Flathead legislators hold many key seats

The 63rd Montana Legislative Assembly was sworn in on Monday, Jan. 7. There is a feeling of cautious optimism around the Capitol. The caution is brought by the fact that there are so many new faces involved in this session.

Not only does Montana have a new governor with Steve Bullock and a new attorney general with Tim Fox, there are 39 new freshmen in the 100 member House of Representatives. That’s 39 individuals that need orientation to an intense and fast 90 day process. The Flathead Valley has some of those new faces in Rep. Ed Lieser from Whitefish, Carl Glimm from Kila and Greg Hertz from Polson.

The optimism comes from Northwest Montana being well represented in this session. The Speaker of the House is Mark Blasdel from Somers, Rep. Jerry Bennett of Libby is chairman of the House Natural Resource Committee, Rep. Mike Cuffe from Eureka is a majority whip, Sen. Chas Vincent of Libby is chairman of the Senate Natural Resource Committee, Sen. Bruce Tutvedt of Kalispell is chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, Rep. Steve Lavin of Kalispell is chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Scott Reichner of Bigfork is chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Sen. Jon Sonju of Kalispell is chairman of the Senate Business Affairs Committee, and I have the honor of chairing the House Energy Committee.

Along with the new, there are some of the same issues that have come through past sessions. Setting a state budget always gets top billing. This past week, Gov. Bullock proposed a two-year budget that spends more than $10 billion. That is at least a $400 million increase over the last two-year spending.

It also includes a 5 percent annual raise for state employees for each year. That pay increase will cost $80 million. Other issues that will be endlessly debated are school funding, Medicaid and how to fix the $4 billion pension shortfall.

The Legislative Web site is an excellent way for citizens to track all of the bills and issues going through the legislature as well as information on contacting your legislators. It can be accessed at www.leg.mt.gov.

Keith Regier is the Republican state representative for House District 5.