Updated: April 28, 4 p.m.
HELENA — Dozens of Montana schools that were counting on state funding to replace crumbling roofs and old boilers are out of luck. The same goes for rural areas looking to upgrade their aging water systems and colleges and universities that planned to expand or renovate buildings on their campuses.
Montana lawmakers adjourned the 2017 legislative session Friday just like they did two years ago — failing to authorize bonds to pay for state infrastructure projects after negotiations collapsed and threats failed to sway intransigent legislators.
The Montana House tried twice to push through the $80 million package on Friday but came up three votes short each time of the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the bill.
In all, the House rejected versions of the infrastructure bill six times before giving up and voting to end the session. Besides the schools and water systems, the projects that won’t be funded include a veterans’ home in Butte that had been promised for nearly a decade and the Montana Historical Society’s plans to build top-notch museum and heritage center.
Gov. Steve Bullock, lawmakers and lobbyists had scrambled in a bid to secure votes for passage since Thursday, when the House last rejected the bill. A last-minute alternative plan that removed bonding from the bill was rejected by House Republican leaders moments before the floor votes.
“There were projects included in the infrastructure bill, and there were spending priorities that the Republican caucus didn’t feel reflected their priorities,” House Speaker Austin Knudsen said after the session. “The governor made it clear that his spending priorities were big state-owned projects that we didn’t feel were critical infrastructure.”
Democrats tried to pressure Republicans on the floor to vote for the bill by threatening to sink another bill that would have funded rural water projects that are favored by GOP lawmakers from those areas. Both bills ended up going down.
“We gave it everything we had,” said House Minority Leader Jenny Eck, D-Helena. “We tried to convince the other side to be there with us. At the end of the day, their leadership was pushing not to support it.”
Some conservative representatives rejected outright the idea of putting the state into debt for 20 years to pay for any type of infrastructure.
Others were fine with using bonds to pay for water, sewer and road projects, but they drew a line at using debt to construct buildings they labeled as projects aimed at representing the districts of specific lawmakers.
The building projects included $22 million in renovations for Montana State University’s Romney Hall, $10 million for the new veterans’ home in Butte, $5.4 million for a dental hygiene building at the Great Falls College of Technology and $5 million for a technology building addition at Montana State University-Billings.
Republican House leaders tried to wrest concessions from Bullock, a Democrat, in exchange for passing the bonding bill, such as guarantees that he would not veto anti-abortion legislation or a charter school bill. But Knudsen, the House speaker, said he and Bullock came to an impasse and that Democrats just weren’t willing to back off their pet projects.
Bullock said he made every effort to negotiate with Knudsen, and that the bill’s failure to pass is the fault of the House Republican leadership.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that we walk out of this session again without a general infrastructure bill,” Bullock said. “I’m disappointed that some legislators put partisan politics over Montana jobs and the strengths of our communities.”
A similar bonding bill with many of the same building projects also failed on the final day of the 2015 legislative session. Bullock vetoed a 2013 infrastructure bill that arrived at his desk after lawmakers had already adjourned.
Knudsen noted that the Legislature passed separate bills that paid cash for other infrastructure projects and authorized spending federal funds for road projects, totaling about $1 billion in what he called “essential infrastructure.”
Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, who sponsored the cash infrastructure bills, said those measures pass every session.
“The Republicans are spinning to you people the lamest excuse that’s out there,” Keane said. “Most of that money’s highway money. We get that all the time.”
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Budget, Fuel Tax, Other Policy Changes Highlight Session
HELENA — The 2017 Montana legislative session that ended Friday was dominated by debates over infrastructure and how to tighten the budget, but it also included bills to make significant changes in tax policy, health care, energy, campaign finance and other areas.
A total of 1,188 bills and resolutions were introduced by lawmakers this year. A majority of them died, but more than 236 bills have already been signed into law.
More than 250 other bills have yet to be sent to Gov. Steve Bullock for him to sign, veto or let become law without his signature.
A look at some of the highlights from the session:
BUDGET
The state budget is $10.3 billion for 2018 and 2019, and will leave an estimated $200 million in reserve. Most state agencies saw their budgets trimmed, and they will see some vacant positions go unfilled for the next two years to make up for the revenue shortfall. The Legislature also created a budget stabilization reserve fund, with rules meant to allow the governor to respond more quickly to future revenue drops.
TAXES
The Legislature approved the first increase in Montana’s fuel tax in a quarter of a century, with the proceeds to pay for road and bridge projects. Fees were also increased on motor vehicle registrations and on vehicles worth more than $150,000. To fund an effort to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels, fees on fishing licenses were raised and a new one imposed on hydroelectric dams. Lawmakers passed tax policy bills meant to attract new businesses and return some money to low-income residents.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Legislature approved about $173 million in cash to pay for water, wastewater, road and bridge projects in mostly rural areas of the state, and authorized spending hundreds of millions more in federal funding for road projects. One of the most contentious issues of the session was a failed measure that would pay for a range of other projects, including major building projects at state universities and colleges and a veterans’ home in Butte.
HEALTH CARE
The Legislature passed bills that lawmakers hope will lower the rising cost of health insurance. Lawmakers voted to approve a high-risk health insurance pool, to allow out-of-state insurers to sell policies in Montana, to increase transparency of health care prices for patients and to give tax credits to small companies that offer high-deductible insurance plans to their employees.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Lawmakers approved a measure to raise the amount of money that donors can give to state candidates for political office, despite pending legislation on the current limits. The Legislature also added the option of a mediator to review allegations of campaign finance violations and confirmed a new commissioner of political practices, former Democratic legislator Jeff Mangan.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA
The Legislature created regulations for the medical marijuana industry after voters approved an initiative to allow dispensaries to operate in the state. The bill creates licenses and fees for marijuana distributors and requires tracking of the drug to prevent it from being sold on the black market.
PRESCHOOL
After negotiations with Bullock, lawmakers approved spending $6 million to test ways to expand 4- and 5-year-old children’s access to preschool in the state. The funding will last two years as a pilot project and be reassessed in the 2019 legislative session.
PRISON AND SENTENCING REFORMS
The Legislature passed several measures meant to ease the state’s overpopulated jails and prisons and reduce the number of repeat offenders. The bills eliminated jail time for certain misdemeanor crimes, revised how offenders on probation are supervised, set deadlines for pre-sentencing investigative reports and addressed the housing needs of released offenders, among others.
CHILD PROTECTION REFORMS
Another package of bills is meant to help the state deal with the record number of children in the foster care system and reduce child neglect and abuse. One measure would require that foster children not be excluded from Medicaid services. Another measure would require foster parents to allow children to participate in developmentally and age-appropriate activities. Other bills will require more planning and study to combat child abuse and neglect.
COLSTRIP
Lawmakers passed a bill requiring Colstrip power plant owners to submit a remediation plan for the closure of the plant’s two older coal-fired units scheduled by July 2022. They also approved a plan to allow Colstrip owners to borrow up to $10 million a year from the state to keep the units running until that time. Another bill that would have required the owners to compensate property owners, governments and workers for losses related to the closure failed to pass.