Montana Senate roundup: pension funding package clears; video gambling increase defeated; multiple budget, MEPA and tax bills advance

The Montana Senate on April 3 considered a long agenda of bills and resolutions, approving a wide-ranging finance measure that directs $300 million to a pension reserve and advancing multiple bills on taxation, environmental review and local levies while rejecting a proposal to raise video gambling bet limits.

The most contested item was Senate Bill 287, a state finance package that reallocates investment earnings and makes a one-time $300,000,000 transfer into a newly established pension state special revenue account to shore up public pensions and authorize targeted transfers if pension returns fall below actuarial assumptions. After multiple hours of floor debate and a series of failed amendments that would have tightened legislative control over how money from the state’s debt-and-liability account may be used, the Senate approved SB 287 on second reading, 27-23.

Also on second reading the Senate defeated Senate Bill 153, which would have raised the maximum bet on video gambling machines from $2 to $4 and increased certain payout limits. The bill failed on second reading, 20-29, and then the Senate voted to indefinitely postpone it by voice and recorded vote 37-10.

Lawmakers advanced several other bills on second reading or by concurrence with the House: House Bill 285 and House Bill 270 — both revising aspects of the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and the remedies or venue for MEPA challenges — were concurred in by the Senate after floor debate; senators also concurred in House Bill 291 limiting state and local authority to adopt air-quality standards more stringent than federal requirements (32-18). The Senate adopted the free-conference report on House Bill 201 (disclosure rules for paid signature gatherers) 32-18 after extended debate over privacy, safety and voters’ rights.

Smaller measures that were advanced or recommended do-pass by the committee include Senate Joint Resolution 20 (recognizing the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II), Senate Bill 238 (establishing a voluntary donation account to modify archery equipment for hunters with disabilities), Senate Bill 322 (raising a business equipment tax exemption), and Senate Bill 550 (reclassifying certain telecommunications property). Those bills passed on second reading as recorded by the clerk.

Votes at a glance (action, mover if recorded,…