Guest Opinion: Legislative Report

Greetings from Helena!

The bill that received the most interest that my committees dealt with this week was in Senate Fish and Game, SB111. This bill is aimed at giving people with physical disabilities the opportunity to use crossbows during archery season. Some of the people who testified would have great difficulty with a regular bow. The people using a crossbow would need a card from a doctor.

I attended the Governor’s State of the State. The Governor promised to make the state of Montana more business friendly. One area he talked about changing was to drop the income tax rate from 6.9% to 6.7%. Governor Gianforte promised to make the departments more efficient and less burdensome to Montanans. He made the point that he is a very prolife Governor. 

The Democrats response was the same old rhetoric. They want to regulate us Montanans in every way except for how many babies we can kill. In the Democrat response, it was apparent that they think we aren’t responsible enough to take care of ourselves, government must take care of us. 

A few legislators went to the Department of Livestock to visit with Director Honeycutt and some farm groups. Our discussion was based on ways we could sell meat to friends, neighbors, stores, and restaurants with state inspections. The roadblock is always “the Feds won’t allow it”. Sometime we might have to ignore that roadblock.

Bryn Snideman, Glendive, was our page this week. It was good to have her with us for a week and to see her family. It is always good to see people from SD18.

If you are in Helena be sure to stop and see us. If you want to look up the text of a bill you can find it at https.leg.mt.gov.

For Freedom,

Senator

Steve Hinebauch