House Majority Leader Tom McGillvray today had a hearing on his bill that seeks to replace our state’s income tax system with a state-wide sales tax. McGillvray’s plan would add additional costs to nearly everything purchased in the state–adding a considerable burden on low and middle income people in the state.

The timing of today’s hearing was interesting, as Lee Newspapers released a poll just yesterday showing that 64 percent of Montanans oppose a sales tax replacing our state’s income tax.

Interestingly, during the hearing, McGillvray admitted that this switch wouldn’t significantly improve our state’s fiscal situation. Proponents of the bill claim the bill would streamline tax collections in the state, however the noticeable did not mention the cost of building a system to ensure sales tax compliance in the state.

This isn’t the first radical piece of legislation that the Republican leader has pushed. Earlier this session, McGillvray’s pet legislation died. It would require that people seeking a divorce would be required to undergo several hours of mandatory marriage counseling. It’s ironic that McGillvray, who ran on a platform of getting government out of people’s lives would push a policy that delves so deep into a family’s personal decision.

Rep. Wendy Warburton (R-Havre) is a strong supporter of government interference in a woman’s private medical decisions. Throughout her career she has supported a variety of radical anti-choice bills. She has also sponsored many constitutional amendments to do so.

Today, two of her anti-choice constitutional amendments faced 3rd reading in the House. During the vote on the measure, Rep. Warburton did not cast a vote. This would be a major set-back for her radical agenda, because in order for the bill to move to voters, it must receive 100 votes between both houses of the legislature and Republicans only have 96 votes, so they need all of theirs and then a few Democrats as well.

Finally, nearly four minutes after the voting on the bill was closed, she stood to ask that she be allowed to vote on the bill, since her vote had not been registered. Democrats objected to her motion. After making their point that Republicans need to treat every vote seriously and be attentive, they removed their objection. However, the irony of Warburton’s actions was not lost on anyone.

As we have told you, Republicans have been pushing a series of bills designed to make voting more difficult in the state, including a measure that would include a measure that would eliminate election day voter registration in the state. Rep. Warburton has been a strong supporter of these measures and now, she was standing on the floor of the House, asking her colleagues to bend the rules to allow her vote to be counted.

This is simply the latest in a series of actions by Republicans in the legislature in which they seek to play by a different set of rules than they’re asking Montanans to. First, there was the GOP’s decision to improve their taxpayer funded health care, while attempting to deny many Montanans basic health coverage. Then there was the revelation that many of the same Republicans who had turned away federal money to help our schools and hospitals, were themselves some of the biggest recipients of federal subsidies. And now today’s events. They hypocrisy keeps getting worse and worse.

Many people at the Capitol were shocked when they came back from transmittal break. Shocked because the bills that were receiving hearings were bills that were subject to debate and disagreement, however were based in rationality.

Unfortunately, the GOP just couldn’t keep this going. This week, they returned to their pre-transmittal break ways. They are back to hearing bills that do nothing to bring jobs to the state or improve the state’s economy. Instead, these bills pursue a radical agenda that seeks to divide Montanans.

Bills that will be heard this week include:

• Establishing “The Code of the West” as the Code of Montana. The “Code of the West” is a document, developed by a New Yorker, that seeks to establish moral boundaries for people in the western United States
• Establishing Montana’s state sovereignty. This resolution seeks to toe the line of secession from the United States, and set up ground rules for the state of Montana to leave the union.
• Revise Montana’s constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. This bill would attempt to redefine one of the best parts of Montana’s constitution in order to put business interests over those interests of the Montana people.
• Allow guns in bars and banks, among other businesses. This bill would allow people to carry concealed weapons into previously restricted businesses.

These bills are only a few of the radical bills that GOP has been pushing all session long. Montanans hoped the GOP had received the message from their constituents during the transmittal break. Unfortunately they did not, and instead continue to pursue a radical social agenda.

More than 300 public employees packed the steps of the Montana Capitol today to protest GOP plans to drastically cut state employee pay. The GOP plan would cut state employee pay by on average 15%. The bill was scheduled for a hearing this morning, however was cancelled just a few days ago.

The pay cut bill, proposed by Rep. Wayne Stahl, fly in drastic contrast to the Republican election promises of improving the quality and quantity of jobs in the state.

If put into law, the pay cuts would have a devastating impact on Montana as a whole, and particularly devastating impacts in our rural communities. In many of these rural communities, state employee pay is a crucial component of their economy. Therefore, this bill would not only hurt the pocketbooks of the state employees, it would also make it harder for Main Street businesses to thrive.

The enormous size of the rally stood in stark contrast to the size of Tim Ravndal’s Tea Party rally that was held shortly thereafter.