Leading the way in infrastructure and marijuana laws

Things have been pretty crazy in the Legislature. We finished up the budget in House Appropriations and it will have moved across the House floor by the end of the week. The budget is in really good working order. We have been coordinating with Senate Finance and Claims to put the finishing touches on it. We said we would hold the line on State spending, delivering to the people of Montana a conservative budget that covered our essential services without any tax increases and that's exactly what we will end up with at the end of this session.

Just when we were setting up to finalize our infrastructure package for the session, we got word that the newest round of COVID relief (ARPA) would be coming down from the federal government and would include $1.1 billion dollars towards infrastructure in Montana. With total funds coming into the state that needed to be appropriated by the legislature standing at about $3 billion dollars, the appropriations subcommittees were ordered back up and we began meeting last week to go over the spending proposals.

I chaired the Section A Section F joint subcommittee where we dealt with the $1.1 billion for infrastructure and to put it lightly, we will deliver to the people of Montana the largest investment in Montana infrastructure since we were originally constructing the state's highway system. This will include the largest investment in broadband in Montana history, changing the face of connectivity in Montana.

You may have heard but I am also carrying the bill that implements Adult Use Marijuana sales in Montana, implementing I-190. The bill is being finalized by staff as we speak and will be up and running by the end of the week. I intend to deliver to the people of House District 92 and to the people of Montana, a fully operational, safe, responsible program for the growing, testing, transporting, selling and taxing of adult-use marijuana in the state of Montana.

Comparing the current bill to our neighbors throughout America, Montana's program will be one of the most comprehensive pieces of adult-use marijuana implementation legislation in the nation. Once the bill comes alive, we will be holding hearings on it in the House Business and Labor, House Taxation and House Appropriations before taking it across the House floor and moving on to the Senate. So, we will be dealing with this bill throughout the rest of the session.

The Property Tax Relief bill that I am carrying is now part of Governor Gianforte's "Keep Your Home Tax Relief Act" and passed out of the House last week. It will have its hearing in the Senate this week. So far it has had almost unanimous support in the House. I am hoping it will be received the same way in the Senate.

The next few weeks in the capitol will be an immense amount of work. From economic policy, to tax policy, to regulatory policy, to First and Second Amendment policy, to zoning, education, healthcare, the Legislature is doing great work on basically every front.