Not Just a Bill: Missoula County & The Montana State Legislature

On Jan. 2, 2023, the 68th regular session of the Montana state Legislature will convene in Helena. All 50 state senators and 100 representatives will meet for 90 days to draft, propose and review bills, which could become new state laws. 

Missoula County is a general powers government, which means that county government only has authority that is explicitly granted by state laws.  Because of this, the legislative session is a major event and new laws can greatly affect how local government works. 

So how does Missoula County keep track of the hundreds (if not thousands) of bills that come before the two chambers of the Legislature? This week, the commissioners sat down with Anne Hughes, chief operating officer for Missoula County, to talk about what goes on during a legislative session.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• leg.mt.gov - Legislature homepage
• LAWS - Bill Database 
• Missoula County Voice
• Find Your Legislator

 
Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

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Juanita Vero: 0:10

Well, welcome back to Tip of the Spear with I'm Juanita Vero, here with my fellow commissioner, Josh Slotnick. Commissioner Dave Strohmaier can't join us today, but we're joined by Ann Hughes, our chief operating officer for Missoula County. So thanks, Anna, for joining us. We're going to talk about the upcoming state legislative session, which begins January 2nd. And so, Anne, can you give us a brief civics lesson on what the legislature is and what happens during the session? And how is Missoula County involved?

Anne Hughes: 0:39

Yeah, I would be happy to. Thank you for having me. So as our listeners are probably aware. The legislature is one of our three branches of government. This upcoming session will be the 68th regular session of the Montana legislature. As you said, one, the first day of the session is Monday, January 2nd, 2023. Legislators will meet for 90 days. So that session is going to run from January through roughly the first week in May. Montana has a bicameral legislature, which means two chambers, which means they have a Senate and a House. The Senate has 50 senators and the House has 100 representatives. Each of those representatives in the House represent one district, and Senate districts are comprised of two House districts. Yeah, Senators serve four year terms and representative of serve two year terms. Every two years there's half of the Senate up for election. Another thing to to know is that they are selected for leadership positions and committee assignments based on the majority. So those leadership positions vary depending on the majority who were elected to the legislature. Committee chairs are chaired by members of the majority. Party and committees are often comprised by a majority of the members that are in the majority. Does that make sense? So we have endured a Republican majority, a supermajority actually, this session, and so the majority of those committee members are going to be Republicans on each of those committees.

Juanita Vero: 2:05

And when has that decided? The leadership.

Anne Hughes: 2:07

Those selections are made after the general So they've happened already, since it's almost December. So that's all done. They've been working on that the last couple of weeks.

Josh Slotnick: 2:17

And you said the Republicans have a What technically, what does that mean?

Anne Hughes: 2:21

It means that they have two thirds of each of means that if they vote as a bloc, they can refer constitutional amendments to go on to a ballot. But they would need to vote as a bloc to do that.

Josh Slotnick: 2:35

This is just history tidbit, but do we know

Anne Hughes: 2:39

I don't believe it's happened in the last 100

Josh Slotnick: 2:42

So this is a big deal.

Anne Hughes: 2:43

Yeah. So legislators are charged with existing laws. So those laws are outlined in the Montana code annotated the. Mkay. So to do that, they have to work with staff to draft and introduce bills in the chamber in which the primary sponsor serves. So if it's a representative in the House, the bill is going to begin its journey in the House. If it's a senator, it's going to begin its journey in the Senate. Bills are then referred to committee where they receive a hearing and where the public and organizations provide testimony in support of or opposition to the bill. If it passes committee, then it goes to the floor for further debate and that happens on the second reading. And then if it clears second reading, it goes to a third reading. And so there is no bill that clears the state legislature that has not been taken up three times by each chamber of the legislature. If it's passes third through third reading, it's transmitted to the other chamber to undergo the same process that I just mentioned. It can be amended in committee and on the floor during second session or second reading. Rather, after bills pass both chambers of the legislature, they go to the governor, and the governor has four options. The governor can sign that bill into law. The governor can propose amendments and kick it back to the legislature. The governor can veto the bill or take no action on the bill. And if the governor takes no action on the bill, it still becomes law ten days later.

Josh Slotnick: 4:02

So let's say a bill goes through the House of readings. Everybody's good. It goes to the Senate, and then the Senate wants to amend it. Does it then have to go back to the House?

Anne Hughes: 4:13

Yes. Yep. Both chambers have to be on board shake.

