Senate committee declines to advance Curti’s ropeway safety board after split vote

Senate Bill 556, a proposal to reestablish a state Board of Ropeway Safety and require registration and inspections of passenger ropeways, failed to pass the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee on a 5–6 roll call and was subsequently tabled.

Senator Willis Curti, sponsor of the bill, said he introduced the measure after a series of incidents and a recent tragic accident at Red Lodge Ski Area. He described the policy objective as restoring transparent oversight that other states provide. Curti read a letter recounting a 2023 incident in which his son and he were involved: "my son and I were involved in a ski lift incident 2 years ago at a Missoula area ski area where my 4 year old son was ejected from a ski lift chair from approximately 15 feet above the ground," the sponsor read.

SB 556 would have created a seven-member board (including a licensed attorney, a Forest Service or BLM representative, a professional engineer, a first responder, a ski-patrol or AMT representative, and three ropeway owners/operators), required annual registration beginning Oct. 1, and authorized assessments of up to 0.25% of gross ropeway receipts to fund oversight. The sponsor gave a fee example: chairlift $200/year, rope tow $100/year, aerial tram $300/year.

Opponents raised legal and administrative questions. Don Harris, chief legal counsel for the Department of Administration, called himself a "technical opponent" and asked the sponsor to remove language extending state defense or sovereign immunity to independent contractors, saying contractors typically secure their own insurance and counsel and a court may not apply sovereign immunity to private contractors. The sponsor told the committee he was amenable to removing that language.

Commerce staff said the board would sit at the Department of Commerce and noted a fiscal note is forthcoming; Commerce told the committee there are 15 ski resorts with passenger ropeways, a number used to compute the fiscal estimate. The committee extensively questioned whether existing insurance and private inspections already address safety concerns, how cross‑state jurisdictional ropeways would be handled, whether the board should cover year‑round tram uses (sponsor said the bill would cover year‑round operations), and who could close an operation after an incident.

On a roll call the motion to pass SB 556 failed (Yes: Curti, Novak, Morgeau, Logie, Weber; No: Trebus, Zolnikov by proxy, Hunter, Gillespie, Phelan, Noland). Afterwards a motion to table the bill passed. The sponsor said he may pursue amendments on the Senate floor but that today's vote effectively halted committee advancement.

The hearing record includes technical and informational testimony but no final amendment to the independent-contractor language on the committee floor before the roll call. Committee members said they wanted clearer answers about insurer roles, inspection regimes, and the interplay with federal land permits before committing to a new board.