Legislative report

By Denley Loge

This has been the busiest week yet of the Legislative session in Helena. Transmittal deadline is the time when all nonrevenue bills must clear the House. If the bill does not make it out of the committees or pass the third reading on the House floor by the first of March, they are dead.

We have been having committee meetings that have lasted over five hours to accomplish these goals. I have been at the Capitol from 6:45 a.m. until as late as 8 p.m. many days this week. We had House sessions six days this week, as well. On Mar. 1, the House will take a five day transmittal break, then come back and work on revenue generating bills and bills the Senate has cleared in their committees and chamber, and had sent to us to review. Our House bills, in turn, go to them for review. Some bills have already crossed over and been acted upon, and have gone to the Governor’s desk.

One big issue that came up this week was further discussion on the infrastructure. There are two main options that surfaced this week. One option involved an appropriation committee looking at the Department of Transportation and create pressure for an in-house cleanup of spending. This would probably eliminate many positions, tighten their belts and re-appropriate internal funds. This option shows there may be enough funds to reach the level needed to match the federal grants.

This looks to be a short-term fix with the possibility of a slight balance for the next bienium. As proposed it would probably not have a local match grant for counties and cities.

The other infrastructure fix is the proposal of HB 473, the fuel tax. As presented, it would be roughly an eight cent per gallon tax on gas and diesel. This is presented as a longer term fix to the funding problem for our roads and bridges. This option also makes funds available to come back to the local communities in a match program.

The discussion will be long and hard on these proposals after the break. The new tax vs. enough money with no additional tax, local funds available vs. no match, long term fix vs. short term fix. There is still talk of bonding and also the discussion may come up with variations or combinations of the above topics.

I have found that in reading bills, one or two words makes quite a difference. Sometimes things are not as they appear on the surface, or as a bill passes through the system, it may be targeted and changed and turned from a good bill at one point into a very bad bill. I still keep saying that we have no money to spend so the priorities are sometimes painful to sort out.

If you feel you need to talk, please feel free to call or e-mail. Thanks to those that have sent notes. I have not had time to answer all of them this week.

I will be home from March 2nd until the 6th. Please feel free to call me at 649-2368 or 544-5220 or e-mail: DenleyLogeHD14@gmail.com. I will also be at the Mineral County Commissioners meeting with a short block of time at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, March 3rd to meet with folks.

Denley Loge, a St. Regis Republican, representats House District 14.