Juanita Vero: 4:18

Is there a time period like once a chamber

Anne Hughes: 4:23

Yes. So for folks that are listening, that keep in mind is the session calendar and to look that up. I'm going to throw out some websites for folks who are interested in learning more, but going to leg.mt.gov and looking for session calendar gives you dates for what's called transmittal and there are different types of bills like general bills, appropriations bills, revenue bills, etc. etc. and there are all different dates by which those bills need to go from one chamber of the body to the other.

Josh Slotnick: 4:54

So I know that you and Chris, our chief folks, really pay close attention to what's happening at the legislature. Why do you do that?

Anne Hughes: 5:02

Well, counties are the administrative arm of bills that affect how counties. Operate counties of our size, especially some of those bills have a really big impact on how we operate. And some of those bills have a minor impact, but it's still an impact. So we track bills and communicate to legislators. Last session, for example, we sent over 500 messages to legislators on over 200 bills. We have a great team that works to get all of this work done every session, and we try to make sure that we're providing meaningful input. It's a lot to track. So for example, in the last couple of sessions there were approximately 3300 introduced and introduced bills, and so 1300 of those 3300 were introduced and became bills. It's a massive workload for everybody involved, not for I mean, for the county, for us to but really for those legislators in that staff over in Helena who are working hard to really churn that work out and do it with as much public involvement as possible.

Josh Slotnick: 5:57

So let's say somebody reads about a bill in feelings about it. What should they do? How do they make their feelings known?

Anne Hughes: 6:05

Well, they should, first of all, read the And a great place to do that is to go to the LAWS website. So again, that's leg.mt.gov/LAWS. I'm a nerd, so I'm going to say it stands for Legislative Automated Workflow System. I love the acronym.

Juanita Vero: 6:21

Wow.

Anne Hughes: 6:23

It's a great website. It's full of a ton of committee hearings are. You can create a preference list for yourself, so you can create a list of all the bills in particular that you care about. You can get notifications when the bill is up for hearing. You can actually observe committee hearings online if you're not going to go and provide testimony yourself. But for folks who are really genuinely interested and want to provide feedback and comment on bills, that's what legislators are there to hear. They're elected by the people of Montana and they really want to hear how folks feel about things. Folks can do any number of things. They can contact their legislators directly, and to find out who your legislator is, go to that leg.mt.gov website and go to the legislative roster and you can find who your legislators are. It also provides their contact information. You can also call 406-444-4800 and ask that those folks who run that line deliver a message to legislators. You can send a letter to your legislator or to the committee itself, or you can go full bore and attend and testify at the committee hearing in person and provide your your input on what you think of that proposed policy.

Josh Slotnick: 7:32

So we hear about lobbyists. What do lobbyists do?

Anne Hughes: 7:35

Well, it's really up to a lobbyist to keep and what they need to know to make the best decisions they can. So lobbyists are often really not knowledgeable in specific areas. And if you think about I mean, even in your roles, you guys, the the amount of information that you need to take in and process and remember and keep track of to make the decisions that you make, it's a lot, right? I mean, it's just a lot of information. And so imagine if you had 148 coworkers who also had that role and who needed to become maybe not necessarily experts in every single aspect of policy that they're considering, but to definitely find areas where they can really develop and hone their expertise in it and done correctly and ethically. Lobbyists are a really great resource for those folks who are charged with making decisions where they may not necessarily have all of that information at their fingertips. Lobbyists should really be there to to help provide the perspective of the organization that they are there to represent and also see how they can help legislators in their work as well. So it's really as a county, it's really our responsibility to provide input on legislation. If you guys think about the range of services that we provide. Right. These are critical life saving, often programs and services that we deliver. And in the course of delivering those services, like providing 911 services or inspecting restaurants and houses or titling and registering cars or administering elections. It turns out after doing this all these years, we've developed some expertise and we want to give input on how changes to policy and how we administer those services. It's our responsibility to provide that input. Having said that, we don't always expect to get our way when we provide that input, but it's up to us to provide that so that the legislators who are voting can make the most informed choice that they can. They have a lot of responsibilities.

Josh Slotnick: 9:31

And do our legislature have term limits?

