Montana Legislative Session

At the halfway mark, Montana agriculture is in good hands

23 March 2021
Press Room
No comments

By Nicole Rolf and Rachel Cone, Montana Farm Bureau Federation

As we review the official first half of the Montana Legislative session, it’s safe to say the session is looking good for Montana agriculture. Of the 3,357 total bill draft requests, 1,121 have been formally introduced. Montana Farm Bureau has taken a stance and lobbied for or against 60 of those, based on the policy directives of our farming and ranching members. Many of the bills we have supported are already on their way to the Governor’s desk. There are no bills left alive from the first half that we have opposed, unless they have been amended in a way that either no longer makes them harmful or, in some cases, even makes them policy we could now support.

We return to Helena this week after a restorative transmittal break. This is the session’s ‘half time.’ Montana is a citizen legislature, which means many of our Representatives and Senators go home to tend to businesses, families and their communities during the transmittal break. With only 90 days every other year to do the legislative work of the people, legislators, lobbyists and legislative staff and volunteers put in long days to get the work done. We commend each of our elected officials for their commitment to this work and the time they dedicate away from their homes and families to make the process work.

While most of our efforts focus on bills intended to direct state policy or law, we also spent some of our time in the last week before transmittal break testifying in support of a number of resolutions. Resolutions are intended to send a message to Congress or the President to show the intent of a state’s elected body. Sometimes, we call these “Letters to Santa” with a laugh; but sometimes, Santa listens and responds to the requests. In fact, we’ve been told by Congressional staffers that these resolutions are quite helpful and directive.

Senate Joint Resolution 18: Resolution on state management of grizzly bears, sponsored by Sen. Bruce Gillespie (R), SD 9. Montana Farm Bureau Federation member policy supports.

This resolution expresses Montana’s desire and ability return management of the grizzly bear populations in our state to our state. Montana has established a strong, effective track record in managing grizzly bears and other species such as wolves, and developed an approved management plan for the Yellowstone distinct population segment that provides for the continued presence and genetic future of grizzly bears on the landscape. Our wildlife managers are much closer to the ground and understand the complexities and realities of our grizzly bear population far better than federal managers in Washington, DC, and it’s past time that responsibility was returned to Montanans.

Senate Joint Resolution 7: Resolution to remove Hidden Pasture Creek from Wilderness Study Area, sponsored by Rep. Jeffrey Welborn (R), SD 36. Montana Farm Bureau Federation member policy supports.

In 1993, the Bureau of Land Management recommended that Congress exclude the Hidden Pasture Creek Wilderness Study Area located west of Dell, Montana, from the wilderness system. However, more than 15,000 acres of this area has continued to be managed as de facto wilderness as a result of inaction to release the land from a WSA. The southern boundary of the ‘Wilderness Study Area’ is a county road that has historically been and remains today, the principle transportation route for those living and using the Big Sheep Basin for ranching and recreation and the business of the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Leaving this area a de factor wilderness through its classification as a Wilderness Study Area makes it difficult if not impossible for many residents of Southwest Montana to conduct business in the area, and there is no doubt it should be released back to the intended multiple-use management of the BLM.

Senate Joint Resolution 16: Urge support for Keystone XL Pipeline, sponsored by Sen. Steve Hinebauch (R), SD 18. Montana Farm Bureau Federation member policy supports.

Montana Farm Bureau members support the completion of the Keystone XL Pipeline for three primary reasons: first, its completion will significantly increase the tax base of our rural communities; second, it creates jobs in our rural communities and finally, it provides stimulus to our local economies. 

House Joint Resolution 7: Joint resolution regarding the St. Mary and Milk River project, sponsored by Rep. Casey Knudsen (R) HD 33. Montana Farm Bureau Federation member policy supports.

 This resolution urges Congress, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation to repair the funding allocation and authorize funding for the replacement and rehabilitation of the Projects. This infrastructure was built in 1903 and provides water for irrigation, consumption, recreation and tribal use across north-central Montana. The Milk River Project provides drinking water for more than 19,000 people along the Hi-Line and supplies irrigation water to more than 700 farms with the capacity to feed 1 million people annually.  When the Drop 5 structure of the Milk River Project in north-central Montana failed in May 2020, project beneficiaries paid 48% of the cost to replace the Drop 2 and Drop 5 structures and improve the Drop 1 structure. The total cost of rehabilitation is estimated to cost more than $200 million, with requirements that project beneficiaries (irrigators) pay for 74% of those costs. This is not a reasonable or sustainable cost for irrigators to carry. This resolution asks for the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation to assist in the rehabilitation and replacement of the structures and to reconsider the funding methods to make modernizing this structure sustainable for all water users.

