Legislative Update

by Rep. Denley Loge

The session is over but the final dust is still clearing. A few bills are still making their way to the governor's desk for his signature. He has vetoed a few bills that have possibilities of being overridden. This is a normal progression at the end of a session since not all bills from the legislative branch are totally in sync with the administration's plans. As you have all had reports of bills passed and not passed, the outcomes are never accepted by all voters; this also holds true with the bill outcomes among legislators.

After our 87 days in Helena, we did fulfill our constitutional obligation of creating a balanced budget. Some important accomplishments are an additional $100 million will be directed toward ensuring our roads and bridges will be safer by matching federal funds for repairs. We also allowed $1.2 billion spread between the states three reserve and contingency funds, the stabilization reserve fund, and the fire fund. Nearly $200 million will go toward paying off Montana's outstanding bond debt, freeing up the state to lower future tax rates. One battle had very different ideas on returning some surplus funds and the agreement reached is sending $880 million of our state's budget surplus back to you through a property tax rebate and income tax rebates.

I had a total of 16 bills passed this session. I am still awaiting the governor's signature on one but the others have been signed. Two of special interest might be HB 60 and HB 521. HB 60 applies a road use fee to electric vehicles. When an electric vehicle owner goes in to renew their license, they will pay an additional fee that will go directly into the gas tax fund. This fee is established by figuring the comparable yearly gas tax they would pay in comparable sized vehicles. HB 521 is also a user fee, but on FWP and DNRC properties. Currently a $10 recreation permit is required to recreate on DNRC properties and FWP fishing access is paid for by fisherman and hunters conservation license fees, not state tax dollars. Almost 50% of the users of the fishing access sites currently do not pay anything toward their construction or maintenance. This bill combines the DNRC recreation pass and the FWP conservation license into one single $8 wildlife conservation license which can be purchased at your FWP license dealer or over your phone. This concept creates cooperation between the two agencies and provides for continuity by requiring the single conservation license for use of both DNRC and FWP lands.

You can look up any and all bills entered or passed by pulling up the Montana State Legislature website. You can also pull up all the bills that I presented by requesting bills under my name on the website.

Respectfully submitted,

Rep. Denley M. Loge, House District 14

406-544-5220