2009 Legislative Session Kicks Off Today with Swearing-in and Party Caucus’

January 5, 2009 in 2009 Legislative Session, Economy & Business, Montana, Water Quality

by jhwygirl

Well, the 2009 Legislative Session is finally here. The biennial budget, of course, being the main task – but with the economy teetering on a free-fall, it appears lawmakers are in agreement that the budge discussions may not have the popcorn-and-fireworks that they did in the (some say) embarrassing 2007 session.

I think that points to a great start. Maybe the lack of disagreement on needing a budget that is so lean it will allow for time to address other items on the agenda – like creating a standing water policy committee (SB4) out of what has been a much needed interim water policy committee. The legislation, while proposed by Sen. David Wanzenreid of Missoula, is a result of recommendations made by the interim committee who saw a need to have a permanent committee with permanent members who were not only able to build seniority, but able to build a foundation of knowledge with which to work. Hearings for that start on the 12th.

A wealth of information came out of that interim committee. This page will take you to it – and if you head to the schedule, you can link to the recordings of the live meetings. Instead of listening to the radio, seriously, download some of those meetings. Some of them are pretty lively. The March meeting comes to mind.

Water issues are important here at 4&20, and I’ll repeat myself here without embarrassment: What is Montana without its water?

Let’s see if a majority of our legislators agree.

Related to water, legislators will also be taking on public access county bridges to Montana’s waterways. Again – another topic that we’ve blogged about here at 4&20 and one that we hope a majority of legislators can agree needs to be addressed. I mean – public right-of-way is public right-of-way. No private individual should be taking that area without either (a) just compensation, or (b) ensuring that their use of it doesn’t interfere with the public’s right to use it also.

Rep. Ken Petersen of Billings has proposed a bill – HB26 – which attempts to address the situation. Petersen – a Republican – wants the public to pay for fencing erection and improvements that are (or have been) erected by private individuals. No date has been set for hearing on this bill yet.

Another one we’ll be watching is SB47, which deals with payday loans. Proposed by Sen. Donad Steinbeisser of Sidney, the bill goes a few steps towards regulation of the loan shark lenders – including the potential for a one-year license revocation, and adoption of federal regulations that would make failure to comply violations of state law – but it does fail to place maximum ceilings on loans.

Hearings for SB47 begin on Wednesday.

Steinbeisser has a 100% rating from the Montana Chamber of Commerce for 2007. The Chamber lobbied heavily in 2007, successfully quashing attempts at regulating these loan sharks.

I’ll have more later today, with some focus on upcoming House Committee hearings.