Budget Bills Lumber on, Trespass Penalties Tighten with Proposed Amendments

19 February 2021
Press Room
No comments

By Nicole Rolf and Rachel Cone, Montana Farm Bureau Federation

Between virtual technology and a new bill drafting system, the 2021 Montana Legislative Session is operating at a slower pace than we’re familiar with. The Legislative body has chosen to opt out of its traditional Saturday floor sessions, saving those days for business days at the end of the season. Montana’s legislature is allowed to meet for no more than 90 working days. ‘Saving days’ by not conducting a floor session on Saturday will lengthen this process, but it won’t cost taxpayers additional operating money, as they’re still only meeting for the allowed 90 business days. 

This matters because it has pushed the transmittal deadline – the day all non-revenue bills must be moved to the second house – back several days. This means we have slightly more time to introduce bills and get them worked through the process before they must be transmitted to the other chamber. Right now, it looks like the transmittal deadline will be the somewhere in the end of the first week of March. 

House Bill 108: Revise trespass laws regarding permission for hunting, introduced by Rep. Denley Loge (R), HD 14. Montana Farm Bureau member policy supports.

This bill was first heard in the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee and it was passed by the full House. This week the Senate Fish and Game Committee heard this bill and passed it in Executive Action shortly after. These amendments to current trespass statute regarding hunting makes the legal language more explicit and may make penalties more severe for failure to obtain landowner permission when hunting, trapping or retrieving game on private land.

This is an important bill to show support to private landowners who take trespass seriously. Under this amended legislation, a hunter who fails to obtain landowner permission and trespasses on private land may be fined a minimum of $135 (the current fine), or up to $500. This allows the legal body handling the charge to assign a penalty depending on the severity of the charge. It also requires any person convicted of trespass to forfeit any current hunting, fishing or trapping license issued by the state for not less than 12 months or more than three years. It also includes language to further penalize subsequent trespass convictions. This legislation sends a clear message that trespass is a serious offence in Montana. It’s important to note that this bill was brought forward by the Private Lands Public Wildlife (PLPW) advisory committee, with the intent of strengthening landowner/sportsmen relations. We appreciate this effort.

House Bill 187: Provide for local option sales tax, introduced by Rep. Dave Fern (D), HD 5. Montana Farm Bureau member policy opposes.

The concept of a “local option sales tax” has been brought to the legislative body in many forms, many times over the years. A local option sales tax would allow municipalities or city/county governments to implement a sales tax in their jurisdiction with the approval of a local electorate vote. This iteration of the idea would allow for up to 2 percent sales tax on retail goods, and it specifically notes that revenues could be used for property tax relief or for local infrastructure upgrades in the jurisdiction in which it is assessed.

While our farming and ranching members strongly support efforts to relieve property taxes, they are equally adamantly opposed to local option sales taxes. Here’s why: the funds raised by this tax are not evenly distributed throughout the state and essentially result in the redistribution or rural dollars to urban areas. Those of us who live in rural Montana know there are many supplies we have to go to larger towns to purchase. When a local option sales tax is in effect, we end up paying the tax in the city and leaving our money there. It exacerbates the transfer of rural dollars to more urban areas, essentially asking rural people to help relieve the property tax in urban areas or fund the infrastructure needs of that municipality. Rural people don’t benefit from this system.  

House Bill 14: Long-Range Building Bonding Program, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hopkins (R), HD 92; and House Bill 2: General Appropriations Act, sponsored by Rep. Llew Jones (R), HD 18.    

We’ve shared updates on these two appropriations bills before, but it’s important to note that these funding bills require long focus and diligence. We’re frequently monitoring their progress and show up regularly to voice our support for funding for specific parts of these bills.

In addition to providing bonding allocation for the proposed and much-needed new Veterinary Diagnostics Lab, HB 14 provides for long-term bonding to support a new Wool Lab and improvements at some of Montana’s Agriculture Experiment Stations, too. The Wool Lab is currently one of only two wool research and service laboratories in the country. It provides critical research and analytical services to a large region of sheep producers. Montana Agriculture Experiment Stations provide vital research for our state’s No. 1 industry, and innovations that support our livelihoods. Additionally, MFBF has gone on the record supporting the Department of Livestock and Department of Agriculture budgets, which are part of HB 2.