HELENA — Monday was the start of what will be at least the last full week of the Montana Legislature’s 69th session – but all indications are that lawmakers will wrap things up even sooner.
The Legislature has 90 days every two years to complete their work. After Monday, they had just seven remaining. It’s the point of the session where the biggest bills still outstanding are bouncing back and forth between the House and Senate, as lawmakers try to find language that both chambers can agree on.
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If the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, the first chamber that heard it can either accept the new version, sending it on to the governor; or reject it, requiring a conference committee to put together a final version of the bill.
House Bill 2, the $16.6 billion main state budget bill, is one of the major bills that’s reached this point. On Monday morning, the House voted 67-33 to endorse the Senate’s version of the bill.
“This budget does the work it was intended to do,” said Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad.
Supporters in the House said the Senate’s changes didn’t harm – and might help – HB 2. Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, praised an amendment that removed funding to hire contract nurses at the Montana State Hospital and increased funding for employee nurses.
“The House passed a fair budget over to the Senate, and then the Senate made it even more fair – particularly for the working-class people of Montana and their families,” she said.
Opponents said the budget as laid out in HB 2 wasn’t serious about controlling spending. Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Three Forks, said the change on contract nurses wouldn’t really save money, and that the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services would likely hire traveling nurses anyway and be back to the Legislature in two years asking for funding to pay for them.
“What's really going on here is this is a budget based on smoke and mirrors,” she said.
House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, urged House members to concur with the Senate amendments, saying he doubted any conference committee would actually significantly shrink the budget.
“We are not getting better by going to conference committee; it's only going to get worse,” he said. “Vote green, and let's be done.”
On property taxes, there are two bills still alive that would establish “homestead” tax rates, which provide an advantage for Montanans’ primary residences, long-term rentals and smaller commercial properties. However, House Bill 231 and Senate Bill 542 do have differences, and they might require coordination language to get them aligned if both move forward.
The House held HB 231 and the Senate held SB 542 as of Monday, and both chambers sent their bill to conference committees.
“Let's ‘do not concur’ in this,” said Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson. “Maybe we can find a better shade of lipstick to put on this pig when it comes back from conference committee.”
One major issue that does appear to have reached a conclusion this session is income tax reform. On Monday afternoon, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 337, from House Speaker Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage. The bill both brings down Montana’s higher income tax rate and allows Montanans to pay the lower tax rate on more of their income. It’s estimated it will reduce tax collections by more than $250 million a year once fully implemented.
“We're opening the doors of greater opportunities for all Montanans, making it easier to raise a family, own a home, to start a job creating business, and to retire comfortably and to realize the American dream,” Gianforte said. “This is truly a historic day for Montanans, Montana families, and Montana taxpayers.”
HB 337 passed with support from almost all legislative Republicans and opposition from almost all Democrats. In a statement Monday, Democratic leaders said the change benefited higher-income Montanans at the expense of the rest of the state.
“The vast majority of the benefit will go to the wealthiest earners at the top, while the rest of us will get peanuts,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula. “This tax cut for the rich is the Governor’s third in a row. Clearly, his top-down approach is not making a dent in affordability.”
HB 2 will need to clear one final vote in the House before going to Gianforte’s desk. The conference committees on SB 542 and HB 231 are scheduled to meet Tuesday at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., respectively.