Anne Hughes: 9:33

They can serve no more than eight years in a So in a 16 year period of time, term limits are an interesting thing and some people really support them and others don't. I find that in my experience, the term limits kind of encourage people to move in and out of those positions, which is the point of term limits. I do believe that sometimes term limits allow for the other people who lobby and who provide information to legislators to have a little more knowledge because they've been doing those jobs for much longer. And so there's a lot to be said for legislators being able to develop a good bench of knowledge in. Particular area so that they can make good decisions.

Josh Slotnick: 10:12

And as far as I understand it, our means people basically volunteer, they get a little per diem. But it's they're not it's not their profession and they're not at this all the time. It's just for a set amount of time every other year. That's kind of unusual, isn't it?

Anne Hughes: 10:27

So. Montana is one of ten states that has a nationwide. Some of those states include Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

Josh Slotnick: 10:45

Well, mostly the West.

Juanita Vero: 10:46

Mostly the west. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know that. Thank you.

Josh Slotnick: 10:49

Yeah, thanks for that. What are some why do you think we have it?

Anne Hughes: 10:55

I would say that one of the benefits of a the people. Yeah, so you could argue, and I would argue that citizen legislators who come every couple of years are coming from really important tasks and jobs in their daily lives. So they're living in their communities and their their farmers, their ranchers, their business people. They're just a range in a host of professions, and they bring skill sets to that. And I think having a citizen legislature is really a benefit.

Juanita Vero: 11:26

Have we missed anything and or is there need to clarify on?

Anne Hughes: 11:33

Well, one thing that I think folks should providing them information on how we're weighing in on bills. We want to make sure that the public knows what we're what we're supporting and what we're opposing and why. And that's a big part of what our legislative team does, is to gather that input and feedback from the subject matter experts across Missoula County. So we're often looking to department heads and managers and other staff to give us input on how a bill would impact the way they operate and function their particular program or set of regulations. So to do that, we've used a blog and it just provides the public. Every comment that we send on a bill is added to this blog that we use to track what we're commenting on. And so if folks want to learn more, we don't have the blog fully developed yet because we need time to see what bills are going to be introduced. But if folks want to learn more about what we're doing, they can go to MissoulaCountyVoice.com and they'll be able to get to that blog from there. There's a lot to learn, so anyone who is interested in the legislature should be sure to check out leg.mt.gov because there are just a ton of resources and guides and videos and it's just a wealth of information. If you want to geek out super hard and learn about your state legislature, you absolutely should. They are there to work for everyone in the state, and the more we all know, the better input we can offer in their decision making.

Josh Slotnick: 12:55

So what should people do if they feel like XYZ? And this is what they should say and they're really passionate. What should they do?

Anne Hughes: 13:02

Yeah, they can just email your office That's a great, great place. Or they can call 406-258-4877 and provide that input.

Josh Slotnick: 13:14

Thanks.

Juanita Vero: 13:14

Yeah. They can also land on Missoula County

Anne Hughes: 13:17

MissoulaCountVvoice.com. It's a great resource.

Josh Slotnick: 13:20

Perfect.

Juanita Vero: 13:21

So before we close, share with us my favorite anything you've come across book podcasts.

Anne Hughes: 13:30

I just discovered a play by a woman named it was written in 1955 and it just recently was produced. My husband and I nerd it out and subscribe to a streaming platform for England's National Theater. And you can see these televised productions and they're incredible. And the production of Trouble in Mind. I read the play and then saw the production and it's...

Juanita Vero: 13:57

And what's the title?

Anne Hughes: 13:58

Trouble in Mind.

Juanita Vero: 13:59

Okay.

Anne Hughes: 14:00

It's extraordinary.

Josh Slotnick: 14:01

Great.

Anne Hughes: 14:02

That's my check that out. That's been the most inspiring. And then it moved us to do a theatre history session in my living room over coffee the next morning. Yeah.

Juanita Vero: 14:11

Oh, I'm looking forward to it.

Anne Hughes: 14:13

Yeah, it's really good.

Josh Slotnick: 14:14

Good. Thanks a lot.

Juanita Vero: 14:15

Yeah. Thanks so much. And thanks everyone for listening. And we'll catch you next week.

Josh Slotnick: 14:20

Thanks for listening to the Tip of the Spear If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you like. And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them. The Tip of the Spear podcast is made possible with support from MCAD, better known as Missoula Community Access Television and our staff in the Missoula County Communications Division. If you have a question or topic you'd like us to address on a future episode, email it to communications@missoulacounty.us and to find other ways to stay up to date with what's happening at Missoula County. Go to missoula.co/countyupdates And thanks for listening.