News From the Front, January 6

January 6, 2017

Does a healthy European Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia) seen adjacent to the Capitol last September portend a fruitful Session? Maybe, maybe not. We’ve recently seen a lot of white. It’s nice to see something green.

The week according to Jeff

Dear Readers:

“There is nothing wrong in change, if it is in the right direction. To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.” Winston Churchill, 23 June 1925

​I like this quote because it has two important words – change and perfect. None of the bills we’ll see this Session will be perfect. There are humans involved, in this case many humans. The best we can hope for is a bill that is “less imperfect.”

Expect changes this Session. They might be in the form of operational money (a possibility depending on revenues), more responsibilities (aquatic invasive species), more to worry about (infrastructure funding), changes at the federal level (new Administration), or less time.

Elena and I were in the Capitol on Monday 2nd January and visited with Representative  GERALDINE CUSTER (R)  from Forsyth. Representative Custer is helping address the MACD resolution to seek funding for the coal bed methane program. She prepared the bill draft request to address this resolution and dropped it in the hopper while we were present. It is LC2366 but there is no content at this time.

We attended all of the initial committee meetings this week to introduce ourselves to committee members and tell them a little about Conservation Districts. There are ten key committees that we will float in and out of during the Session, many with meetings scheduled at the same time.

Here’s some good news we received on Tuesday from Senator Daines’ office in DC: “…Senator Daines yesterday was appointed to the Senate Agriculture Committee. This committee shares jurisdiction over forest management with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on which (Senator Daines) will also continue to serve.

In addition to fighting for Montana’s agriculture priorities as Congress writes the new Farm Bill, Senator Daines will utilize the AG Committee slot to advance reforms that improve the management of National Forests and protect and grow Montana’s wood products workforce. He is very excited to have this platform, along with the Senate ENR and Senate Appropriations Committees, to advocate for and pass into law meaningful management reforms during this session of Congress.”

Note that Senator Jon Tester is also on the Senate Appropriations Committee, giving Montana two seats on that important committee.

At the Area Meetings I mentioned the group (Montana Infrastructure Coalition) that had formed to examine infrastructure needs and try to find a way forward to address them. We had hoped that the group would include irrigation needs in the mix. Here’s where they ended up as we enter the Session: “The Montana Infrastructure Coalition (Coalition) identified three critical local government infrastructure needs: drinking water systems, wastewater treatment, and transportation, including local, state, and interstate highways and bridges. While these three elements are only a few of the local infrastructure programs fundamental to support economically vibrant and healthy Montana communities, the Coalition chose to highlight these critical needs because they have not routinely received individual, focused consideration.”  It appears that the irrigation needs identified in the MACD resolution will not be in this focus. However, there is a stand alone bill that is seeking funds for the St. Mary irrigation project. See LC2323

Don’t let the long list of bills we are monitoring cause alarm (Although it does to me every time I look at how long it is).  I’ll refer to this list as a Watch List or MACD Tracker – see below. As it becomes clear that a bill on this list no longer pertains to Conservation Districts, we’ll remove it from the list. Don MacIntyre already found one and we eliminated it. Thanks, Don. This is a fluid list, as bills continue to be requested.

NB: MY INTENTION IS THAT THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME I INCLUDE THE ENTIRE WATCH LIST. IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SEEING IT MORE OFTEN, I’VE INCLUDED ACCESS DETAILS BELOW.

This is a very long report, but I offer no apologies. There is much going on at the Capitol and we wanted to be sure that you know how we are spending (y)our time.  

Movers & Shakers

A hearing is scheduled on 6th January for the following bill. We’ll report on the hearing in the next edition. MACD will support this bill. It’s a cleanup bill requested by DNRC. Laurie Zeller went into the specifics of this bill at the Area Meetings and Convention.

Remember that you are able to watch or listen to any hearing from your computer. Scroll through the Video and Audio – Session section at this link: http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp  to find the appropriate committee. If it’s me testifying, I usually try to stand so the camera cannot see my bald spot. Let me know if it’s working.

