State and local Infrastructure Act up for discussion

Things are starting to pick up again here at the legislature after transmittal. House Committees are starting to hear all of the Senate bills that were sent to the House during transmittal. Most of the “Big Issue” bills, from tax increase bills to Medicaid Expansion, have been drafted and are set for hearings if they haven’t already had one.

This next week, we will move the big budget bills through the House Floor. The State Budget (HB2) is set to be heard on the House Floor on Tuesday. After the budget moves through the House Floor we are planning on bringing all of the infrastructure bills (HB5, HB6, HB7, HB8, HB11) through the House Floor.

After that, the second of our new infrastructure program bills, The State and Local Infrastructure Act (HB652) will be brought to the House Floor for discussion. This is the sister legislation to the IDEA Act (HB553) meant to serve as the appropriations, and the project list for the program.

The State and Local Infrastructure Act includes projects from all over the state, 80 water/wastewater projects in addition to the debut of a new grant/loan program called the Delivering Local Assistance program (DLA).

The DLA program will have two primary functions. The Legislature used to have a grant and loan program called the Quality Schools Grant and Loan program. K-12 schools across the state could apply for grants to fix boilers, HVAC systems, water/wastewater improvements, etc. Last session, we moved the program to the local level and created a new fund within state government. The concept was that K-12 schools could choose to start a project without having to wait two years in order for the legislature to come to town. When a project was decided on, the new fund at the state level would provide matching funds for the school project.

For a number of reasons, that fund was not ready in time to provide those matching funds, so half of the DLA program in HB652 will act as the matching funds program for K-12 schools across Montana until the fund builds up and can take its place.

The second function, and in time the main function of the DLA program, will be a grant and loan program focused on water/wastewater projects along the lines of the Treasure State Endowment Program (HB11, TSEP). This part of DLA will specifically be aimed at areas throughout the state affected by natural resource development, that’s coal, oil, gas and timber areas across Montana.

As a quick side note, The Montana Free Press has a great new resource where you can see all of the bills making their way through the legislature and their current status. Visit http://www.montanafreepress.org/apps/track-mtleg-2019/index.html#/bills

As always, if you ever have any questions or just want to get in touch, you can call/text me at (406) 531-1775. Thank you for allowing me to represent you in the Legislature!