Not a lot has changed in the last week. Last week the focus of the House was on HB 2 – the budget bill. No significant changes to the status of bills that we have been tracking. We were prepared to testify in support of Senator Ripley’s bills (SB 353 and SB 354) which reallocate […]
Read More...Work continues on the 4 million dollar budget. The bill will spend the next two days on the House Floor before being transferred to the Senate. Among the major disagreements between Republicans and Democrats is the $350 million discrepancy between the revenue projections provided by the Governor’s office and the Legislative Fiscal Division. That’s a […]
Read More...The Legislature is back in full-swing after transmittal break. And the excitement we expected in the first half of the session has now begun… Republicans voted against the medicaid expansion, Democrats and moderate Republicans banded together to move the “Dark Money” bill forward, and the question of how to fund infrastructure improvements continues. Rick Ripley’s […]
Read More...HB 63 “Revise licensing/regulation of engineers and land surveyors” has been signed by the Governor and is now officially a part of the Montana Code. We will provide an update on both HB2 and HB5 as things start to shape-up as we approach the transmittal deadline next week. MSE/ASCE/ASHRAE 2015 Bill List HB 5 Rep […]
Read More...This session continues to be unusually quiet. There may be things going on behind the scenes, but at this point things are moving along rather slowly. Contacts in the press are saying that it is so quiet they are having a hard time finding stories to report on… The Transmittal deadline is on Feb. 26th. […]
Read More...Discussion continues on HB 5 “Provide for infrastructure development.” Republicans are calling for the bill to be broken into seven individual bills containing the various proposals. There will continue to be disagreement as to how much cash vs. bonding should be used. As we have seen in previous sessions, this discussion is going to continue […]
Read More...HB 63 Revise Licensing/Regulation of Engineers and Land Surveyors will have a hearing on Thursday morning at 8:00 am in the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee and we will be there in support of the bill. The bill has been moving through the process and does not have opposition at this time. The […]
Read More...This session continues to be moving slower than previous sessions. The transmittal deadline (middle of the session) has been shifted out two days due to the low volume of bills coming out of committee, and the lack of need for Saturdayfloor sessions. Many long-serving legislators and lobbyists are still curious about the slow pace, but I […]
Read More...The first week of the 2015 Legislative Session is behind us. The legislators spent the early part of the week in orientation, and committee activity was fairly light. We are in the process of compiling a comprehensive list of bills that we will track on your behalf this session, but it is still too early […]
Read More...There is discussion that the legislature may be able to adjourn by Saturday at the earliest. There are still ongoing discussions regarding budget and infrastructure spending. The only remaining infrastructure bill was SB 416 “Provide for statewide infrastructure,” until HB 402 was revived this week. The following article outlines the arguments for and against the […]
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