[Jackie VO] - Happening now on "The Rundown."

- The budget is an expression of our values.

- [Jackie VO] Legislators vote on their biggest bill of the year and mull over a variety of bills on voting, wolves and more.

- And there's no intention of suppressing anyone's right to vote.

- I'm Jackie Coffin and "The Rundown: Capitol Report" starts now.

- [Jackie VO] The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

The Rundown: Capitol Report, takes place primarily in Helena which is the original land of the Salish, Pondera, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Bannock, and (indistinct) people.

- Welcome, and thank you for joining me for another installment of "The Rundown: Capital Report."

And thank you for sticking with me as we wrap up 12 weeks of the 67th legislative session.

This week, we'll take on the State budget as its faces a floor vote, a few pieces of legislation regarding hunting, trapping, and wildlife, a few more looking at voting rights.

Let's begin.

- [Jackie VO] With a quick update of where we are on the legislative calendar, having just concluded the 12th week of the legislative session, we're looking at five to eight weeks left of the session.

The legislature cannot meet more than 90 legislative days.

And if they want or need to go beyond that, a special session must be called.

While the session was initially scheduled to end on May 1st, legislative leadership shaved off Saturday session days and tacked them onto the end to extend the session until May 11th.

But they can end before that.

This adjusted schedule, is due to the federal stimulus money coming into Montana and a special joint subcommittee is meeting to decide how to allocate it.

This is in addition to the two other huge sums of money the legislature's tasked with appropriating.

The millions of dollars of revenue expected for Montana's new legal marijuana market and the State budget.

The only thing the legislature has to do is pass a budget.

In this week, after 11 weeks in committee, it finally hit the house floor.

- The only job that our legislature actually has to do is pass a budget.

In our history, we only failed to do so once and had to come back in a special session to work upon this budget.

I don't wanna be that legislature.

And the nice part about our budget is that we have in our constitution a line that says, "Appropriations by the legislature, shall not exceed anticipated revenues."

We have a balanced budget requirement, something I wish that the Fed did have.

So let's talk quickly about house bill two and then we'll turn it over to our chairs of the sections to explain to you details of work.

So, a quick summary, all funds, that State special revenue and federal and general fund, house bill do directs about $12.6 billion of funding.

The largest section, if you look at all funds is section B which is public health and human services.

And it has a total of about 6.1 billion as 48% of all funds.

The next largest section is Section E, Education.

It's about $2.8 billion.

And section C is about $2.1 billion.

As it currently sits, all funds is about $418 million lower, than the budget proposed by Governor Gianforte So again, I'm very proud of the work this committee did in searching for efficiencies and gains.

- The budget is an expression of our values.

And while this budget has a little bit of ways to go, it's a pretty good start.

And thank you to Mr. Chairman and my co-vice chairs for again, being very respectful to the Democrats and the public, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for the opportunity.

- [Jackie VO] The State budget, which lives in house bill two, is carried by representative Llew Jones, a Republican from Conrad.

In total, it accounts for $12.6 billion, over the 2022-2023 biennium.

Governor Greg Gianforte unveiled his proposal for the budget at the beginning of the session.

But the budget crafted and passed by the legislature Monday, is over $400 million less than what the governor proposed.

This funding goes to a wide array of state agencies and programs from fish, wildlife, and parks to the Department of Justice, Public Education, Arts and Cultural Grants to the Montana Historical Society and so much more.

A lot of funding, discussion and oftentimes conflicts, center around the Department of Health and Human Services.

- So Section B, we came into this with really an idea of service, trying to increase the service out to the people of Montana as we did reducing bureaucracy.

We start at the beginning of the session by adopting the 2019 appropriations as a starting point, I think this was great for Section B, I'd encourage it.

Future sessions, this gave us a deeper look into the history of the budget, and I believe in the end gave us the ability to make more informed decisions.

- It's a different conversation than the other sections.

Oftentimes the conversations, current committee members excluded, but oftentimes the conversation is more hand to mouth.

It's just hand to mouth, like here's a service, go home and be grateful for the food you have and the healthcare you have.

And sometimes it ends there, and oftentimes that's the thinking in the lens.

But really that's not what it's about, and I'm sure all my committee members, the new ones, would agree that health and human services has opportunity to be a real game changer, create generational change and lift the whole economy up.

- In an all-day house hearing Monday, different committees presented their chunks of the budget, amendments were proposed, discussions were had.

