Archive for Committees
Last Shot at Equality
Posted by:For nearly a year Montanans have heard about an outdated and unconstitutional line in the state’s criminal code. This code, which was struck down in 1997, stated homosexual acts between two consenting adults was a felony with strict punishments.
The code initially received attention when it was discovered that the Montana Republican Party platform contained language in support of this unconstitutional law.
This session. Sen. Facey (D-Missoula) introduced legislation to remove this unenforceable law from our books. It received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate. However, it received a much colder response in the House, where it was killed in the House Judiciary Committee.
Today, Rep. Diane Sands, the first openly gay member of the Montana legislature, attempted to force a full floor debate of the bill. When introducing her motion, Rep. Sands spoke about the impact that these words have on people and the value we hold in our state constitution. The sentiment was echoed by Republican Rep. Steve Gibson, who spoke about the principles his party purports to believe.
Ultimately though, the measure was unsuccessful in the House when a majority of Republicans reinforced their commitment to keeping this unconstitutional law on our books.
However, one small victory that was seen today, was the fact that 51 members of the House voted to get this bill out of committee and onto the full floor. This is the largest number of House members to every should apparent support for the bill.
Transparency in Hypocrisy
Posted by:Since the beginning of the legislative session, Republicans have been blasted over their hypocrisy on health care.
As we know, the GOP has assaulted Montanan’s right to health care. They have cut funding from services that provide health care to children, they’ve tried to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions, they even tried to close the Columbia Falls Veterans’ Home. They falsely claimed they were doing this things because our state couldn’t afford these projects, however, what many of them forgot to mention was that nearly every single one of them is receiving tax-payer funded health care.
Because of this hypocrisy, Sen. Anders Blewett sponsored a bill that would disclose which lawmakers were taking tax-payer funded health care. This bill would be a much needed dose of sunlight on a legislative session that has seriously lacked transparency.
The bill received wide bipartisan support in the Senate and was sent to the House for debate. House Republican Leader Rep. McGillvray even offered to serve as a co-sponsor for the bill. However, the House quickly killed the bill in committee.
After the bill was killed in committee, Democrats in the House began pushing to force a full floor debate on the measure. In addition, there were rumors that people were considering a lawsuit against the state if the names of the people receiving health care was not released.
Today, just hours before Democrats planned to attempt to force a full floor debate on the measure, the state agreed to release the list of names of those receiving health care.
The list showed that nearly every single lawmaker was either receiving health care from the state or receiving subsidies to pay for their own private health care.
Unfortunately, when Democrats pushed to make the bill a law, Republicans still opposed the measure. Not surprisingly, even Republican Leader McGillvray even voted against the bill. Hypocrisy in action.
Tax Breaks for Billionaires
Posted by:Today, Senate Republicans gave initial approval to a bill that would give large, billion dollar corporations tax cuts. These tax cuts would come at a time when Republicans have slashed funding for important state services such as health care for children and seniors and our public education system.
Republicans claim that reducing taxes for these billion dollar corporations will help to stimulate growth in the state, however they conveniently ignore the fact that Montana has already been ranked as one of the best business climates in the nation.
Democrats presented a competing tax cut package that would focus tax cuts to our Montana made small businesses. These businesses create the large majority of jobs in the state and would make better use of these dollars than the billion dollar corporations included in the Republican package. By targeting these tax cuts to our state’s small businesses, the legislature would make these businesses more competitive against the GOP favored large out-of-state corporations.
Unfortunately, Republicans in the Senate were quick to kill the Democratic bill in committee.
The competing tax policies are a clear statement of values. Democrats value our small businesses and crucial state services that help all Montanans. Republicans value tax cuts for billion dollar corporations.
GOP Stiffs State Workers
Posted by:Montana is one of two states in the black. Obviously, this is quite a feat during the country’s recent economic struggles.
Our state was able to do this through prudent economic leadership and shared sacrifices by Montanans.
One of the groups that carried a lot of these sacrifices were our state employees–teachers, nurses, state troopers and firefighters. During the economic downturn, our state employees made an agreement with Governor Schweitzer that stated they would not receive any form of pay raise for several years.
Last fall, as it was clear that our state economy was improving, the Governor and state employees agreed that they would begin to see small pay raises again.
This agreement requires the approval of the state legislature to go into effect. The GOP has made it clear, despite the fact that this small pay increase was accounted for in the Governor’s balanced budget, that they have no interest in providing these hard-working employees with the small raise.
During the hearing for the bill, dozens of proponents of the agreement between the Governor and employees talked about the hard work they do and very few opponents spoke. Despite this, the committee refused to send the measure to the full House.
Today, Democrats in the House attempted to force a full floor debate of the merits of the bill. Unfortunately, the move failed on a 39-54 vote.
The actions of the GOP once again illustrate their hypocrisy, especially when you consider that earlier in the session, they voted themselves a pay raise.
Discrimination Bill Back to Committee
Posted by:Throughout the session, we have been following Rep. Hansen’s pro-discrimination bill. This bill seeks to nullify Missoula’s non-discrimination ordinance that expands protections in the state’s human rights act to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Hansen’s bill would also prohibit any other city from passing similar measures.
Last Friday, supporters of equality and dignity in our state were dealt a blow when the bill received approval from its Senate committee. With this decision by the committee, the bill was headed for it’s final debate–a full debate on the Senate floor…or so we thought.
Today, shortly before the full Senate was slated to debate the measure, Republicans–out of nowhere–asked that the bill be sent back to committee. They cited the revelation of new information as their reason for this action. The bill was quickly returned to the committee.
While at this point, we cannot say anything definitive about the reason the bill, however, if history teaches us anything, it is that when bills are sent back to committee, it is not a good sign for the ultimate fate of the bill. One can’t help but wonder if today’s polling on the actions of the GOP scared a few of them out of supporting such a discriminatory measure.
"We believe that the current budget, heading to the Senate Floor next week, unnecessarily pits Montanans against, creating winners and losers” 