Legislative news from Sen. Mike Lang

This week marks the mid-way point of the legislative session, 45th day. It corresponds with a deadline requiring bills that do not have money associated with them to be sent to the opposite chamber of the legislature.

Many great bills survived the “transmittal” deadline, but others did not. One that did pass the Senate is SB 100, it adds fraud prevention measures to Montana’s welfare programs. This will make it harder for those individuals trying to take advantage of our system that was set up to provide support for the members of our communities that truly need a hand up. A recent audit found that DPHHS may have paid $84 million in benefits to ineligible people.

Another great bill that passed, SB 182, creates triggers that lower the personal income tax rate once certain funds are sufficiently filled. SB 182 will prevent government waste on unnecessary spending and keep more money in taxpayer’s pockets.

This week in Senate agriculture we had two bills dealing with the labeling of meat products. These bills failed, but we are telling the Montana Livestock Department to get active with processes that will help the meat producers create a labeling process that shows born, raised, and processed in the USA. I hope we can provide the funds to develop this program. Always remember though that USDA labeled meat products are safe.

We were really busy this past week. I presented SB 355, a bill to create fairness for Daniels County as 24% of their land is state land and 9% is tribal. These are lands in which Daniels County receives no property tax revenue, while Montana receives $3M from those state lands. SB 307 and SB 326 will help all irrigation districts in the state. SB 338 will protect all property owners from liability injustices. SB 230 will return 10% of the mitigation expenses created by sage grouse mitigation, to the general fund. We the taxpayer gave that fund $10M in 2015. The Senate has passed to the House, pro-life bills, which have been vetoed by the previous Governor.

Call or contact me, [email protected]

Gratefully, Senator Mike Lang