- [Coffin] Happening now on the Rundown.

- They are leaving Montana.

They do not feel safe, they do not agree with our laws.

- [Coffin] The 67th legislative session is back in action with budget discussions and big bill hearings underway.

- Please, could we stop bringing bills that we know are going to be litigated?

Our public coffers are going to be bled dry and then we really will be in a world of hurt.

- I'm Jackie Coffin and the Rundown Capital Report starts now.

The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation.

Encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans.

The Rundown Capital Report takes place primarily in Helena which is the original land of the Salish, Pondera, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Bannock and Apselica people.

Hello, and thank you for joining me again in Helena.

The session is back in full swing after the transmittal deadline.

And this week, we'll look at bills about taxes, grizzly bears, social issues and the budget.

My special guest this week is superintendent of public instruction, Elsie Arntzen, let's begin.

Starting with an update of where we are in session.

Last week, legislators were out for a few days after clearing transmittal deadline.

When all bills had to pass through one chamber and officially marks the halfway point of session.

Resuming Monday evening, legislators began bill hearings again and there has been a lot of attention paid to the state budget.

But on Friday, changes came to the legislative schedule.

Originally, the session was set to adjourn at the end of April.

As per our state constitution, the legislative session can not run more than 90 legislative days, but with the anticipation of federal stimulus money coming down the pipe, legislative leadership has been shaving off meeting on Saturdays, saving those days up to potentially extend the session.

Now, the session is set to adjourn on or before May 11th adding almost two weeks on to the original session termination date.

The COVID-19 stimulus package passed congress this week and millions of dollars will be coming to Montana.

There have been several bills this session deluding the governor's authority in times of a state emergency or disaster, redirecting some of the authority to the state legislature.

That includes the governor's power of distributing federal disaster relief funding.

- House bill 122 seeks to restore the constitutional check on executive power or a constitutional check on executive power by expanding the legislature's role in managing crises lasting longer than 30 days.

- [Coffin] On Friday, Governor Gianforte gave an update about COVID-19 in Montana.

- As many of you know, tomorrow marks one year since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was detected in Montana.

And there's no mistaking it.

This last year has brought real serious challenges and many dark days.

Since the first case nearly a year ago, Montana has seen over 100,000 cases.

Tragically, nearly 1400 Montanans have lost their lives.

With heavy hearts, Suze and I join all Montanans in keeping the family and friends of those we've lost in our prayers.

As has been the case for several weeks, we're making encouraging progress in Montana combating this pandemic.

Our trend lines remain promising.

For the fourth straight week, we are averaging less than 200 cases per day.

Over the last seven days, we've averaged only 130 cases per day.

And today, there are only 951 cases active in Montana.

The last time we were below 1000 active cases was July 13th.

And there's more good news.

As of today, 39 of our 56 counties have had cases in the single digits.

Of those 39 counties, 16 counties now have zero cases of COVID-19.

This is great news.

Next week, Montana is set to receive more than 25,000 new doses and more than 2300 second doses.

And when it's my turn, I'm going to get the vaccine.

I will choose to get it.

And I encourage Montanans to receive these safe and effective vaccines as soon as their turn comes up.

Jackie?

- [Coffin] I asked him about the legislature's action to divert some power in decision-making away from his office and to their own body.

And if this is the right decision or frustrating to him?

- You know, we're tracking some of these bills, we'll see what ends up on my desk.

There are reasonable concerns with the balance of power between the executive branch and the legislature.

There are reforms that we would support and I'm going to wait until we see the final bills that get to our desk.

- [Coffin] On Friday, all eyes were on the House Appropriations Committee as it continues to hammer out the state budget.

Specifically, here were attempts to restore funding to the Department of Health and Human Services.

- Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I hope you can support this amendment.

- [Coffin] At the beginning of session, the House Appropriations Committee voted to revert the funding point for DPHHS back to where it started in 2019, which effectively cuts $1 billion from the state agency over the course of two years.

Now, as the transmittal deadline for appropriations bills including the budget creeps closer, there are attempts to put that funding back into the bill.

- And that the amendment restores innate American program manager and director of native American house positions to the director's office within the department of HHS.

The total funding for FY22 is 240,000, including 120,362 general, 16,000 state special, 103 512 federal special revenue.

And the reason why I'm bringing this, Mr. Chairman, to me, this is a bad precedent of how we're starting to look into doing business here.

