Bills moving faster through the Legislature

Week 6 has seen more House bills moving from the House to the Senate. Things, in general, seem to be moving a little bit faster as we move into the full swing of session. Elsie Arntzen, superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction, gave a presentation to the Senate this week. She stated that, in her opinion, more funds need to be assigned to education from the General Fund, even as her department currently uses around 40 percent of the general fund. Her budget calls for $3 million in cuts from education, while the governor’s budget calls for 20 million in cuts.

A bill was presented changing two laws having to do with county roads. First, it allows counties to issue a permit, excluding a locked gate, for an encroachment upon a county road right-of-way, which may occur in the case of a structure. Second, it increases the fine for failing to remove an encroachment from $10 per day to up to $500 per day.

Updates on my committees: The big news in Energy Committee is the joint resolution to support the Keystone Pipeline. An interesting issue that came up in taxation committee was the governor’s proposal to put through a bill doubling the tax on wine from 27 cents to 54 cents per liter. This is in an attempt to help balance the budget.

Friday was a tough weather day in Helena. There were about 90 crashes and slide-offs reported in Lewis and Clark County. It was treacherous getting to the Capitol but we made it and it was business as usual once there. Have a great week.

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Contact state Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, at [email protected].