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Missoula lawmaker asks Senate to stagger terms for forest lands taxation advisory committee
Summary
Representative Mark Thane told the Senate Tax Committee House Bill 17 would stagger terms for the Productivity Forest Lands Taxation Advisory Committee to preserve institutional knowledge; the Senate later concurred with the House and assigned a carrier.
Representative Mark Thane, sponsor of House Bill 17, told the Senate Tax Committee that the bill would stagger terms for appointments to the Productivity Forest Lands Taxation Advisory Committee so the group does not lose institutional knowledge.
The bill, Thane said, leaves intact the statutory productivity standard and the committee’s membership but strikes the existing language that causes all nine members’ terms to expire at the same time and replaces it with staggered terms and a clarification about replacing legislators whose legislative service ends before their advisory-committee term. “I respectfully request that this committee likewise support House Bill 17 and advance it to the floor for consideration by the entire Senate,” Representative Mark Thane said as he closed the hearing.
Thane said the change responds to a practical problem under current law, which he cited as 15-44-103 of the Montana Code Annotated (MCA) describing productivity forest lands and the related advisory committee. He told the committee the bill was vetted by the Revenue Interim Committee and received unanimous bipartisan support there and in the House, where it passed on second and third reading unanimously.
Robin Rude, deputy administrator with the Property Assessment Division of the Department of Revenue, appeared as an informational witness and said she was available to answer questions from committee members.
In executive action later in the session the committee voted to concur in House Bill 17. The motion to concur carried unanimously; the committee requested a carrier for the bill and assigned the bill to Vice Chair Beard to carry it to the floor.
The change is limited to the timing of appointments and does not alter who serves on the advisory committee or the statutory productivity standard for forest lands.
