The Legislature needs to join the 21st century

The Montana Legislature is cruising along at a nice pace, however I'm not convinced that Montana's business is being conducted in a prudent and responsible manner.

On Wednesday, March 19, the House of Representatives passed HB 2, the appropriations bill totaling $4,546,622,698, out of the general assembly on second reading by a unanimous vote.

That is unheard of in Montana history and even more surprising, they only deliberated for about 70 minutes.

At issue, from my perspective, is that there is no way for some legislators to have known what was in the bill, as they weren't involved in the appropriations process.

Under the current system, not every member has a chance to serve on the House Appropriations Committee or on Senate Finance.

That means some legislative districts are disenfranchised as their legislator may not be a part of the committee deliberations. HB 2 has been transmitted to Senate Finance for deliberation, where in amendments will no doubt be offered.

If the House does not concur in the Senate amendments, HB2 will then go into a House/Senate conference committee where the differences will be worked out.

Then the conference committee ceport will be considered by the full House and Senate.

I was in Helena last week and had legislators tell me that they voted not knowing what was in HB2.

When I proposed ways to improve the legislative process, some legislators told me, "That's the way its always been done," or "Its not possible for everyone to serve on Appropriations or Finance."

I beg to differ. There is a better way to do Montana's business.

I have advocated for two sessions the following:

Every legislator should serve on either, Appropriations/Finance or on Taxation Committees.

Initially, there are subcommittees dealing with the different funding categories of which each legislator could participate.

Then there should be intermittent briefings by the subcommittees to keep every one informed.

Some former legislators are advocating annual sessions, 45 days one year to deal with appropriations and taxation and 45 days for non revenue/taxation issues.

I'm not in favor of annual sessions because of the startup costs.

I would advocate biannual sessions, 90 to 100 days, with the fore part designated for non-revenue / taxation issues (say 45 days) and the balance for revenue /taxation issues.

That way every legislator would be involved and their constituencies would have a voice at the table.

The Legislature seems satisfied with handling Montana's business in the same manner as "It's always been done that way."

I say it's time to bring the legislative process into the 21st century.

It will be interesting to see if the Montana people agree.

(Bob Sivertsen is a former legislator, 1974 to 1982, from Havre. He has remained involved in communities along the Hi-Line as well as on state and national issues.)