The Special Circus - Part 4

Besides the Corrections crisis, the other primary reason for the Special Circus, was reputedly to deal with our emergency services crisis. The legislature had three bills to consider. The first was SB 1021/HB 121. The Senate rarely will work on House bills, because the Senate leadership likes to dictate to the House what will happen. Thus, HB 121 was cast aside and we focused on SB 1021.

The House Finance Committee again did very good work, coming up with a fair and equitable special revenue fund for the fire departments within our current budget surplus.

Many delegates wanted to ensure the funds (@$12 million) would address a major issue facing these volunteer fire departments today - recruiting and retention. We had a spirited debate. I agree that recruiting and retention are critical, so I voted yes to amend the bill. However, the amendment didn’t pass.

I don’t fault those who opposed the amendment. This was, after all, what we should focus on - key crises and debating, and deciding on the issues that brought us to the special session, not spending on issues that should be resolved in a regular session. If only we’d stayed true to the real missions for the special session.

We then passed SB 1021, 1022 and 1023 to give funds to the fire departments.

As the session was coming to a close, the Senate leadership used a sleight-of-hand trick that will eventually increase taxes or result in nothing to support our volunteer fire-fighters. This caused another spirited House debate, as many delegates oppose increasing taxes, but the Senate leadership’s trick forced most members to vote for the fire departments, despite the probability for increased taxes.

Unfortunately, I missed this debate and vote due to a prior commitment. I would have voted to send the bill back to the Senate, and would not have voted for a tax increase at the same time that we have been squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on Leftist companies and other lavish spending.

So our nominally Republican legislature voted to eventually increase taxes, while spending millions more, all the while barely addressing the key issues facing our state. To his credit, even the Governor came out against increasing taxes. I hope the House leadership will push through a bill in the coming regular session that will force the Senate leadership to fund the volunteer fire departments without increasing taxes.

I’m waiting for one of my colleagues to come to me and tell me that we have to make hard decisions, like raising taxes. I’ve made harder decisions than these throughout my career, more than a few involving life and death. These aren’t ‘hard decisions,’ they are bad decisions, and the legislature must tell the proponents to stuff their increased taxes.

Now I’ll finish up in the Special Circus – Part Five

MONTANI SEMPER LIBERI