Pace picks up at Legislature

Sen. John Brenden

Hello again from the Capitol. We are now starting our fourth week in Helena, and the pace is getting faster.

Gov. Steve Bullock has a proposed two-year budget of almost $4.5 billion in the general fund. This is $359 million higher than the Legislative  Fiscal Division which works for us legislators.

The last revenue forecast for our budget is $145 million less in income tax collections and $45 million down in oil and gas receipts. For the love of me I do not know when income is down why the governor wants to increase spending. We will see what happens at the end of the session.

Our Senate president, Debby Barrett, has carried Senate Bill 114 which would establish hydropower as renewable, clean and green energy.  The United States and most of the states, including Montana, do not have this in our energy proposal. The reason for this is that the environmentalists can tout their more expensive energy. What is cleaner than hydropower?

My SB 45 passed the Senate last week. We have not had a government phone book since 2009, and it is so dated that most of the agency heads and administrators are not there. This is an invaluable tool for legislators and all Montanans. The cost of this would be about $20,000 for 11,500 books. Some thought this was too much, so I said we should sell yellow pages and put the bid for printing to the private sector. This is nothing more than transparency in government.

Last session I brought forward SB 77 that raised the amount cities and counties could purchase equipment from $50,000 to $80,000 without the bid process. This is due to inflation et cetera and really helps the more rural counties. This bill was signed by the governor and brought to my attention by former Scobey Mayor Ron Audet.  We left out the conservation districts, so my SB 88 rectifies this oversight. It passed second reading Saturday with a 45 to 0 vote, and I expect it will pass third reading. 

I was pleased to have Jeff Wivholm, president of the Montana Conservation Districts, and Willie Bernard, Montana state director, visiting the capital last week.

All for now and I will visit with you next week. 

(State Sen. John Brenden is a Republican from Scobey. His district includes northern Blaine County and rural northern Hill County — North Havre to Wild Horse. It runs east to the North Dakota border. He can be contacted by email at [email protected].)