Legislative Week update from HD 80

Montana's legislators convened at the Capitol this week for a Legislative Week, sponsored by the Legislative Council and the Legislative Finance Committee. This event provided your elected officials with an opportunity to review and discuss budget trends and policies ahead of next year's Session.

In conjunction with the event, a number of regularly scheduled legislative interim committees met to continue their assigned work.

As one of 12 members of the bipartisan Revenue Interim Committee tasked to review administrative rules, draft legislation, evaluate programs, and monitor responsibilities for the Montana Department of Revenue and the Montana Tax Appeal Board, I have been focusing on how we spend property tax revenues. For Tax Year 2019, a total of $1.856 billion was paid in property taxes on behalf of a population of 1.08 million. During TY2010, $1.242 billion in property taxes were paid for a population of 989,415. That's quite a hefty revenue increase compared to our percentage of population growth, and there's a push for more tax revenues among some elected officials. A number of us emphasized that our voters are exhausted by tax increases. Others are promoting a sales tax. I believe we generate an ample amount of tax revenues, and we need to downsize our spending addiction.

The legislative staff is to be commended for organizing a robust agenda for Legislative Week. Aside from our interim committees, we were brought together to exchange ideas and information – an opportunity not always easy during biannual sessions. We received training and participated in breakout sessions to share concerns and ideas ahead of next year's Session. We were also able to attend meetings of interim committees other than those we're assigned. We discussed the value of holding annual sessions, and there are many pros and cons. 

In going forward, I believe we should consolidate interim committee meeting schedules to allow broader legislator participation in a more routine fashion. To me, this would be a better utilization of our limited legislative budget than changing to annual sessions.

I had the opportunity to provide some background during an Infrastructure Breakout Session on Wednesday. I emphasized, due to the extremely high costs of those projects meant to address public health, safety and community economic expansion, the focus needs to be on the most critically prioritized projects. These must be supported and completed for our communities and statewide infrastructure. 

It is my continued honor and privilege to serve the voters of House District 80 and our state. I remain dedicated to helping our caucus avoid new taxes; reduce the size of the government; demand accountability in government agencies; grow private-sector job opportunities; and promote an improved framework for essential infrastructure.

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Thanks again, and I'll keep you updated.