Area lawmakers meet in Havre during transmittal to discuss session

Area lawmakers spoke at length about the budget and other matters that have come up during the first half of the legislative session during a legislative meeting Thursday night hosted by Bear Paw Development Corp. and the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.

The meeting took place in Bear Paw's conference room in their office on the second floor of the Ryan Building.

State Reps. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, and state Sen. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, were in attendance. Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development said he was contacted by state Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, who said he thought he could make it but later said he couldn't.

Smith said the pace of the Senate in the first half of the legislative session was slow. He said that is partly because of state revenues, with little money left over for other bills.

"We've had some weird bills in the House. We are probably going to get some weird bills back," Smith said.

Bachmeier, who was elected in November, said bills this session have been both good and bad, but the budget has dominated much of legislator's time.

The state is encountering a budget shortfall.

Bachmeier said he is seeing some "devastating cuts" including a $66 million cut for senior services in the Department of Health and Human Services budget and the failure of the House to pass a special-education funding bill.  

"I get that we need to make cuts, but it feels like we are taking an ax to the budget when what we really need to be doing is taking a scalpel to the budget," Bachmeier said.

Bachmeier, though, also said he was optimistic about some bills, such as HB 14, an infrastructure bill by Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, that would include money for mostly water-related infrastructure projects including some on the Hi-Line.

Bachmeier said one of the oddest bills that has been taken up is a bill that would eliminate the office of the commissioner of Political Practices, who is charged with ensuring legislative and state officials adhere to state campaign finance and ethics laws.

"I think it's really important that we protect that office," Bachmeier said.

The bill would delegate the duties of the office to the state attorney general and the Montana secretary of state offices. Bachmeier and other critics said the problem is both those statewide officers are elected officials who would be dealing with election laws that would affect them.

The outgoing commissioner Jonathan Motl has come under fire by some conservative critics who say the office is too politicized. Bachmeier said he rejects the idea

"I will tell you as a Democrat, he (Motl) has audited all of my finance reports. He's tough on everyone, not just Republicans. I think that is something to keep in mind," Bachmeier said.

Mail Ballot

Smith mentioned that a bill to give counties the option to conduct the upcoming special congressional election to fill the U.S. House seat formerly held by Secretary of the Interior Zinke to be conducted by all mail ballot was among the bills taken up by the Senate before it left for transmittal.

SB 305, introduced by state Sen. Steve Kirkpatrick, R-Great Falls, passed the Senate 37-13. North-central Montana senators Smith, Tempel and Mike Lang, R-Malta, voted for it.

The bill now is in the House Judiciary Committee where it will be taken up before going to the floor.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder Susan Armstrong, who was at the meeting, said she and other clerk and recorders are very concerned about the upcoming special congressional election scheduled for May 25. She said she and her counterparts in other counties are pushing to get the bill out of committee and passed in the House.

"We're really afraid," Armstrong said. She said she heard that when a bill goes to the Judiciary Committee, it usually dies.

Republicans have been divided on the bill, with some saying they are worried about election fraud.

Though the law would not change how elections are conducted in any other elections, Montana Republican Party Chairman and Billings Rep. Jeff Essmann last week said in a mass email that an mail ballot would give Democrats an edge in elections.

"All mail ballots give the Democrats an inherent advantage in close elections due to their ability to organize large numbers of unpaid college students and members of public employee unions to gather ballots by going door to door," Essmann said.

County clerk and recorders throughout the state have advocated for an all-mail ballot because it would save cash-strapped counties money on an election they have not been able to budget for.

"We have to increase our budget and take money away to pay for this election, and we are not going to have as much voters by having a poll election," Armstrong said.

She said the May 25 election coincides with graduations and the Memorial Day weekend that will likely reduce the number of people who go to the polls to vote and make it harder to find qualified election judges.

Bachmeier said the bill should go before the state Administration Committee, which deals with voting issues, but it has been sent instead to the Judiciary Committee, where Republicans could kill the bill.

