Rep. Ken Peterson has been strongly criticized for the way he’s run the House Judiciary Committee, of which he is the chair.
Today, he wasn’t just criticized for how he runs the committee, he was also criticized for his bizarre comments to the Missoula Independent.
In an article about Sen. Facey’s bill that seeks to remove unconstitutional language from our criminal code; language criminalizing homosexual acts, Rep. Peterson attempted to defend his opposition to removing this language. He argues that despite the court ruling, the law is still enforceable in certain circumstances.
First, he believes gays and lesbians are attempting to “recruit” heterosexual people. He told the Missoula Independent:
“Homosexuals can’t go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts,” Peterson says. He provides an example: “‘Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let’s go in this bedroom, and we’ll engage in some homosexual acts. You’ll find you like it.’”
Peterson also believes that public displays of homosexuality are considered a felony. He said:
“In my mind, if they were engaging in acts in public that could be construed as homosexual, it would violate that statute. It has to be more than affection. It has to be overt homosexual acts of some kind or another… If kissing goes to that extent, yes. If it’s more than that, yes.”
Unfortunately for Rep. Peterson (who is a lawyer) his legal analysis has been roundly refuted by all legal experts, who say both the Montana and U.S. Supreme Courts have ruled this statute and similar statues unconstitutional.
Veterans’ issues were one of the prevailing themes at the Montana Capitol today.
This morning, House Democratic Leader Rep. Jon Sesso’s bill that would authorize construction of the Southwest Montana Veterans’ Home in Butte was heard in the Senate Finance & Claims committee. Currently, the state has two veterans’ homes, one in Glendive and one in Columbia Falls (more on this one later). The state also has 108,000 veterans within its borders, 1/3 of which are in southwestern Montana.
With only the two existing veterans’ homes, veterans from Butte that go to live in one of these homes will be more than 200 miles from their family if they go to Columbia Falls and more than 400 miles from their family if they go to Glendive. These huge distances put barriers between our veterans and their families that continue to reside in their hometown. This can lead to isolation of our veterans.
If this home is constructed in Butte, veterans will have the opportunity to stay closer to their families. This will greatly improve their quality of life.
The committee overwhelmingly passed the measure. It now goes to the full Senate for debate.
Also today, the House State Administration Committee heard a resolution that would study the possibility of privatizing the Columbia Falls Veterans’ Home.
Earlier in this session, Republicans pushed a measure that would privatize the home and reduce the quality of care for veterans there. After public outcry and protests from Democrats, Republicans were forced to reinstate funding for the facility.
Opponents of the measure contend that this study is an attempt to open the door to covertly privatizing the home. They suggested that rather than privatizing and reducing the quality of care provided, the legislature should pursue other measures to ensure the home is running efficiently.
Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh’s (D-Helena) so-called “Bonding Bill” received approval from the Senate Finance & Claims Committee today. The bill would give communities the opportunity to invest in critical infrastructure and facilities, as well as create much needed jobs throughout the state.
The bill now goes to the full Senate for a floor debate. It has already received approval from the House, however it was amended in the Senate, so if approved by the Senate, the amendments must be agreed to by the House.
The bill would create or improve facilities throughout the state, including the MSU-Northern Auto Tech Center, the Southwest Montana veterans’ home in Butte and the University of Montana’s College of Technology in Missoula.
Both Democrats and Republicans have supported this bill as it has progressed through the legislature because of its short-term and long-term impacts. In the short-term, it would give communities much needed money to build these facilities and therefor create jobs and boost the local economy. The bill also provides long-term economic impacts as much of the money in this bill is slated to improve our colleges and universities. This will ensure that we continue to have a well trained workforce to fill the jobs of the future.
Today, Republicans in the House gave initial approval to a measure that would dramatically re-write the way our judicial system works in the state. The measure would put to the voters a ballot measure to elect Montana Supreme Court justices from districts, rather than electing them on a state-wide basis as they currently are.
This plan would dramatically change how our Supreme Court works. Currently, each justice is charged with the task of protecting and interpreting the constitution. Under the Republican proposal, would be looking out for the interests of moneyed interests in their district rather than protecting the Constitution.
In addition, voters would have less say about who serves on the Supreme Court. Rather than having their voice heard every election on justices, each district created under this bill would only vote on their representation once every eight years.
During floor debate, Democrats also brought up the point that this measure would open the door to corporate corruption on the Supreme Court. Corporations who want to ensure they have a favorable Supreme Court could spend a small amount of money in a few districts and dramatically change the make-up of the courts.
Finally, this bill would open the door to gerrymandering by politically powerful people to drowned out the votes of people they do not want adequately represented on the Court.
The bill will face final approval tomorrow in the House.
After weeks of negotiations and wrangling, today the House and Senate came together to iron out differences between their versions of the state’s budget. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that Republicans in the committee have no desire to pass a responsible budget that will meet Governor Schweitzer’s muster.
Republicans on the committee, which is made up of four Republicans and two Democrats, made it abundantly clear that they have no interest in creating a budget that will meet the Governor’s criteria. Upon their first meeting today, Republicans quickly dismissed amendment after amendment from Rep. Sesso and Sen. Williams, the two Democratic members of the committee.
Sesso and Williams made is abundantly clear that they were only interested in taking part in a conference committee that actually worked to create a responsible budget that would meet the needs of the state.
Republicans on the committee intend to jam through the conference committee, much like they did when the initial bill was in the House and Senate. They hope to complete budget committee hearings by Friday of this week.
Sen. Williams and Rep. Sesso intend to continue fighting for Montana values until the very last day. They, unlike their Republican counterparts, understand that the decisions they make in these committees will have a substantial impact on the lives of all Montanans.
"We believe that the current budget, heading to the Senate Floor next week, unnecessarily pits Montanans against, creating winners and losers” 