Our new program for infrastructure in the state passed the House floor 100-0, which is basically unheard of. Appropriations subcommittees finished up their work in record time and are all set to start hearing the state budget as the full House Appropriations Committee next week.

While revenue was slightly low as we came into the session, it is now tracking back where we thought it would and we are still on track to deliver a structurally sound, conservative budget that undoes the damage from the special session without needing to raise taxes.

Speaking of taxes, some of the most important work we have done already has been fighting back against the tax increase proposals flying around all over the place. In the first 45 days of the legislative session, over $250 million dollars’ worth of tax increase proposals have had hearings, including the $160 million proposed in the Governors budget. All of these have been killed in the process.

That being said, outside of the state budget, most of the tax increase proposals usually come after the transmittal break so expect to see a lot more tax bills being introduced in the second half of the session.

When I ran for re-election, I said I would fight against these tax increases as folks here in the district and across the state are already feeling the burn of the heavy tax burden in Montana and we do not need to raise taxes in order to pass a solid balanced budget, and I meant it. Republicans in Helena intend to stand against every single one of these tax increases and deliver a responsible, fiscally conservative budget to the people of Montana.

We have had a very successful first half of the Legislative Session, but the heavy lifting really starts now in the second half. Thank you for allowing me to represent you in Helena and thank you to the hundreds of folks who have been in contact with me throughout the process.