The 62nd session has drawn to a close and it will still be a couple of weeks before we know completely what legislation has made it through and what hasn’t.

A lot of bills that made it through the session haven’t been signed yet. The main things that happened are the budget, which was reduced by over six percent to match expected revenues, a cut in business equipment tax, work comp reform and of course the medical marijuana bill. We didn’t grant an increase to state workers, but were able to cut six percent from the state budget without a cut to state workers salaries also.

Education was able to get a one percent and a 2.4 percent increase in their budgets. This was in spite of having to back fill over 60 million from the last budget in one time only money.

There were some differences in the way healthcare was looked at this session. There were bills to bring some medical malpractice reform to the health care system, health care sharing ministries, interstate health compacts, compel Montana to participate in lawsuit in health care reform, prohibit state government from administering federal health insurance purchase requirement, revise interest payments in civil cases. Most of these were vetoed by the Governor.

There were some good bills for DUI as the 24/7 bill was passed by Rep. Lavin. He is also a highway patrolman and hopefully this action will help offenders of the DUI laws stay sober. Offenders can elect to be tested twice a day every day instead of incarceration. If they fail, they return to serve out their jail sentence. This has been tried on a trial basis with excellent success.

You can check on any bill or get the votes by going to mt.gov and then the legislative page. Every vote that was taken either in committee or on the House or Senate floors should be recorded there. Any question feel free to contact us. It has been a pleasure to represent the people of Lake County in this legislative session. I’m still at dansalomon12@gmail.com or 253-9724.