Area legislators talk about pending bills

Back for a week from the intensive, four-month Montana legislative session, three state legislators spoke with about 20 constituents and Sanders County Commissioners March 4 at the county courthouse.

State Senator Bob Brown (SD-7) and representatives Denley Loge (HD-14) and Paul Fielder (HD-13) were present for the question-and-answer session.

Each legislator spoke for several minutes about their experience with the deluge of bills and correspondence they work with. Each has several bills they have written or been asked to carry for constituents, and must learn about hundreds more. Each receives thousands of constituent messages daily.

“The last four days especially, it’s been pretty much a zoo up there,” said Loge, who is on the Business and Labor, and Fish and Wildlife Committees, and chairs the Transportation Committee. “Just too much activity. It’s hard to really process everything correctly. When it gets that busy, we’re not doing due diligence, I don't feel. I apologize for that, but that’s what we’re thrown into.”

Fielder, who serves on the Fish and Wildlife, Natural Resource and Taxation Committees, said there were 97 bills in two days on Second Reading in the House.

“That’s an awful lot of bills to hear,” Fielder said. “And a lot of times, it’s out of your level of expertise and you might not know about all the bills equally.”

He said learning more about a bill from others has occasionally convinced him to change his vote between the Second and Third Reading.

Fielder thanked Sanders County Election Administrator Nichol Scribner, saying the election judge/observer training he had received had helped him work credibly on elections bills.

Brown said he attempts to look through all the messages he receives if they are still timely. “A well-thought out note from somebody from home is more effective than anything, in my opinion,” he said.

Brown said he usually lands on the more conservative side of an issue, with his Republican colleagues.

“I believe that’s what the people that elected me for.”

Brown made an exception, however, when he and one other Republican voted with Democrats to reject a call for a Constitutional Convention of States to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

Though he aided the effort to bring the bill up for discussion, “I sincerely looked at every side of the thing, and I believe it’s the wrong thing to do,” because it would come down to whichever political party was in control, and the power within the party would get to decide the Constitutional changes," he said.

Fielder introduced HB-144, changing current law to read that a peace officer cannot be removed or charged with a misdemeanor for not assisting health officers’ requests.

With revenue forecasts continually improving, Fielder said, some of the bills that have been tabled may be able to be brought back up for consideration.

One of those could be a proposal to eliminate state income tax on Social Security payments, which at current projections would cost the state $100 million. As a revenue bill, it can be brought off the table again. Loge said if there were a place to “backfill” at least half of the revenue loss, it would be more likely to pass.

One constituent said that these candidates campaigned on jobs for Sanders County and asked what they were doing in the legislature for jobs and working families.

Brown replied that Governor Gianforte’s “Comeback Plan” was a guide, including SB-65, which set some standards for businesses “ground to stand on if they were to be sued” if someone is injured or dies from COVID-19 on their premises.

Asked if another Comeback Plan tenet, tax breaks for the corporations and wealthier individuals and shifting more of the tax burden to lower income Montanans, was a good strategy, Brown said yes.

“I’m not a wealthy person. I work every day I can work, and we do pay our bills.” Brown said. “But the person who pays me, and makes my job happen is a wealthy person, the person who has the money to do that. Then, in turn I contribute back to our economy through the taxes and everything else that I pay, which helps support all of the programs we have that help support those that are more in need. If they don’t have the money to hire me, they won’t. I get paid pretty well, but that doesn’t come from folks who make $15 an hour.”

Loge, giving the IFG-St. Regis lumber mill as an example, said, “If we can encourage those businesses to come in with some kind of incentive, we’re going to create those jobs that pay more. That’s where we’re headed. Tourism is basically minimum wage jobs, and if you can give a stimulus to get outside investors to come in, plus Trump put in opportunity zones - incentives to invest capital gains in the communities, that’s what’s going to get those jobs and get people working.”

He said Paradise School might also get some money.

Fielder said he had discussed bringing a state position to Plains to help implement the “Good Neighbor Authority,” a program through which the state can assist the U.S. Forest Service in their environmental review and “speed up the processes for timber sale and harvest.”

He said he thought it would help “get more timber out of the mountains here and put more people to work.”

He is also supporting Rep. Steve Gunderson of Libby’s legislation to help support mining, including in western Sanders County. “That will have a big ripple effect.”

Another questioner asked about Second Amendment legislation. “HB-258 was transmitted to the Senate,” Fielder said. “That prohibits the enforcement of any new federal firearms, ammunition, or accessory regulations or bans, by state and local officers.

Loge was asked to defend HB-202, his bill that would limit the take of grizzly bear, antlered moose, ram sheep and mountain goat to a once per lifetime kill.

He explained that hunters could continue to draw special tags for other species than what they had harvested, but the limitation would prevent some getting two special kills when others may never draw one.

Loge was also asked about changing his vote on Third Reading to vote against HB-113, which would have barred medical providers from prescribing gender-dysphoria treatments to minors.

He said he felt it was overreach, because, “If someone in the medical profession did or said the wrong thing, they could actually lose their licensing. We have to trust them a little bit.”

He said it is already illegal to treat minors without parental consent. He voted for another version, HB-427.