Regier provides a legislative update

The 63rd Montana Legislature finished its seventh week. Next week is transmittal. That marks the midpoint of the 90-day session and is when all nonrevenue bills have to be acted on by their respective chamber.

This past week, the House experienced a seldom-used blast motion. This motion is used to bring a bill that has not received enough favorable votes in committee to pass it to the House floor. Those bills are said to be “tabled.”

When a blast motion is made, it requires three-fifths of the representatives present to bring the bill out of committee and put it on second reading the next day.

House Bill 235, titled “Revise trespass laws,” was tabled in the House Judiciary Committee. This bill was also named the “corner crossing bill.” In Montana, four sections of land join at a point. Often the opposite sections are public land and the other opposite sections are private land. Stepping from one section to the other over the point of intersection would cause the person to trespass on the other two sections simply by violating the air space over those sections. It would be a minor trespass, but a trespass none the less.

HB 235 would have allowed for this trespass. Many hunters felt it was a good bill, land owners felt the opposite. Proponents of this bill felt they had enough support in the House to blast it out of the Judiciary Committee. They filled the House gallery with citizens wearing hunter orange to show their support of the bill. The motion failed on a 45-54 vote.

The same day, the House heard HB 404, which directs the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to transfer funds from the Wildlife Habitat Acquisition account to the Hunting Access account. The purpose of this transfer includes the purchase of easements at corner crossings. This bill passed a second reading on a 66-34 vote.

Other bills of interest to the Flathead are HB 8 and HB 414. HB 8 is titled “Renewable resource bonds and loans.” This bill uses coal severance tax money to help local governments finance water systems, sewer or irrigation projects. It helps these entities secure lower interest rates on bonds for their projects. This bill passed the House on a 97-2 vote.

HB 414 is titled “Permit registration of motor vehicle to those having a place of abode in Montana.” This bill will allow people who are not Montana residents that spend a portion of the year in Montana to register their vehicles in the county where they are staying. The financial increase for the state is estimated to be $1.2 million a year. It passed the House on a 99-0 vote.

These two bills are now being sent to the Senate. You can contact your senator with your views on these bills as well as view the full text of the bills by going online to www.leg.mt.gov.

Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, represents House District 5, south rural Columbia Falls.