Week 3 at the Legislature

The 66th Legislature Senate Tax Committee saw 10 Senate bills coming forth this week and no House bills have crossed yet in any of my committees.

We did review a controversial bill, SB 96, that would put vapes — e-cigarettes — in the category with cigarettes. The bill as presented did not accomplish the intent of the sponsor so it ended up being tabled. A workforce housing tax credit bill, which would give a tax credit to investors of affordable housing units, has also been put forward. It seems everyone would like to revise tax laws this session. It was explained to me: the only good tax is one you do not have to pay. Our committee did confirm two governor appointees to include the Department of Revenue head and an appointee to the Montana State Tax Appeal Board.

This week, in my Education Committee, we heard just short of 20 bills, involving everything from school safety to loan assistance. School safety alone is going to be a big issue this session, ranging to include missing student photos, requiring door locks that need to meet fire codes, or changing school safety codes, and teacher-student relationships. Teacher recruitment, retention, retirement, student loan repayment and special education funding are a few more items we will be addressing during the 66th.

Our Energy and Telecommunications Committee has but a few Senate bills. This is not unusual as most of those types of bills typically start in the House. One bill that garnered a lively discussion was SB 93, dealing with a bond requirement for decommissioning of certain solar units. A number of questions were left unanswered, including what they are made of, if a city or county landfill will accept them, and how many acres it will take to produce a kilowatt of power. So, we are waiting for some information before moving forward.

I have been asked to sign on to support a bill to take the sunset off of the universities’ 6 mil levy. To be clear, I have always supported the 6 mil levy, but I have also always supported a sunset for any and all bills. It is my belief that without a sunset there is no recourse to get a chance to fix an issue that isn’t caught initially or may arise during the initial sunset period. Have a great week.

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State Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be emailed at [email protected].