Ups and downs of the 2017 Legislature

By Jenny Eck and Jon Sesso

Imagine you were told, as you headed onto the field, that your team would have nearly one-third fewer players than the opposing team … and that the other team would get to set the rules that you would have to play by.

For Democrats in the 2017 Legislature, that has been our reality.  

As the minority and the loyal opposition, our mission is clear: to be a voice and a vote for what is right, and to fight every day for the people who sent us here, all the while knowing that the odds are not in our favor. This session, that was our call, and we are proud of our caucus for answering that call with absolute resolve and determination.

In order to get good things done, Democrats worked hard to reach across the aisle and bring others on board. We did this successfully in numerous issue areas and found others who were willing to set aside political differences to pass good legislation.

Together with a group of reasonable Republicans, Democrats led the way on legislation that will benefit Montanans for years to come. Here are some of the highlights:

• Criminal Justice Reform: We passed the most comprehensive package of criminal justice reform legislation in a generation — more than a dozen bipartisan bills that give judges and prosecutors the tools to make our system smarter, save money, reduce recidivism and get people the help they need.

• Earned Income Tax Credit: One of the most progressive anti-poverty tax bills in years, the Earned Income Tax Credit will help thousands of working families in Montana keep more of their hard-earned money.

• Apprenticeships: We helped Montana workers and businesses with a tax credit for businesses that hire and train apprentices — and a double credit for hiring veterans in an apprenticeship program.

• Mental Health and Suicide Prevention: It’s imperative that we reduce the stigma around mental illness and make care and treatment more available. We established that insurance companies must cover mental health on the same level as physical health. We also dedicated $1 million for local communities and school districts to develop their own suicide prevention programs, with particular emphasis on rural areas, Native Americans and veterans.

• Early Childhood Education: We know that when we invest in kids through early education, we improve their prospects for graduating from high school and beyond. We were finally able to make some headway on this front by providing funding for preschool pilot programs across the state.  

• Sexual assault: We passed a package of bills to protect victims of sexual assault by making our laws more consistent with a scientific understanding of predatory behavior and victim response. We made it a crime to coerce children into viewing pornography, and we made clear that a victim’s silence, or lack of forceful resistance, does not equate to consent in a sexual assault case.

• Foster care: We made important investments in our foster care system that put children first and address the significant challenges we are facing due to a resurgence of meth addiction in Montana.

• Protecting Public Lands: Democrats worked hard to fight off some extremely dangerous legislation that would have forced Montana hunters to compete with out-of-staters for licenses.

Although we celebrate these many successes, it is no secret that we also experienced significant disappointments this session. The number one priority of the Democratic caucus this session was to pass a comprehensive infrastructure package and get people to work on important projects across this state. Although we carried and passed several important public works bills, and supported a major roads and bridges bill that will bring a 7-to-1 federal funding match for highway repairs across Montana, we were not able to overcome Republican opposition to the most important infrastructure bill of the session.

When we approached the jobs/infrastructure package, Democrats made it clear from Day One that we were not going to pick winners and losers or pit communities against each other. Since all Montanans pay taxes, all communities should benefit from infrastructure projects and the jobs they create.  

With these ideas in mind, Democrats and reasonable Republicans worked out a fair infrastructure package that would have benefitted communities across Montana, east and west, north and south, rural and urban, with critical projects: rural water and sewer systems; repairs and upgrades to dozens of schools; improvements to our MSU campuses in Bozeman, Billings and Great Falls; a needed water intake in Laurel; improvements to Makoshika State Park near Glendive; and a loan to finally build the long-planned Southwest Montana Veterans home in Butte.

This package passed out of the Republican-controlled Senate with the required two-thirds majority. But when it got to the House, we came up against the resistance of Republican House leadership, which did not want it to go forward. We gave them every opportunity to say “yes” and they took every opportunity to say “no.” At the end of the day, we couldn’t get around the fact that they were in charge and they had the ability to block progress.  

We can promise you that Democrats will continue to fight for infrastructure into 2019. In the meantime, we hope the people of Montana will reach out to lawmakers and let us know what matters to you. Emails and phone numbers of all legislators are available on the Legislature’s website at http://www.leg.mt.gov. We want to hear your opinions, positive or negative. And we will work throughout the interim and beyond to make Montana a better state for all of us.

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Rep. Jenny Eck, D-Helena, is the Montana House Minority Leader.

Sen. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, is the Montana Senate Minority Leader.