Salomon recounts legislative progress
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The 64th Legislature has been in session for three weeks. A lot of bills have been presented that are fairly simple and are moving quickly through the system. Two bills that I carried at the request of the Department of Agriculture passed through the House and will go to the Senate Agriculture committee this week.
The Lake County Commissioners asked me to present a bill to the House Local Government committee for the Montana Association of Counties. This bill would provide for the County Commission to hear an appeal on a Board of Adjustments decision before being on the financial hook to defend such a decision in court.
In the House Business and Labor Committee we’ve heard 31 bills to date. While most of these had to do with licensing issues, the wide range of areas encompassed electrical, plumbing, gaming, banking, land surveyors, public accountants and several different types of insurance issues. This is always a very interesting committee.
I enjoyed having breakfast with the Lake County 4-H students who were in Helena last week. It is always interesting to get the perspective of our youth on topics that are coming before the legislature.
The bigger issues should start showing up soon. Some of these include tax reform and cuts, Medicaid expansion, charter schools, campaign reforms, some gun bills and of course, the budget.
The CSKT Water Compact Bill is in the drafting stage and we hope to see it out the beginning of February. The Governor and his staff replied to a letter by several of the Flathead County Commissioners last week. The letter did a very nice job of articulating fact from fiction. If you would like some factual information on this issue, this is a good place to look.
We will have the Governor’s State of the State Address this week along with an address from our U.S. Congressman, Ryan Zinke.
I appreciate hearing from you regarding your concerns and comments. I can be contacted at dansalomon12@gmail.com.
