Flathead legislators hold many key seats
Keith Regier | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years AGO
The 63rd Montana Legislative Assembly was sworn in on Monday, Jan. 7. There is a feeling of cautious optimism around the Capitol. The caution is brought by the fact that there are so many new faces involved in this session.
Not only does Montana have a new governor with Steve Bullock and a new attorney general with Tim Fox, there are 39 new freshmen in the 100 member House of Representatives. That’s 39 individuals that need orientation to an intense and fast 90 day process. The Flathead Valley has some of those new faces in Rep. Ed Lieser from Whitefish, Carl Glimm from Kila and Greg Hertz from Polson.
The optimism comes from Northwest Montana being well represented in this session. The Speaker of the House is Mark Blasdel from Somers, Rep. Jerry Bennett of Libby is chairman of the House Natural Resource Committee, Rep. Mike Cuffe from Eureka is a majority whip, Sen. Chas Vincent of Libby is chairman of the Senate Natural Resource Committee, Sen. Bruce Tutvedt of Kalispell is chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, Rep. Steve Lavin of Kalispell is chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Scott Reichner of Bigfork is chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Sen. Jon Sonju of Kalispell is chairman of the Senate Business Affairs Committee, and I have the honor of chairing the House Energy Committee.
Along with the new, there are some of the same issues that have come through past sessions. Setting a state budget always gets top billing. This past week, Gov. Bullock proposed a two-year budget that spends more than $10 billion. That is at least a $400 million increase over the last two-year spending.
It also includes a 5 percent annual raise for state employees for each year. That pay increase will cost $80 million. Other issues that will be endlessly debated are school funding, Medicaid and how to fix the $4 billion pension shortfall.
The Legislative Web site is an excellent way for citizens to track all of the bills and issues going through the legislature as well as information on contacting your legislators. It can be accessed at www.leg.mt.gov.
Keith Regier is the Republican state representative for House District 5.
ARTICLES BY KEITH REGIER
GOP coalition for Tester: That must be a joke, right?
The Daily Inter Lake ran an article on Sept. 5 titled “GOP coalition puts support behind Tester.” This article required the suspension of disbelief in order to read it.
Legislator responds to letter writer's claims about energy
In his opinion letter to the Inter Lake on March 31, Mr. Roger Sherman made some misguided statements about some legislation that I am sponsoring. I am grateful to him for giving me this teachable moment. He made some vague statement that my bills “oppose solar and other alternative energy” without giving any evidence. I wonder if he has read the bills. I think the bills he is referring to are SB 32 and SB 78.
CSKT water compact is an over-reach
I was a member of the House Judiciary Committee that heard the bill that would have implemented the current Confederated Salish and Kootanai Tribes water compact. The bill did not make it out of committee and did not receive enough votes from the full House membership to bring it to the House floor for more debate. This compact did not pass because it was a massive over-reach by CSKT and the Montana Reserved Water Right Commission that negotiated with the tribes for the state of Montana.