- We've spent a lot of time in the last two months and you spent a lot of time today hearing about a lot of numbers.

And one of the questions I hope you will think about is, what do any of us really understand about the programs that are being implemented and the goals to be achieved by each of those programs?

- [Jackie VO] The minority party, Democrats, proposed 12 amendments to the budget and every single one was voted down.

Some heartbreakingly so.

- It's B2-B007.

I think all of you know this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

For all age groups in the United States, Montana has ranked in the top five for suicide rates in the nation for the past 40 years.

Recognizing the urgent need to prevent suicide, our legislature has made a bipartisan effort in the past few sessions to fund research proven suicide prevention measures.

Saying to you is that we have tried and we have succeeded to some degree in using evidence-based strategies, and to drop the ball now is not a good idea.

I hope that you will vote for this bill, give it a degree.

- As for you to resist this amendment and not because of lack of support for suicide prevention.

I know myself personally, I've had a couple of friends that have been there.

This is about where the dollars are going and how effective they are.

I was surprised to hear how much we already do in suicide prevention and how little we track that.

And when we asked in a committee, where is the evidence that this is working?

Our suicides keep going up.

There was crickets.

We need to know where our dollars are going and how effective they are before we just throw more money at this problem.

I would ask for a no.

- Representative Whiteman Pena.

- Mr.

Chair, I would like to speak to the amendment.

- Please do.

- Okay, Montana is the third highest rate of suicide in the nation.

American Indians are 31.39%, Caucasians 23.37% youth, in 2019, 18 youth suicides, 11 to 17 year old, more than doubled national.

Suicide is number one cause of preventable death for 10 to 14 year olds.

Number two cause for children of 10 to 14 year old, adolescents 15 to 24 and adults ages 25 to 44.

220 to 230 suicides in Montana per year.

For every suicide, there are six survivors.

That means 1,400 new survivors every year, a survivor of suicide.

One out of five Montana kids, live more than 100% below federal poverty level.

Lack of behavioral health services.

So I am strongly a yes, agree for this amendment.

Friday night, at 11:30 pm, this Friday night, I got a phone call.

My grandson committed suicide, 24 years old.

So if there is any way, we are the voice of the Montana people.

We were elected in these positions for this very reason.

You cannot put a dollar amount on a life.

My grandson's life was taken because of whatever circumstances were in his life.

24 years old, a life feeling he was hopeless.

Who knows?

I'll never have that answer to that question, why?

I am in strong support of this amendment.

This is for our stigma, a quote from a person.

We see depression as a weakness that we are a burden.

So when you think about suicide, this comes from their minds.

These depression, suicide is preventable.

Please vote green.

Members, please join me in a minute of silent prayer.

- It's going to take years and years to change habits and conditions that have been here for 40 years.

So don't expect instantaneous changes in terms of how many people could commit suicide, but we can keep track of how many people who are down in out and really sad, really depressed, who had the intervention and are still with us.

That's what matters.

Please vote green.

- The question arises on the amendment of Representative Coker, those in favor of vote aye, those opposed vote no.

Representative Matt Regier.

- No.

- Are absentee votes?

- Mr.

Chair, Representative Weatherwax is voted aye.

(indistinct) Has any member wish to change his or a vote?

If not the clerk or record the vote.

- Mr.

Chair, 34 representatives voted aye, 66 have voted no.

- The amendment fails.

Is there discussion on the bill?

- [Jackie VO] While Democrats tried and failed to restore money to the Department of Health and Human Services, there was money allocated for other places.

- Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee.

This is an amendment that goes hand in hand with the bill that I carried earlier this year.

It adds a one-time only restricted account of 1 million to the opposite higher Martin University System.

- [Jackie VO] A Republican proposed amendment, was successfully added to the budget, allocating $1 million of state funding to the Montana University System to provide firearms training along with the implementation of house bill 102, which allows concealed carry on college campuses.

House bill 102 was signed into law by Governor Gianforte in February.

The concealed carry on campuses takes effect in June.

- We just heard in the last couple amendments that we have here (indistinct) and burning everything under Section E. And here we are adding a million dollars of more debt into house bill two.

And I just view this as a jobs bill for attorney so be prepared.

- House bill 102 was thoroughly vetted.

It was debated in both chambers, passed both and has been signed by the governor.

