The state funding bill, HB 2, has been through the Senate and brought back to the House with a bunch of amendments. It has been moved to a conference committee. They will try to hammer out the differences in the two. One piece of the pie that is not been finalized is the education funding. The Senate could not get a bill agreed upon. SB 403 would have given a $44 million influx of money to K-12 education. This would have utilized some of the oil and gas money from the east side of Montana. All the Democrats and a couple of Republician Senators from the oil and gas counties voted this down.

Now the House Education Committee will try to meld together the remaining ideas from the other funding bills. The only thing I am sure of is that there will be less money for education when this process is complete. We are trying to find a fair solution without raising taxes.

In the Agriculture committee, we were able to have a hearing on Sen. Jackson’s bill on the Aquatic Invasive Species Act, SB 434. This bill will coordinate the different departments in their attempt to keep these aquatic invasive species out of our waterways and lakes.

We are also bringing to the floor a bill to authorize the Dept. of Livestock to resume beef check-off collections. This is a highly important issue for our beef producers.

Rep. Randall is bringing a bill forward, that I am cosponsoring, to take a look at erroneous agricultural land values. This is in respect to the stocking rates and the production levels that are reported on your taxes. This is a issue all over the state, not just here in the west.

The legislature has passed a resolution which supports a Constitutional amendment on requiring a balanced budget. Montana could be the 29th state to approve this. It takes 34 states to get this issue to the people for a decision.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by this week. Always nice to hear from people back home. You can contact me at dansalomon12@gmail.com and 253-9724.