Week Nineteen Update

This week is the nineteenth week of the 2023 Montana Legislature. This week will be the last week of the session.

Last week, the Senate passed a series of key bills which are the final pieces of legislation necessary to bring the 2023 Legislative Session to a close. The first key piece of legislation to advance was House Bill 2. House Bill 2 is the main budget bill for the State of Montana. The bill passed on a mostly party line vote with Republicans voting to pass it and Democrats voting against it.

On Thursday, the Senate passed House Bill 971, a bill designed to address a recent decision by a district judge in Billings with respect to the Montana Environmental Policy Act (“MEPA”). Several weeks ago, Judge Michael Moses ruled MEPA requires the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to analyze the effect of greenhouse gas emissions when issuing air quality permits.

Prior to this ruling, no judge or DEQ administrator has ever taken the position MEPA requires an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. If this decision is allowed to stand, any business with an air quality permit – something like a refinery, mine, or other type of industrial operation – could have the air quality permit revoked, even though the operation will never have an impact on the temperature of the earth. House Bill 971 says MEPA does not require an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions unless Congress decides to regulate them under the Clean Air Act.

In addition, on Thursday, the Senate debated House Bill 5. House Bill 5 is the bill which contains funding for the construction and maintenance of buildings and property owned by the State of Montana. Normally, the bill is not controversial and generally passes with large bipartisan majorities. However, this year, the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, decided to add a number of pork barrel projects which have no place in House Bill 5.

These pork barrel projects included roughly ten million dollars for the World Museum of Mining in Butte, six million dollars for a building which should be paid with federal funding in Butte, and two million dollars for a train depot in Miles City. During floor debate, I attempted to remove several of these items of wasteful spending. I managed to remove the ten million dollars for the World Museum of Mining, but a unique coalition of Republicans and Democrats were unwilling to remove the remainder of the wasteful spending.

On Friday, the Senate passed House Bill 816 to provide additional property tax rebates. In addition, the Senate passed House Bill 819, which provides low interest loans to help with water and sewer development in new subdivisions. This is one of the key bills to help address our housing shortage. Finally, the Senate passed several bills to fund reserve accounts for fiscal emergencies and forest fires.

Next week, I will provide another update on the 2023 Legislative Session. As always, thank you for the opportunity to represent you in the Montana Senate.