January 13-17, 2025

Pay plan advances; separation of powers cliffhanger; Senate committees mostly full steam; weather continues to impress.

The 69th Montana Legislature is 10 days into the 2025 session. More importantly it’s the time of year we like to call “mid-January in Helena” which typically means endless air inversions, dirty ice, just enough snow to be inconvenient but not enough to be fun, and the risk of parking a vehicle on an uphill slope only to learn shortly thereafter that the iceberg you had parked on had broken free and taken the vehicle for a ride into the middle of the street. This really happened.

Other things that really happened this week:

  • Total bill requests ticked up to 4,319.
  • The OCHE legislative team’s tracking list totaled 520 bills and requests, only 50 of which are introduced bills and a whopping 84 of which bear the short title: “Generally revise education laws” with no drafted language yet.
  • Senate committees began meeting in earnest, the chamber continuing to operate under its temporary rules.
  • The House Appropriations Committee voted to advance HB 13, the state employee pay plan, with only technical amendments.
  • Bills requested by the interim's Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform, including SB 44, began the hearing process.
  • Work continued on the Legislature's public-facing bill and committee workflow systems. Ghosts in the machine included missing vote tallies and lagging status updates.

MUS Priorities and Tracking

With HB 13 out of committee and on its way to the Senate floor, one of the system's top priorities has taken a significant step. The bill passed on a 16-7 vote, with the bulk of the discussion during executive action having centered around the legislator pay portion of the bill-- whether or not it was appropriate for legislator pay to be included and the level of the proposed legislator pay increase. As the bill exits its first committee, its primary components for MUS employees remain intact:

  • increase the base pay of each employee by $1 an hour or by 2.5%, whichever is greater, each year of the 2027 biennium;
  • provide for travel reimbursement at 70% of the standard federal reimbursement rate; and
  • increase employer contribution benefits by $26 a month the first year of the biennium and $53 the second year.

The Joint Subcommittee on Education (aka the Section E Subcommittee) and the Joint Subcommittee on Long Range Planning (aka the Section F Subcommittee) will take up the other two major system priorities to secure essential funding for system and campus programs, operations, and services and to address critical infrastructure and technology needs. The MUS budget hearings begin in Section E on January 27.

While 520 bills and requests are floating around that have caught OCHE's eye, it is important to note that the vast majority of those will either not be drafted or will turn out to be irrelevant to the system students, faculty, staff, programs, or operations. As those are regularly identified, they are unceremoniously culled.

Notable Activity from Week 2

SB 44 - Generally revise laws regarding the separation of powers doctrine

The Senate Judiciary Committee heard SB 44 on January 14. The bill is one of the products of the interim's Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform. Sponsored by Sen. Daniel Emrich (R-Great Falls), the bill proposes to revise and codify laws regarding the separation of powers doctrine and define in the Montana Code Annotated the powers of the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch, the Board of Regents, and the Board of Public Education.

During the hearing, the sponsor noted that the Montana Supreme Court had left the state "on a cliffhanger" with regard to the powers of the Board of Regents, adding that it was important to clarify that those powers "do not extend beyond constitutional fences."

Opponents of the bill commented that the measure, if passed, was likely to be litigated and amounted to overreach by the Legislative Branch.

The Committee has not acted on the bill.


HB 121- Provide privacy in certain restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters

HB 121, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe (R-Billings), passed 3rd Reading in the House on a 58-42 vote and  has been transmitted to the Senate.

The bill seeks to require "covered entities" to "designate each multi-occupancy restroom, changing room, or sleeping quarters for the exclusive use of females or males." In the bill, a covered entity is considered to be a correctional center, a juvenile detention facility, a local domestic violence program, a public building, or a public school. The bill provides that a person may bring a private cause of action against a covered entity that has not complied with the requirements if the person encounters another individual of the opposite sex in the restroom or changing room.

HB 121 has not yet been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate.


Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education
The Section E Subcommittee held hearings on OPI's budget. Deputy Commissioner Joe Thiel spoke in favor of 3-year math standards, consistent with the Resolution on Math Proficiency adopted in November by the Board of Regents.

Upcoming Hearings and Events

January 20

HB 135 - Revise laws related to the school funding interim commission

HB 135, sponsored by Rep. David Bedey (R-Hamilton), would add to the statutory School Funding Interim Commission the "presiding officer of the Board of Regents or the presiding officer's designee." The bill would also create as part of the study an "innovation and excellence in education working group to develop recommendations, objectives, and an implementation plan ... to improve the basic system of free, quality, public elementary and secondary schools."

January 21
HB 163 - Provide for health care preceptor individual income tax credit

House Taxation is scheduled to hear HB 163, sponsored by Rep. Ken Walsh (R-Twin Bridges), providing for tax credits for health care preceptors. The bill is aimed at incentivizing practicing health care providers to serve as preceptors for students enrolled in graduate-level academic degree-granting programs or graduate medical education programs who need to fulfill clinical training hour requirements.

SJ 7 - Joint resolution to support shooting competition as a collegiate sport

Sponsored by Sen. John Fuller (R-Kalispell), SJ 7 would encourage the Board of Regents and the units of the MUS to adopt and facilitate shooting sports competitions as collegiate sports, to partner with nonuniversity personnel and entities to facilitate shooting sports competitions as collegiate sports, and to develop endowments and offer scholarships for enrolled students competing in shooting sports.


January 27-30

MUS HB 2 Budget Hearings - Section E Appropriations Subcommittee

Other Bills to Watch

HB 5 - Long-range building appropriations
HB 5 appropriates money and confers authority for major repair and capital projects for the MUS as well as all other state entities. HB 5, sponsored by Rep. John Fitzpatrick (R-Anaconda), has not yet been formally scheduled for a hearing, although the MUS's Section E Budget Subcommittee anticipates a joint hearing at the end of January with the Section F Long-Range Planning Subcommittee to consider the system's portion of the bill.
 
HB 10 - Long-range information technology appropriations
MUS projects included in HB 10, also sponsored by Rep. Fitzpatrick, are CyberMontana (Security Operations Center, Workforce Training Programs, Cyber Policy Clinic), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and Enterprise Resource Planning and System Replacement (combined appropriation for Miles Community College and Dawson Community College).  SB 10 has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Time Served

Legislative Day: 10
Percent Complete: 11.11%