Taylor defends water compact amendments
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We have wonderful young people in our area. Polson High School junior Lydia Dupuis paged for me in the senate last week. She did a fantastic job and got to see a very unusual week.
Last week we spent only spent four days in session instead of the normal six. Transmittal break is when the Senate bills go to the House and the House bills go to the Senate. The break is a welcome respite, time to be with our families.
And it was good to meet with constituents at the library in Polson last Friday night and at Sykes in Kalispell on Monday.
As I have written many times, I am not in favor of the water compact with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. I believe we need a compact but there are still too many questions about this one. I’m sure you have all read the pros and cons and almost everyone has made up their minds.
The first chance I got to amend SB 262 (Vincent, R. Libby) was Tuesday, Feb. 4 in the Finance and Claims Committee. Senator Vincent accused me of a maneuver to fatally delay the bill. Absolutely not. If we amended on Tuesday there was more than enough time to get the bill passed. We suspended the rules as we usually do the last day before transmittal.
I have never hidden my opinion of the compact and have told Senator Vincent problems I found. What were my amendments?
One, to have a financial report by the department of natural resources and conservation presented to the Interim Finance Committee and two, to have an audit of the money by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
$55 million is a lot of taxpayer money. Our state legislature and executive branch prides itself on transparency. The people should demand transparency here.
In fact, Senator Vincent said several times that he would be willing to work with me to put these amendments on in the budget. Well, the money is not in the budget now, so we couldn’t do that. Will the money be placed in the budget at some time? I don’t know.
Here is an interesting dilemma. What do you do when your constituents do not agree? For only two and a half days I saved the email and phone messages I received about the compact. There were twice as many against as for.
There are always other issues to review when you look at a bill; effective date, termination if there is one, rule making authority, opinion of my constituents, legality, how much money and where it comes from, are just a few of the concerns.
Following the money is always my favorite thing to do. Right now there is a major disagreement between the governor’s fiscal forecasters and the legislative fiscal forecasters. $350 million is the difference in their revenue estimates. We base our spending on this estimate.
There is an effort underway to have the university economic experts and Global Insights forecasting company to mediate. The major differences are in oil and gas revenue, corporate taxes and individual taxes to a lesser degree.
Thank you for all the comments. My favorite was “I appreciate your update, but I don’t agree with you very often.” Leave me a message at (406) 444-4800. My cell is (406) 253-8766 and my email is sen.janna.taylor@mt.gov. I work for you.