At the time we debated it in this house, there was no fiscal note, and we were told that there was no cost.

This amendment before you today, seek simply to prevent the Montana University System from seeking legal clarification, regarding the region's constitutional authority provided in article 10, section nine.

- We established policy earlier in this session, and essentially, perhaps, create an unfunded mandate.

I am an opposition unfunded mandate.

And so I think this provides appropriate funding to implement a policy that this body endorsed.

- I would disagree that this was an unfunded mandate.

I think that the university system would have the ability to fully implement this without additional cost.

I think the idea behind this is that it's a good faith effort in working with the university System.

They are planning to implement this.

I don't believe that they were are planning on litigating from the conversations that I've had.

So this is a good faith effort to expand the safety as much as possible and take some of that burden off and do this the right way.

So I think funding a program for safety is much better than funding legal fees.

So I would urge a green light.

- [Jackie VO] Ultimately the budget passed the house on a 67 to 32 vote.

(indistinct) - There's been a lot of attention paid this week on a national level to voting rights.

Proponents say they're trying to increase election security while all opponents say it's voter suppression tactics.

There are a couple of bills going through the Montana legislature right now.

I'd like to point out to you.

The first is house bill 176, carried by Representative Sharon Greef, a Republican from Florence that ends same day voter registration in Montana.

HB 176 closes voter registration at noon the day before elections.

Having already passed through the house, HB 176 was in front of the Senate this week.

- This is one of the bills that I feel proud about caring.

It's one of the election integrity bills championed by Secretary of State, Christi Jacobsen.

We're blessed to have the right to vote.

We also need to accept the responsibility for that right.

Elections, you know, they don't just pop out out of the blue.

They don't come along and surprise us.

We know they're coming.

The dates are there.

We need to register ahead of time.

As of right now, this bill says it started out as the Friday previous.

And I believe it says that in the title but it's been amended to be the Monday previous to the Tuesday election.

Many States require an average of 15 days ahead of the election.

And there's no intention of suppressing anyone's right to vote.

- Perhaps, the most compelling reason you should vote, no, on house bill 176 is that Montana voters were able to weigh in directly on this issue when it was on the ballot as legislative referendum 126 in 2004.

And what were the results of that?

In 2004, Montanans voted down LR 126 by 57%.

41 out of our 50 Senate districts, voted against this measure.

And this was Montanans all across the State, in rural and urban districts, in red and blue districts, in every geographic region in the State.

This is a very popular provision that we have in law.

It's not often that we see in legislation that Montanans have had an opportunity to vote on.

Let's not forget about our responsibility to our constituents.

And to be honest, I think based on sitting through the committee hearing, we have heard very little evidence and support for this bill.

I'm asking you to please vote, no, on house bill 176.

- [Jackie VO] It ultimately passed 30, 20.

Also this week was Senate bill 169, which tightens voter ID laws and what type of IDs are accepted at the polls.

One of the most notable parts of this is how it affects people trying to use student IDs from a college, university or other schools.

If someone presents a student ID at the poll, they will also have to present a second form of ID.

This past third reading in the house, Friday 65 to 33, and is returned to the Senate with amendments.

Right on, its heels was the passage of Senate bill 196 which allows polls to operate at different hours based on the number of people planning to vote in-person.

There was a bill set to be heard Friday that protects and expands native American voting rights sponsored by Representative Sharon to (indistinct) a Democrat from Crow Agency, but the hearing was rescheduled.

Now, moving from poles to wolves.

- The population of wolves is far in excess of the State of Montana management plan.

- [Jackie VO] Two bills expanding wolf hunting and trapping and legalizing wolf snaring, have already passed both chambers and been signed by the speaker of the house readying them for the governor's desk.

This week, a bill that reimburses hunters for harvesting wolves through hunting and trapping hit the house floor.

- Madam Chair, this bill is a reimbursement of costs.

If you look at the fiscal note, you'll see that it has no cost to the state.

That is one thing that people don't understand because they feel they are putting taxpayer money into the trapping of wolves, and it does not.

It is all private money that would go into this from different sportsmen's groups.

And it is just the reimbursement and not, they do not make any money off the wolf harvesting.

so we can guarantee quality trappers out in the landscape, Madam Chair.

- If we can help the trappers with private funds that are donated for the purpose of trying to control our out of control wolf population, that's a good thing.

These funds are coming from private interests.

