A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
CSKT compact, SB-262. It passed the MT Senate 31–19. Opponents in the MT House will try to kill it by bottling it up in committee, and attaching poison pill amendments. I suspect it will reach the floor only through a blast.
Senate supporters of the bill seemed surprised by concerns that the compact might lower the level of Flathead Lake during the summer boating season. Having spent years dealing with the issue of summer lake levels, I wasn’t. The compact won’t affect Flathead Lake’s levels, which are governed by the federal license for Kerr Dam. The reserved water rights compact commission should publish a short paper explaining the difference.
Sen. Fielder’s special interest paid aide. Montana Cowgirl has a good post on this situation, which was uncovered by the Bozeman Chronicle. This situation never should have developed. Fielder displayed remarkably poor judgment, and she’ll be fortunate if she escapes formal sanctions for her behavior.
That said, let it also be said that all legislators need staff and an office during the session. At $4,000 per month for four months, 150 legislative assistants would cost $2.4 million, plus benefits. That’s affordable. An office addition to the capitol would be more expensive, but it could be amortized over 10 or 20 sessions. And the number of offices could be reduced by reducing the size of the legislature to 80 members in the House and 40 members in the Senate (a further reduction requires amending Montana’s constitution).
Medicaid expansion. The best solution is expanding Medicaid as intended by the Affordable Care Act. The next best is Gov. Bullock’s proposal that panders to the Republican obsession with private health insurance. The proposals put forward by the Republican legislative leadership are so cruel and stingy they amount to nothing.
Gov. Bullock’s proposal could be undone if the U.S. Supreme Court rules for the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell, which will be argued on 4 March, with a decision expected sometime in June, long after the legislature has adjourned. Bullock’s plan, if approved by the legislature but gutted by King v. Burwell, could be rescued only by approving a state health insurance exchange in a special session.
Raw milk legalization, HB-245. It’s headed for its second reading in the House, and its supporters are already organizing to strip out the House’s amendments in the Senate.
Drug testing for TANF recipients, HB-200. This mean spirited gift to the drug testing industry passed 55–45 on the third reading. All Flathead Republicans voted for it. HB-200 requires all applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to complete a questionnaire that determines whether they’re likely to be drug abusers. Those deemed likely abusers must submit to, and pass, a chemical test. Those flunking the chemical test must, figuratively speaking, attend a rehabilitation camp. Those refusing to complete the questionnaire or take the chemical test are refused TANF benefits.
HB-200’s fiscal note assumes that 9.4 percent of Montana’s population uses drugs illicitly. The experience of seven states with drug testing programs similar to HB-200’s differs from the fiscal note’s assumption:
According to state data gathered by ThinkProgress, the seven states with existing programs — Arizona, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah — are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ferret out very few drug users. The statistics show that applicants actually test positive at a lower rate than the drug use of the general population. The national drug use rate is 9.4 percent. In these states, however, the rate of positive drug tests to total welfare applicants ranges from 0.002 percent to 8.3 percent, but all except one have a rate below 1 percent. Meanwhile, they’ve collectively spent nearly $1 million on the effort, and millions more may have to be spent in coming years.
HB-200 enriches the drug testing industry, stigmatizes the poor as drug abusers, and wastes money.
Starving the poor, SB-206. SB usually stands for Senate Bill, but in this case it also stands for Sadistic Bill. Yesterday, with some amendments, it was approved 4–3 by the Senate’s public health, welfare, and safety committee. It’s still a bad bill that would deny food stamps to people deemed able bodied and childless in an effort to goad them into looking harder for work. The Republicans pushing this bill need to look harder at finding compassion in their hearts for their fellow Montanans who are down on their luck and facing empty plates.
Agenda 21, HB-583. Flathead resident and Republican Speaker of the House Keith Regier (HD-4, map) co-sponsored this bill that has roots in John Birch Society paranoia. It received 41 Ayes and 59 Nays on its second reading. Regier of course voted for it, and so did fellow Flathead Republicans Carl Glimm, Mark Noland, Albert Olszewski, and Randy Brodehl. Republicans Frank Garner and Steve Lavin had the good sense to join Democrats Ed Lieser and Zac Perry in voting against it.
The bill’s rejection surely leaves Montana unprotected from black helicopters and blue-helmeted United Nations thugs who could swoop down after midnight to carry off our spouses, children, and survey stakes, so lock up your women and children before going to bed, keep your shotgun under your pillow, and booby-trap your property markers.
