Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
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HELENA - On the final day of the 66th Montana Legislature, lawmakers completed their only state constitutionally mandated task by passing the bill that sets the budget for state agencies. House Bill 2, which spends about $10 billion of state and federal money over the next two years, passed its final vote in House of Representatives 73-25. The bill had moved through the session relatively quickly, passing the House 54-45 for the first time in late March and then passing the Senate 28-21 in...
On a cold, January afternoon last year, Wendy Gerky got a call that someone could see water rising in her downtown Havre quilt shop. She thought it was joke. By the time Gerky got to her store, Bearly Square Quilting, the water was knee deep. "Imagine it," she said. "It's like a swimming pool." The flooding came from a fire suppression pipe that ran underneath the building. After the break was found, the city had to shut off water to the block until it could be repaired. The quilt shop had to...
HELENA -- The Montana House of Representatives voted 61-37 Saturday to pass a controversial bill to extend Medicaid expansion. The expanded program has enrolled nearly 96,000 Montanans to receive subsidized health insurance. The federal-state partnership was first passed into law in 2015 and includes a 90 percent funding match from the federal government through the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, is carrying House Bill 658. It includes new requirements for some recipients...
A prolific alien organism is closing in on Montana's ecosystem and could have dire consequences for food production, outdoor recreation and the economy if it crosses the state's borders. Aquatic invasive species have widely infected the Midwest and are continuing to spread. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and state lawmakers are racing to protect the state from all invasive species, but aquatic species like quagga and zebra mussels in particular. Proposals include allowing counties to...
The Montana House Appropriations Committee opened public testimony last week on House Bill 2, the bill that sets the budget for state agencies. Some of the most controversial changes come from the subcommittee that deals with the budget for the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which has proposed cutting more than 100 full-time equivalent positions from the agency. Director of DPHHS Sheila Hogan said the cuts will especially hurt rural areas where it's difficult to find qualified people to do skill-intensive jobs. "Sure the...
On a Friday during the 66th Montana Legislature, Rep. Kimberly Dudik, D-Missoula, joked on Twitter she might need to clone herself. But, in reality, it may have come in handy. That morning, Dudik had five bills scheduled for hearings in three different committees between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. covering issues from state child protection services to property tax relief. This is typical for the the fourth term representative who has consistently carried a high number bills each session. Dudik is carrying 26 bills this session, which is the...
The Montana House of Representatives last week advanced legislation that would require a two-third vote majority for the Legislature to transfer funds out the state's fire suppression account. The governor would still hold the authority to pull from the fund, as well. Speaker of the House Greg Hertz, R-Polson, is carrying House Bill 276 and said on the House Floor during the bill's second hearing that it was proposed in response to the historic 2017 fire season that drained government funds. "We were sitting here in 2017 with a winter much...
The Montana House of Representatives has passed a bill that would use money from the coal severance tax trust fund to pay for low- and moderate-income housing projects. House Bill 16, carried by Rep. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, passed the House on a 71-29 vote and will now move on to the Senate. The bill would allow a loan to be taken from the coal trust fund's investment pool to fund the development of housing originally financed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the United States Department of Agriculture. In an intervie...
Lawmakers in Helena are beginning discussions on how to build and maintain the state's infrastructure, including roads, bridges, wastewater systems and state buildings. Again, the debate will come down to which projects get funding and whether that funding comes by way of cash or borrowing. In 2017, legislators voted to end the session without funding public works projects. Some legislators thought Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock bill did not allocate enough to rural infrastructure while putting money toward renovating buildings like MSU's...
When Brandi King finished a 14-month deployment with the United States Army, she returned home to Montana's Fort Belknap Indian Reservation to heal. King carried with her the trauma she experienced during combat in Mosul, Iraq. She began to feel anxious, hypervigilant and she couldn't sleep at night. In rural Montana, mental healthcare resources can be scarce. King wasn't able to see a counselor or support specialist, and her post-traumatic stress progressed. She became suicidal and attempted to take her own life more than once. Family and...
The 66th Montana Legislature opened for business Jan. 7 and lawmakers spent much of the first week discussing what they hope to see for hot topic issues and bills, like public lands and Medicaid expansion. After newly-elected Senators and Representatives were sworn in, the House voted on a temporary rules bill, which ultimately hedged off a battle among legislators that had been escalating in weeks leading up to the session. The House rules are contentious because they have potential to greatly...
