Uncategorized
Montana lawmakers weigh bills dealing with child abuse and campaign Finance, Gov. Bullock vetoes legislator pay raise
Published
7 years agoon
Posted By
Outlaw PartnersBy Freddy Monares
UM Community News Service
University of Montana School of Journalism
HELENA – Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed the first bill of the Montana legislative session last week, reducing the proposed pay raise for legislators.
House Bill 1 would have increased the legislators’ pay by 14 percent for the next legislative session. Bullock vetoed the bill with an amendment to increase pay only by 1.4 percent to coincide with the rate of inflation.
He said the state needs to “live within its means.”
“At the same time that we’re tightening the belt of the rest of government, the legislative branch sent me a bill to increase the spending of their branch of government by 14 percent,” Bullock said.
Republican Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, said she was blindsided by the veto.
“Half of the amount that he cut was actually, he approved last session as an increase. He signed it into law. It was an increase for legislators’ stipend so that they could use it for travel,” Ballance said.
The bill will now go back to the House and Senate to be read with the governor’s proposed amendments. Rep. Ballance said the only alternative for them now is to reject the amendments.
“In my mind it felt petty. It felt like something that was done for reasons other than fiscal budget structure,” Ballance said.
But, the governor said the proposal to increase legislator pay is an irresponsible one during a time when the state is asking other agencies to make cuts.
“I’m sending it back to them with a more realistic number, growth that matches inflation and growth that mirrors the moderate growth of the overall budget that I proposed,” Bullock said
As child abuse cases increase, bill would create commission to study and track issue
In the wake of reports of an increase in child abuse and neglect cases, lawmakers in Helena are considering a bill that would create a commission to review trends and patterns to share with policymakers. House Bill 303 also aims to educate the public and service providers about child abuse and neglect.
Rep. Kathy Kelker, D-Billings, is the sponsor of the bill and said the issue matters to her most because of her former position as director for Head Start in Billings.
Kelker shared a story about a girl in the program, using the name Mary as a pseudonym.
“In a quiet, matter-of-fact voice, Mary shared that she liked to eat sand because it made her sick, and if she ate enough she would die,” Kelker said.
After investigating, the organization found out that Mary was suffering from extreme abuse and neglect, Kelker said.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies representative Sarah Corbally said House Bill 303 echoes federal efforts to end these cases.
“That it needs to be a proactive approach to prevent them, not this reactive approach to find new and greater punishments for these types of cases,” Corbally said.
The commission would be made up of 17 appointed positions. Nine would be appointed by the governor and the rest of would come from the attorney general.
“Altogether we’re talking about a fairly large commission, but the point is to be multidisciplinary with a lot of different viewpoints being represented,” Kelker said.
Montana bill would include filing fees as campaign expenditures
Sen. Doug Kary, R-Billings, admits he, along with other lawmakers, have broken the law when filing campaign finance reports.
That’s because current statute does not allow lawmakers to include their filing fees in their campaign finance reports. Senate Bill 3 would allow elected officials to include that fee in their expenditures.
Sen. Kary is the sponsor of the bill and said legislators need to look beyond what their filing fees. He said since campaigns are not open yet, he can contribute to a candidate to file for office.
“All campaign finances should be documented,” Kary said.
Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl said however the committee votes, his office would enforce it.
“It is up to this committee to decide whether or not you wish a filing fee to be a personal expense or a campaign expense,” Motl said.
Motl said that in the summer of 2015 a complaint was filed with the commissioner’s office that candidates were filing those fees as expenditures. As a result, Motl’s office now monitors expenditures within the campaign finances.
“We didn’t go retroactive with it. We understood the culture had thought that it was a campaign expense,” Motl said.
The bill would make it easy to see how the money flows in and out of campaigns, Sen. Kary said.
“This is a little bit of the dark money that, personally, I would like to take out of the equation. It’s very simple,” Kary said.
Freddy Monares is a reporter with the UM Community News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism and the Montana Newspaper Association.
The Outlaw Partners is a creative marketing, media and events company based in Big Sky, Montana.
Upcoming Events
april, 2024
Event Type :
All
All
Arts
Education
Music
Other
Sports
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before 9/10/2024:
more
Event Details
Children turning 5 on or before
9/10/2024: Kindergarten
enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year can be completed by following the
registration process now.
Children
born on or after September 11, 2019: 4K enrollment is now open for
families that have a 4-year-old they would like to enroll in our program for
the 2023-2024 school year. Please complete the 4K Interest Form to
express your interest. Completing this form does not guarantee enrollment into
the 4K program. Enrollment is capped at twenty 4-year-olds currently
residing within Big Sky School District boundary full time and will be
determined by birth date in calendar order of those born on or after September
11, 2018. Interest form closes on May 30th.
Enrollment now is critical for fall preparations. Thank you!
Time
February 26 (Monday) - April 21 (Sunday)
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm We will combine the heart-opening powers of cacao with the transcendental powers of breathwork and sound. Together, these practices will give us the opportunity for a deep
more
Event Details
Saturday, March 23rd 6:00-8:00pm
Time
March 23 (Saturday) 6:00 pm - April 23 (Tuesday) 8:00 pm
Location
Santosha Wellness Center
169 Snowy Mountain Circle
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
more
Event Details
We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.
Sundays, April 14, 21 and 28, 2024
Noon until 6PM.
$170.
Time
14 (Sunday) 12:00 pm - 28 (Sunday) 6:00 pm
Event Details
Everyone is invited to join us in celebrating 2 years of arts education in the BASE Art Studio with us! Take a tour
Event Details
Everyone is invited to join us in celebrating 2 years of arts education in the BASE Art Studio with us! Take a tour of the studio, meet our instructors, and meet other artists of all levels in our community. We’ll be getting creative and you’ll have the chance to make your very own artful button pin.
Stick around for our Volunteer Appreciation and Social beginning at 6:30 p.m.!
Time
(Thursday) 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
BASE
285 Simkins Dr