However, Bachmeier said, a blast motion could be made that would send the motion directly to the floor or a motion could be made to reassign the bill to the House Administration Committee, of which Bachmeier is member.

Bachmeier said he believes there is enough Republican support to make that happen

"I truly believe we can get this passed on the floor one way or another," Bachmeier said.

Charter Schools

Whether a  bill to establish a statewide charter school program becomes law will ultimately depend on whether Gov. Steve Bullock decides to veto it, Windy Boy who has introduced the bill, said.

He said the chances of passage in the Legislature are good.

"It is going to pass. I guarantee," Windy Boy said. "It's going to be up to the governor if he is going to sign it and veto it."

Windy Boy also mounted a defense of  House Bill 376, a bill that would form a board to oversee new statewide standards for forming public charter schools which he said would not divert money from the public schools.

Windy Boy, a Democrat, has broken ranks with many in his own party to carry HB 376 which passed the House 55-44 Feb. 24.

Reps. Casey Knudsen, R-Malta, and Jim O'Hara, R-Fort Benton, voted for the bill, while Bachmeier voted against it.

Windy Boy said charter schools are a way to close the achievement gap and help struggling schools, especially in Indian Country.

Windy Boy said that when he was in the Senate and sat on the Education and Cultural Resources Committee and the Joint Committee on Education he would hear from OPI how 75 percent of students in Montana had graduated. Windy Boy said charter schools could be a way to meet the needs of the other 25 percent.

The bill would establish a seven-member independent public charter school commission tasked with chartering jurisdiction and authority. Membership of the commission would include the Montana superintendent of Public Instruction as well as two members each appointed by the Montana speaker of the House, state Senate president and governor.

The bill also provides two ways a charter school can be established - through a resolution passed by a district's board of trustees and sent to the proposed commission or trustees in a given district would also hold a public hearing regarding the creation of a charter school if at least 20 percent of voters petition for the establishment of one.

Windy Boy said he wanted to dispute two claims that critics have made about his bill: that the bill authorizes the transfer of funds from public schools and that it would take money from public schools. Windy Boy said there is nothing in the bill that calls for funds to be transferred from public school budgets.

"I challenge each and everyone of you take a look at that, go through the whole bill," Windy Boy said. "Where is the transfer? There is not one dime transferred out of this."

He also said there is no building funds in the bill because existing facilities would be used within a district for the bills.

Windy Boy also took issue with how the drafters of the fiscal note attached to the bill came up with the cost. The fiscal note said that while the bill would not take any money out of the general fund in FY 2018, it would take $757,956 in FY 2019. The fiscal note says the bill would then come at a cost of $780,100 in 2020 and $794,087.

The note says OPI said the language of the bill is so broad that it would allow private schools within a district to enter into an agreement under the provision of the bill to become a public charter school.

OPI has identified 24 private non-sectarian schools in 10 counties that enroll 720 students that could fall under the definition of a charter school under the criteria of the bill, the fiscal note says. The fiscal note goes on to say that it assumes 20 percent of the 24 schools would apply and receive statewide charter school status.

Windy Boy said that when he asked how that number was reached, the drafter said it was a hypothetical. Windy Boy said that when that number is taken out the only expenses would be related to transportation, quality educator and commission meetings. In a rebuttal to that note, Windy Boy said that those expenses would then come to only $80,000.

Bachmeier said, as a recent high school graduate, he acknowledged the achievement gap between American Indians and others students. He said it pains him, but the bill isn't the right way to deal with it.

He said efforts like Graduation Matters Montana, a program not renewed by Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, and expanding opportunities for school counselors would work better in closing that gap.   

"I am not comfortable with these public dollars being spent on a new thing that we don't really know how it is going to work," Bachmeier said.

He added that charter schools can already be established in Montana that are accountable to the state school board and then Montana Board of Education. He said there have been some success stories using those statutes with efforts such as Bozeman High School's Bridgewater Alternative Program.

"And I think we need to be exhausting the opportunities that we have before we look to do something new," Bachmeier said.