Legislators return home after busy session
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You know how a horse speeds up as you get closer to the barn? Well, I was almost home from Helena last week and got a traffic ticket. I’m usually very careful on Highway 93 because of all the different speed limits.
Great to see everyone that could make it to the trade fair at the Polson High School gym last Saturday. There were lots of interesting discussions and opinion. Marijuana is still one of the main topics. Everyone has an opinion on the new rules.
SB 423 will still allow the most critically ill access to marijuana. We got an opinion from the feds that the grow operations would still be subject to raids. In fact, they did many raids last week in Spokane, Wash. I doubt that any of Montana marijuana rules are federally constitutional.
Representative Keith Regier (R-Kalispell) had a bill that would put repeal of marijuana on the 2012 ballot. It was tabled in committee. We will know how this new plan works by then. Also, there will be several referendums put to the voters in November 2012.
Here they are:
• Freedom to chose health insurance
• Require proof of citizenship to receive state services
• Prohibit the requirement to purchase health insurance
• Treasure State Dividend program which is that half of the taxes collected above 125 percent of budgeted dollars returned to income taxpayers and property taxpayers
• Parental notification of abortion with a judicial bypass
• Require elections of Supreme Court judges by district
By next week we will know what happened to all of the passed bills. The governor will have allowed bills to become law, signed or vetoed. He has already vetoed 30. And we accepted many of his amendments in the last days of the session.
We did a pretty good job with strengthening the DUI rules. Aggravated DUI is a new crime; judges can issue a warrant for blood or breath test and the 24/7 DUI testing program can now be expanded across the state. The three-county trial was very successful.
In my opinion, the largest failure was to change and/or correct our property tax system. It punishes areas that have seen large increases like ours without taking the current depressed values in to account.
We tried several bills, from a bill to put a constitutional change for acquisition value to the people, to having yearly or bi-yearly reappraisals. Nothing worked. Legislators from the far eastern counties were protecting their oil and gas tax money and they lost some of that. It is very difficult to balance the taxes in a state as large and diverse as ours.
The best way to contact me now is my home phone 849-6096, email me at jannataylor@montana.com or write PO Box 233, Dayton, MT 59914. I never forget that I work for you and will continue to report after interim committees.
