It was 80 degrees in the hoop house. Outside the snow is deep. The snow has that distinctive spring-feel. It’s dense, wet with big crystals.
Inside the hoop house we’re working soil, looking for springtime. These sunny winter days are a favorite. They remind me why I retired from lawmaking.
Soon I’ll seed vegetable starts like onions, scallions and shallots. Before too long the bok choi, spinach and lettuce will be in the ground. The fruit trees and berries will get pruned the upcoming weeks.
I’m optimistic about the upcoming growing season. Though farming the Montana Rockies at the 49th parallel assures that spring’s arrival is unpredictable.
In Helena, politics is in full swing. A quarter of their legislative days have past and many familiar political spats have rematerialized. At the end of the month it will be halftime.
Two years ago, after the last Legislature adjourned, many taxpayers were surprised to learn that because of their low wages they were ineligible for healthcare tax benefits offered elsewhere in the nation.
The last Legislature refused to expand Medicaid healthcare to lower wage earners. In doing so it snubbed millions in federal healthcare funding from coming into the state, presumably to lower federal debts.
Rhetoric aside, the federal taxpayer funds went to other states to care for the sick. Montanans is simply paying extra for uncompensated care at local hospitals. Local hospitals would benefit greatly from Medicaid expansion. The last Legislature assured that health insurance costs for poverty wage earners is prohibitively expensive.
Political leaders often ignore our societal obligations to the sick, the hungry, and the elderly. Many want politicians to smarten up, but doubts persist. There will always be politicians looking for a more outrageous message to punch through in to news cycle.
Last month the Legislature subpoenaed three current and past state workers to testify on programs offered to poverty wage earners. I don’t recall a Legislature ever issuing a formal order to compel a witness to testify before a hearing.
So far the subpoenas proved a low point to the 64th citizen Legislature. Hopefully it won’t get more embarrassing, time will tell. Many of the biggest issues facing Montana have fractured the Republican caucus.
Issues like Medicaid healthcare, the last water compact and public infrastructure construction are flaring bitter battles within the GOP. Oddly these are unresolved issues leftover from the previous Legislature, two years ago.
I have painfully learned that with ideological politicians, facts don’t matter. It’s saddening but no amount of reason will change an entrenched ideological mind.
At the epicenter of the Republicans’ purity test is Kalispell Sen. Bruce Tutvedt. Tutvedt is the chair of the powerful Senate Taxation Committee and carries major bills this Session like revising how property is reappraised and supporting the water compact.
Tutvedt recently wrote in part, “The extremists in the Flathead Valley have come to personal attacks because they don’t win on the issues. They believe that the U.S. government is bad and trying to depopulate Northwest Montana using Agenda 21 or some other conspiracy theories. They believe in the need for public militias to prepare for the overthrow of the government.”
On some policy, I’ll disagree with Tutvedt. But as a state lawmaker, he warrants our respect. A lawmaker’s job is to represent constituents, plain and simple. Many forget this duty and get embroiled in political infighting.
Time will tell whether the Legislature produces much in the name of progress. They quickly approach the halfway point of the Session and the second half pace is a lot faster.
In the sunny hoop house, time appeared irrelevant. Soon the sap in the sugar maple trees outside the Capital will be flowing. But inside, it’s the 90-day clock that demands results.