And number one out of the 2,874 employees statewide that these two have been isolated and removed with no reason.

And as you heard my lines of questioning to the director yesterday was that, I asked him specifically that these two employees under the HHS were not given the human resource due process of verbal, written and dismissal.

And if that's going to be the case, then I guess I would like to see the other 2,874 other members to be scrutinized under this process.

And so just the optics of itself, Mr. Chairman, didn't look too good out there to Montanans.

- There is still a lot of discussion to be had about the budget.

And next week, I'm going to invite onto the show some Capitol reporters who know the budget in and out to tell you what you need to know.

The only thing the legislature has to do when it meets is pass a state budget, so that will be a major focus of the second part of the session.

Also moving through hearings this week were tax bills.

- That amendment changes that top tax rate from 6.75, we strike that and we insert 6.5%, page one, line 21.

- But I would just say, especially at the end of a pandemic, let's be cautious, let's be thoughtful about where and how we'll offset these losses and making sure we're doing it in a way that's fiscally responsible.

- [Coffin] Moving through committee and chamber floor hearings are bills carrying tax cuts proposed by Greg Gianforte and his Montana comeback plan.

The Senate this week passed house bill 303 called the Big Jobs Act that raises the bar on taxation of business equipment from a $100,000 to $200,000 which the governor's office says will exempt about 4,000 businesses from business equipment taxes.

Last week at a ranch in the Shields Valley, I asked the governor where the money will come from to replace this specific tax revenue.

- Well, we've been very straightforward in our conservative budget.

We've held the line on new spending.

That's allowed us to provide breaks for farmers and ranchers and these dollars that we're letting our small businesses keep, they're going to spend it downtown.

That's going to create more economic gain and we'll get that back again.

- [Coffin] Another Gianforte tax cut bill had a hearing in house taxation this week.

Senate Bill 184, the Montana Entrepreneur Magnet Act, carried by Senator Mark Blazedale, a Republican from Big Fork and president of the Senate.

This bill exempts companies new to Montana from paying capital gains tax when they sell or exchange stock related to their company.

This is something Gianforte himself did with his company, Right Now Technologies in its sale to Oracle.

The entrepreneur magnet has already passed the senate.

Two last subjects I want to touch on deal with two contentious, but very different topics.

Starting with grizzly bears.

- I got multiple pictures of grizzly bears that were about 25 feet from my house and they were pacing to try to get into our house and our livestock.

- [Coffin] Three Republican-backed bills heard this week all focus on removing grizzly bears from the endangered species list and setting some rules for their management, specifically allowing people to kill them in self-defense and in defense of livestock and allowing them to be trapped and lethally taken as a wildlife management tool.

- But the legislature finds that the grizzly bear population in the state of Montana is recovered and should be removed from the federal endangered species list.

The legislature also finds that the expanded grizzly bear population has moved into private property and residential areas, small towns, causing increased conflict with livestock owners and presenting a human safety concern.

Legislature further finds that Montana citizens have a right to protect themselves and their property and livestock from wild animals.

Then we jump down to the bottom of the page and this just kind of summarizes it up again but in accordance with the rights conferred on Montana citizens, pursuant to article three, section three to 12 in the Montana constitution, legislature finds the act of a grizzly bear attacking, killing or threatening to kill a person or livestock is an absolute and absolute is a critical word there, defense against the person who takes a grizzly bear in accordance with this section being charged with a crime.

- [Coffin] But grizzly bears are managed by the federal U.S Fish and Game Agency, not the state.

- [Sherry] I urge you to vote against this bill because it seems to be already creating confusion and misplaced expectations.

And if passed, it would lead to conservation and legal challenges in the state without really having a clear on the ground benefit or change of circumstances.

This bill does revise text but it's not very clear what sort of real world change this would bring if passed.

A person can already legally kill a grizzly bear when human safety is at risk.

I know that was mentioned but I think it's important to reiterate that this bill, this vote, is not a debate on whether people should be allowed to defend themselves when human safety is at risk, it's already allowed.

A person can also already kill a bear that is attacking livestock.

There is the text around someone taking a bear that is threatening livestock although even this would not really lead to on the ground change, at least not in the near future because federal law supersedes state law, bears are still federally protected.

Stating that bears are recovered is not going to expedite delisting and this bill could even mislead Montanans to believe that they can legally kill bears in circumstances that could actually lead to federal prosecution.

I think that that makes Montana look bad.