What to watch next week or so…

Things will start cooking by the second week of the Session. We have interest in three bills that will be heard at the committee level. MACD will support all three of these bills.

Legislative leadership wants to get through the budgets quickly this Session. Because it takes a lot of money to provide a wide variety of services to Montanans, the state’s budget is over $4 billion dollars. That’s too many dollars for one group to examine in detail. The budget is divided into several similarly related sections and each section is examined by 6-8 Legislators. These smaller committees are assigned to do the pick and shovel work to determine spending priorities.

CARDD DNRC’s budget hearing is tentatively scheduled for Friday, 13th January (Note the date has changed four times already). MACD will spend part of next week talking to ​the members of the committee that will hear this bill. We know most of the members on this committee. Here are the committee members:

(Joint)Natural Resources and Transportation — Appropriations Subcommittee

Rep. JANET ELLIS (D)

Rep. CARL GLIMM (R)–Chair

Rep. KENNETH HOLMLUND (R)

Rep. JIM KEANE (D)

Sen. DUANE ANKNEY (R)–Vice Chair

Sen. DOUG KARY (R)

Sen. MIKE PHILLIPS (D)

We’ve got our eyes on it

Here’s the list of bills we are currently tracking. Most of these will not see the light of day, and most will not pertain to Conservation Districts. However, we do not know which ones those are, so we have to keep them on the list for now. My intention is to not include the entire list in each News From the Front, but we’ll see what the demand is and listen to feedback on the amount of information.

Bills Currently in ‘MACD Tracker’ List

Several bills have come to our attention since I “built” (copied and pasted) the above table and I’m not clever enough to add them in.

The next iteration will include HB 14 LC0318, which includes the Renewable Resources Grant and Loan Program (commonly referred to as the RRGL). It has 12 projects proposed by Conservation Districts, totaling $1,424,870. HB14 also includes the Reclamation and Development Grants Program (commonly referred to as the RDG Program).  It has 12 projects proposed by Conservation Districts, totaling $1,578,004. The total funds requested are $3,002,874. That’s a lot of money. New Administrators with project ideas in their Districts and not familiar with these programs might want to contact Alice Stanley at DNRC astanley@mt.gov to get details. The Conservation Districts that have proposed these projects will appear in front of the committee reviewing them to state their case. MACD will be working behind the scenes to encourage serious consideration of each proposal.

Another draft bill that will be included is LC2323. This is a bill to provide funds for the St. Mary irrigation rehabilitation project and was mentioned earlier in this report.

Another draft bill that will be included is LC2366  This is a bill to revise funding for the Coal Bed Methane Protection Program and was mentioned earlier in this report.

Lend us a hand

As in past years, we’ve set up an account that will allow easy access to any of the bills we are tracking. Go to this link:

Preference Account Login (login to an already established preference account)

​  Our User Name is MACD2017 and our Password is Conservation17​   

​Once you get there, click on MACD Tracker to see the list. The lengthy list of bills seen above but with more details may be seen at this link. ​Comments and ideas are welcome.

Here’s something you can do:

Invite your legislators to our Meet & Greet with the Conservation Community, at the Montana Club on January 24. More details here.  Thank you to the Conservation Districts that have invited their Legislators.

If you’re a political junkie…

​Here are two articles that may be of interest: ​

http://www.kxlh.com//story/34107068/montanas-2017-legislature-it-begins-and-ends-with-the-budget#.WFq6kqZKEto.twitter

​http://www.kxlh.com/story/34115537/infrastructure-bill-a-top-priority-at-mt-legislature-but-what-will-it-include ​

Here’s a high level, technical look at DNRC’s CARDD budget proposals:

http://leg.mt.gov/content/Publications/fiscal/Budget-Books/2019/Budget-Analysis/section_c/5706-23.pdf

Thanks to all of you who are reading this report. Contact me with comments or questions jtiberi@macdnet.org or 406.465.8813. We appreciate your support in this endeavor, and for helping to keep Montana.

Jeff