In the past, there's been counties that have put together their funds to try to control predators in some of their areas.

A lot of that control work was targeted towards coyotes.

But again, it's predator control put together by private organizations that are not necessarily coming from our State revenue funds.

So trapping and hunting wolves is not a cheap project.

And I appreciate the work that sportsmen are doing so that we don't have to hire US Fish and Wildlife Service and other government control agencies to do the work that the sportsmen are trying to do for us.

And if they can get reimbursed for some of their expenses so they can stay in the field doing that job for the citizens.

I'm going to support this bill, Madam Chair.

- I'm a hunter, although, not a trapper, but I support wolf management and I agree that there's enough wolves out there to warrant active management, including hunting and trapping.

But this bill crosses a line with the reimbursement of money that crosses the line into unethical sporting territory because of the transfer of money.

And I know that technically the bill was structured so that the funds are paid as a reimbursement and not as a bounty per wolf killed but that's really a distinction that is meaningless.

- We've already, this section passed a number of bills that liberalize our wolf trapping seasons and will no doubt increase wolf take.

And I think that we are well-advised to defeat this bill and see whether these other measures, are being successfully used by our trappers.

I do think this bill is somewhere in between legitimately reimbursing expenses and a bounty bill.

I don't wanna see Montana be a bounty State.

And I think we would be well-advised to deliberate further on whether we wanna do this and look at what happens over the next two years with the expanded seasons and the expanded techniques that we've already authorized to take wolves in this State.

So I'm a no voter on this.

- [Jackie VO] This past second and third readings in the house 60 to 37 is sent back to the Senate with amendments.

This week, the conversation on wolf trapping landed in the governor's office.

As news emerged that governor Greg Gianforte trapped and killed a colored Yellowstone wolf outside of the park in the Paradise Valley back in February.

However, at the time, the governor had not passed required classes by FWP, allowing him to trap and kill a wolf.

FWP issued governor Greg Gianforte a warning, and required him to take the wolf trapping certification courses that would legally allow him to harvest a wolf by trapping.

In a press conference, the governor was asked about the wolf trapping incident.

- So first let me say, I think trapping is a very effective tool in manager and predator control.

I was pleased to be able to a harvest a wolf here recently.

It was an investment of probably 40 days or over five years.

I was honored that we have such a great program here in the State and we followed with the slight misstep I had and not having the certification.

I had the hunting license.

I had the trapping license.

I had the wolf tag.

We were checking these traps on a regular basis as required by law and as soon as we determined that we had have a wolf, we dispatched the wolf.

- [Mara] Just to follow up on that.

I'm Mara Silvers from Montana Free Press.

Did you personally set the traps?

- I was involved in setting the traps, yes.

- [Mara] But there was other people involved as well.

I had a mentor essentially, who we work together.

I've been hunting wolves for probably five years.

I've hunted wolves on a public land, in the tobacco routes on some private ground, in Willow Creek and public land, South of Bozeman.

This was a ranch in Paradise Valley.

I was spending more time down there this winter because my wife was fortunate enough to draw a bison tag.

And the 15th happened to be the last day of bison season.

And, so I spent most of that time over the last five years, hunting wolves and have a friend that has done extensive trapping.

So we worked together to set these traps and we kind of pair it up to make sure they were checked on a regular basis.

And again, it was a tremendous honor and to be able to harvest a wolf here in Montana.

- [Mara] After taking the course, I think it was yesterday, would you have done everything the same way, especially, with a wolf that had a radio collar or after having taken that course, are you reassessing how you proceeded with those practices?

- Yeah, that's a fair question.

I've been trapping for nearly 50 years.

I started when I was just a (indistinct) and again, I think it's integral part of our heritage and an important tool and predator control in wildlife management.

So the class, I made a mistake.

I'm glad I was able to check the box last night.

It was a good refresher for me, but in hindsight, I wouldn't have done anything differently.

- That's all the time we have this week for "The Rundown: Capital Report."

Next week will be a little bit different.

Legislators will be breaking for Easter Passover and other spring celebrations back home, and so will I.

So instead of talking about legislative news, I'm going to bring you an update about our State's vaccination efforts.

My own story with the COVID-19 vaccine, and revisit some work I did this summer as I was traveling the State meeting with Montana scientists who were working around the clock, trying to find a cure for COVID-19.

That will be next Sunday.

I'll see you then.

- [Jackie VO] The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.