So for these reasons, I urge you to vote against this bill.

Thank you for your time.

- [Coffin] One of three bills, Senate joint resolution 18 sponsored by Senator Bruce Gillespie, a Republican from Etheridge, urges the Montana delegation to push the federal government to de-list grizzly bears from the Yellowstone ecosystem, the Rocky Mountain Front and consider the Cabinet Yak area.

These bills have all passed through the Senate but have not yet been voted on in their respective house committees.

And finally, to the house judiciary committee, home of the controversial bills and hearings, for Thursday's hearing on Senate bill 215, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, sponsored by Senator Carl Glim, a Republican from Kyla.

SB 215 effectively takes Montana back to where it was before non-discrimination orders saying businesses have the right to deny services based on their religious beliefs.

Testifying in support of these bills was Montana's new lieutenant governor, Kristin Juris.

- Do we need this in Montana?

Yes, we do.

You have heard the list of cases and there are many more where state or local government has taken actions that have unduly burdened the exercise of free religion.

I was the faculty advisor for the Christian Legal Society, The only group ever banned from the law school at the University of Montana.

That was devastating to those students who were told that their values were not going to be protected.

They were not allowed to express their beliefs in the same matter that the democratic club, the republican club, the environmental club and all of the other clubs that were allowed to participate in the school were allowed to do.

Governor Gianforte emphasizes, this is not a license to discriminate against the LGBTQ.

They are hired as employees across the state.

It is not a license for lodging facilities or private employers to discriminate.

And we would request that you affirm and vote positive on SB 215, thank you.

- The proponent testimony I heard today did not list a single instance of a Montanan's religious liberties being burdened by current state law or non-discrimination ordinances.

I heard examples from other states, I didn't hear any from Montana.

What you will hear today is LGBTQ folks from Montana, indigenous people from Montana, talking about their own instances of discrimination in this state.

Local examples of what it actually looks like on the ground for LGBTQ people to exist in Montana.

I've been screamed out on the street.

I've heard people say terrible things about me in this building.

I know people say terrible things about me in this building behind closed doors.

And you know, it happens and we all have to decide how we deal with it.

But the fact that you're going to hear a bunch of examples from queer folks and none from proponents about discrimination in this state should be very telling to you.

- [Coffin] The house judiciary committee has not yet voted on this bill.

One of the goals of this show is to help you get to know your state leaders.

This week, I sat down with Superintendent of Public Instruction, Elsie Arnson, a Republican from Billings, to talk about the challenges and opportunities with Montana education right now.

- I'd like to ask you a little bit about how you got into education, why, how long you've been an educator and what about education speaks to you?

- Thank you.

You know, I know who I am and I know who I am because it's not that people tell me who I am.

I just have, how do I want to say, done so many experiences and they've all led me down this path but I would never have thought that I would be the state superintendent, that I would be an elected chief, one in 50 in the United States.

I never thought that was my dream and if there's anything I can say to that, to our students, don't ever say no to yourself because I never really did.

I always thought there was an opportunity but I never really built my path.

It just seemed to all fall into place.

So I know there's greater authority than me, but it's all about trust.

So my mother grew up on the Crow reservation and the opportunity that that gave me 'cause we always went back to Crow.

So I have some great longstanding clan families and that has built me a great understanding that there is multiple cultures in Montana and one doesn't say that it's the right one.

there are many that have built our great state.

So my dad grew up in Eastern Montana in a town that's no longer there and the stories that he's told me about, going to school uphill both ways in a blizzard in July, well, we don't believe all those stories, but the hardships that my family as homesteaders had in Eastern Montana, I think are what built me to have, when someone says no to me, that I always searched for that yes.

So, I have a degree in economics, it came from the University of Montana.

I believe there was only one other female that graduated with me in my field and got married to my high school sweetheart.

Had a family, determined education was the path.

Went back for my second degree and realized that none of my credits transferred.

So I had to start my degree all over again.

So when I became a legislator then, one of my first purposes was to make sure that there wasn't a shelf life on when you got an education from one of the universities in Montana.

And I'm very pleased to say that that's the case right now.

So I love my job.

I have 22,000 teachers and administrators, school counselors that I license and we license them every five years.

So it's a very robust system that is constantly moving.

We know during COVID that a lot of teachers didn't know how to teach remotely, so we've done a lot of professional development.

We have had a lot of instances with teachers wanting to come to Montana.

