Does the state Legislature need a special session to spend down the budget surplus?

Arren Kimbel-Sannit

Montana Free Press

Republican legislators are divided on calls to assemble in a special session and pass income and property tax rebates, the latest proposal to spend down a substantial state budget surplus.

Two separate pushes for a special session, a comparatively rare phenomenon in Montana politics, have emerged. Each faces the hurdle of either getting the governor on board or gathering majority support among legislators. And while Republicans hold more than enough legislative seats to make the latter path a possibility, some factional flare-ups mean not every member of...