Blasdel reflects on legislative session

House Speaker Mark Blasdel is generally pleased with the recently completed state legislative session. He took time to reflect on the session last week.

Blasdel, R-Somers, served what could be his final House session due to term limits, pending any special session called by Gov. Steve Bullock.

Blasdel ended up negotiating with Bullock on the $10 billion two-year budget, which received some criticism from conservatives in the Senate. “It had to be done,” Blasdel said Thursday while sitting at Vista Linda, a restaurant and catering business he runs with his mother. “The leadership in the Senate (Jeff Essmann) gave me that responsibility,” he said. There is a $182 million projected budget surplus going forward after the session started with surplus of over $500 million.

Blasdel had mixed feelings after some moderate Republicans cooperated with Democrats to pass major school funding and pension reform legislation. He said that moderate Republicans who worked with Democrats “made it difficult to work in the (Republican) caucus, but obviously the party’s a big tent.”

Blasdel said he didn’t support the school funding bill, SB 175. “I didn’t like the funding entitlements that went to a lot of the bigger school districts,” he said. Some $12 million will go to  large districts, including Kalispell. Blasdel didn’t care for automatic inflationary increases the bill requires each year, but said it had some good things in it. One example is a mechanism that will allow parents, school districts, teachers and school boards to do a better job of tracking how students are performing. Another positive is that schools in eastern Montana will be able to share their oil and natural gas tax revenue with adjacent districts. The bill also could result in property taxes being frozen if enough oil and natural gas tax revenue is produced. Blasdel noted that the bill spends $50 million more than Bullock requested.

Two pension reform bills passed — HB 377 and HB 454. Blasdel said he believes the state could’ve done better. The bills — which were sponsored by Democrats and supported by Bullock — would increase employer and employee contributions by 1 percent each. The state also chips in around $100 million from the general fund for a number of years until the pension funds are actuarially sound, Blasdel said. Retirement cost-of-living-increases are reduced from 3 to 1.5 percent.

On a more positive note, Blasdel said the Legislature passed a bill — SB 96 — that would eliminate the business equipment tax for 13,000 businesses, while another 1,000 business will see a tax reduction. The bill provides an exemption for the first $100,000 of business equipment. “We made the counties and school districts whole through the general fund,” Blasdel said.

Another positive that Blasdel mentioned was SB 282, which simplifies the state income tax by reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to two. The higher bracket would be taxed at 6 percent with the lower bracket at 4 percent. Some 30 tax credits were whittled down to five. The bill is projected to be revenue neutral.

Bullock had not signed or vetoed a number of these bills as of press time, but Blasdel was optimistic that quite a few would become law.

In other items of note, Blasdel said the Legislature spent $50 million on infrastructure improvements, i.e. new buildings for Missoula College and a diesel mechanics school in Havre, sewer and water improvements and road and bridge construction. This was done without bonding, which was important to the Republican caucus, Blasdel said.

He is unsure whether Bullock will call a special session to deal with a Medicaid expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act after the House quashed the effort. If the federal government is able to produce an online health insurance exchange for the state, Blasdel said that those who make between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level would be able to purchase private insurance on a sliding scale and pay a premium consisting of 2 to 9 percent of their income. The exchange is supposed to be operational by November, he said.

He was disappointed that a property tax reappraisal bill — SB 398 — failed. The Senate approved it by an unusual 28-1 vote on April 5, the day Democrats were in protest, but the House Taxation Committee tabled the bill on April 19. The bill would have changed the six-year property tax appraisal cycle to two years to account for volatile real estate markets. The Montana Farm Bureau opposed the bill because it wanted agricultural land to remain on a six-year cycle. Additionally, there were privacy concerns about aerial photographs being taken of property, Blasdel said.  

The Legislature circumvented any Bullock veto by putting two referendums on the November 2014 ballot. These would end same-day voter registration by moving it to the Friday prior to an election and create a top-two primary system that would result in the top two candidates from any party advancing to the general election. California, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington use variations of the top-two primary.

Blasdel may or may not run again due to term limits and redistricting based on the 2010 Census. Sen. Verdell Jackson’s district currently includes Somers and Lakeside, but beginning in 2015 it will not. Instead Somers and Lakeside will become part of Sen. Janna Taylor’s district, which will stretch from Polson to Kalispell. Taylor will be up for re-election in 2014, but will be able to serve another term. Blasdel said he might run for the seat of Sen. Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell, if he decides not to run again in 2014. State law allows one to serve in an a district one doesn’t live in as long as it’s in the same county the legislator lives in, Blasdel said.