Scientific fact, business tax exemptions in the Legislature

Editor,

In week 7, the Senate confirmed a number of Gov. Greg Gianforte board appointments; a couple of north-central Montana locals were on the list. The governor appointed Tony Miller from Joplin to the Board of Respiratory Care Practitioners. Travis Brown, who grew up in Havre and the Hi-Line and who has since moved to Helena, was also confirmed by the Senate for a board position. He now sits on the Montana Tax Appeal Board as a public representative.

A bill that brought a lot of attention from the educational community was tabled this week in the Education Committee. That bill was SB 235, which was trying to limit the teaching of scientific theories, examples of which would be Theory of Gravity, Plate Tectonic Theory, or Cell Theory. The bill’s intent was to have only “scientific fact” taught in Montana schools. We had just short of a dozen folks, including high school students, and a number of school organizations who opposed this bill during public hearing. Only one proponent testified, who zoomed in from Korea. Hundreds of constituents reached out to me asking to vote against bill SB 235. In the end, the bill sponsor agreed he had not thought the bill through. I have to hand it to the educational folks; they do keep an eye on what we do in Helena.

Our Senate Tax committee heard a bill to increase business equipment tax exemption to 1$ million. This exemption will assist many small businesses and farms in my Senate district. It will also allow these individuals to reinvest that money back into our community. A couple more bills were presented to either credit or exempt military retirement and social security taxes. Neither of these bills have cleared through committee as of yet as the fiscal notes on both bills look to be very costly to the state. These bills are still a work in progress. You can follow these two tax bills: SB 104 the military bill and SB 258 the Social Security bill, at leg.mt.gov.

This weekend, Judy and I have two of our kids and two grandkids spending time with us, and taking in sights. We hope to visit two more grandkids who are going to school at Montana Tech in Butte. It is always great to have family visit. As always, stay safe.

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