Local senators receive pro-business awards

| July 14, 2010 12:38 PM

Mineral County legislator Rep. Gordon Hendrick (R-Superior) and Senate District 7 Sen. Greg Hinkle (R-Thompson Falls) have been given a "Champion of Small Business" award for their pro-small business voting record in the 2009 Legislative Session.

The Montana Chamber created these awards to honor those legislators who showed a commitment to free enterprise and business issues.

"These legislators were strong voices for small businesses and job creation in the last legislative session," said Webb Brown, President/CEO of the Montana Chamber. "They have a vision for long-term, sustainable growth of Montana's economy."

To be considered for the "Champion of Small Business" award, the Chamber used the following criteria:

(1) the legislator must have a Business Score within 10 percentage points of the P-base District score, which is the indicator of how pro-business the legislator's constituents are;

(2) other factors including pro-business floor speeches, sponsorship of pro-business legislation, or carrying a pro-business bill on the floor; and

(3) the legislator voted in favor of overriding the Governor's veto of SB 371, the Montana Chamber's top priority for the session.

The short title of SB 371 was, "Clarify applicability of ‘at work' for work comp purposes."

The Montana legislature site states that SB 371 was "an act to revise the definition of ‘employee' or ‘worker' with respect to workers' compensation laws, clarifying injuries that may not be considered as arising out of and in the course of employment."

The full text of the bill and its history are available at http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/bil...SB0371.htm.

To view the full voting scorecard from the 2009 Legislative Session, go to http://www.montanachamber.com.