And to have that reciprocity, we're waiting on the legislature to give us more flexibilities so that we have quality teachers that come into our state and that we maintain that high quality of education.

So I also talk about the movement between the school, from the traditional brick and mortar school all the way to that kitchen table.

But there's also been movement in public school to private.

I have 117 private schools across our state and I have 821 plus that are in public schools.

So we are looking at a movement between public and private.

In our private school sector, where our families determine, they go to the county superintendent and they register annually, just one time and then they say that they're going to homeschool and they give the name of the child and the age of the child and that's what our laws dictate, there's a lot of flexibility.

So during the health crisis and the pandemic, we saw that those numbers doubled.

So I now have 10,000 students that are being chosen by their families to be educated at home.

We know that there's going to be movement back and forth.

So when the doors open in the fall of '21, there may be a new crop of students that have come into our state because of who we are in Montana and wanting to welcome those new Montanans.

But we also know that there's going to be families that are going to pick public school in the fall.

So there's a lot of flexibility right now that is happening in public schools and in schools just general.

Montana is a local control state which means that we want those flexibilities to be offered as flexible as they can because our school systems of our 400 districts are different.

A majority of our districts have a hundred students or less.

The largest school district that I have is housed in Billings, school district two.

We have over 18,000 students there.

So one size doesn't fit all and I keep shouting that out.

If we focus on the student and the learning for that individual student, then it doesn't matter what system, whether it's public, whether it's private whether it's a large school, whether it's a rural school, if we focus on that student and give them as much flexibility for opportunities to learn, then Montana has won.

Montana can go further.

And that's what I'm all about.

One of my middle names is flexibilities along with cursive, that's what I told all my fifth grade students, to make sure that they have the opportunities that we can give them, whether it's the federal government giving opportunities, whether it's our state policymakers or whether it's my role as state superintendent, putting our students first.

- [Coffin] In that realm of school flexibility and school choice, does that include using state education dollars, federal education dollars for parents to be able to send their children to private schools, a charter school or a religious education?

- So in Montana, our laws prohibit it at this point.

So the policy makers, because we have a legislature in session right now, there are a couple of things that are working its way through.

I do believe in the child, I believe in the family and I believe in choice when it comes to that.

We don't have a lot of choice in Montana.

As I said, majority of our schools are a hundred or less.

Those are in our rural communities.

There isn't an opportunity for choice there.

So my whole philosophy is let's give choice to the system that is existing right now which means then that it has to happen at that local level.

If I do have a community choice where there's a different system that might be offered in, then that choice should be offered at that family level as well.

But we are prohibited at this point to mingle that public dollar with a private opportunity.

- [Coffin] All right.

What are some of the challenges in improving Montana's public education system at this time?

- Well, my number one piece of legislation and I was a legislator for 12 years.

And then in my role, this is my third session.

My number one bill each and every time has been, let's give the dollars to the school districts.

Let's give them as flexible as possible and let's give them first.

So governor Gianforte signed our funding bill on February 25th.

That's 10 months away from Christmas, but I say it's Christmas for our public school system.

It also puts stability into this next budgeting year.

So they now know what the inflationary factor is.

They know what dollars they could receive and they're preparing their budgets right now for that next group of children that are going to walk into that school door.

So the stability that I can offer with that happened, the governor believed me, the legislators held their promise for me.

And it wasn't for me, it was for every single child, school, public school child that's in all of their districts across our state.

So, I'm so pleased.

My second piece of legislation was wrapping in the basic aid formula all the components, special education component.

It's always been separate.

And to me, that doesn't follow the constitution of equity.

Why would our special needs students be out here?

Why are they not embraced in that formula?

So it's not finished yet, I don't have ink on that bill yet at the governor's desk, but we're almost there.

And that believability is so important and it's not just because of the pandemic.

My mother was a special education teacher and I can tell you that I've had buckets of children that have walked into my classroom that have different abilities and that different abilities shouldn't be looked at differently, it should be looked at with all kinds of flexibilities.

It doesn't mean more money to them.

It means that they are funded equitably.

So I'm a real big proponent to making sure that all children have the opportunity to learn and I believe that's constitutionally sound.

Lawmakers have heard me and I'm very very pleased with how the session is progressing right now.

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

If you'd like to get in touch with me, my email is jackie@montanapbs.org.

I would love to hear from you.

See you next week, here in Helena.

The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation.

Encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans.

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