MEDA LEGISLATIVE REPORT
January 20, 2003
Key Legislative Days for MEDA members to be in Helena!
January 22 & 23
Key Bills to be heard those
days include:
SB 131
SB 115
HB 76
(see below for bill
descriptions and schedule)
MEDA will produce a watch list that will be
available to all MEDA members on the state legislature web site.
MEDA will also make available, on a regular
basis, a report alerting all MEDA members of bill action and how MEDA members
can influence legislation through phone calls, faxes, e-mails, direct lobbying
or testimony.
We hope this will allow MEDA to be effective
in advancing good legislation or killing bad legislation.
In a broad sense, MEDA is taking the
following positions:
In addition, we are watching
and testifying on the following key bills:
Bills to Watch:
Economic Development Capital
SB 131 (Sen. Gregory Barkus) – Allows the Montana Board of Investments (MBOI) to repurchase seasoned loans from local RLFs as a way of helping recapitalize those RLFs; also allocates $5 million (in individual amounts up to $500,000) to be loaned to RLFs as matching funds for federal funds that can build RLFs (such as the USDA Intermediary Relending Program, EDA RLF programs, Community Development Financial Institution programs, etc.)
This bill will have a hearing on Thursday, January 23rd at 9 AM in Senate Business & Labor Committee (Room 422).
MEDA
urges your support and, if possible, your attendance at the hearing or messages
of support to Senate Business & Labor committee members listed below.
____________________
Economic Development Funding
SB 115 (Sen. Dale Mahlum) – Extends the statutory appropriations for key economic development programs -- from 2005 until 2010 for Growth Through Agriculture, Certified Communities, Small Business Development Centers, Small Business Innovation Research, Montana Manufacturing Extension Center, & Export Trade Enhancement. Research & Commercialization would be also extended if the bill to drop it (HB 177) fails.
This bill will have a hearing on Wednesday, January 22nd at 5 PM in Senate Finance & Claims Committee (Room 303).
MEDA
urges your support and, if possible, your attendance at the hearing or messages
of support to Senate Finance & Claims Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
HB 76 – (Rep. Joe McKinney) – Continuing Certified Communities Program as “Treasure Community” program and funding local economic development support through Regional Economic Development Organizations.
This bill will have a hearing on Thursday, January 23rd at 8AM in House Business & Labor Committee (Room 172).
MEDA
urges your support and, if possible, your attendance at the hearing or messages
of support to House Business & Labor Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
HB 276 (Rep. Monica Lindeen) – Creates an Economic Development Trust Fund within the coal tax trust fund that would collect 25% of the flow of money into the coal tax trust and dedicate the interest therefrom to economic development projects in the future.
This bill was heard on Friday, January 17th at 3PM in House Appropriations Committee (Room 102). MEDA representatives appeared and testified in support of the bill.
MEDA
urges your support and, if possible, your attendance at the hearing or messages
of support to House Appropriations Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
HB 177 (Rep. Joe Balyeat) – Would remove Research & Commercialization from funding entirely and reduce Growth Through Agriculture funding.
This bill was heard on Tuesday, January 14th in House Appropriations Committee. MEDA representatives were present and testified against the cuts in Research & Commercialization & Growth Through Agriculture.
MEDA
urges your opposition to those cuts encourages messages of opposition to
House Appropriations Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
Property Taxes
HB 268 (Rep. Ron Erickson) – This bill would stop the trigger that would lower business equipment taxes from an average effective tax rate of 1.5% (3% taxable value) to zero in 3 steps. MEDA believes that we are currently competitive in business equipment taxes and a drop to zero would either decimate local government and school funding or result in a shift of property taxes from larger businesses to residential and main street commercial businesses.
This bill was heard in House Taxation Friday, January 17. MEDA representatives provided oral testimony in favor of the bill.
MEDA
urges your support of this bill encourages messages of support to House Taxation
Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
SB 12 (Sen. Dan Harrington) – This bill does the same as HB 268 (above).
This bill was heard in Senate Taxation last Wednesday, January 8. Because it happened so soon in the session, MEDA provided written testimony only (see below).
MEDA
urges your support of this bill encourages messages of support to Senate
Taxation Committee members listed below.
_________________________________
Members of the Senate Business & Labor Committee:
Ask them to support SB 131 (see above)
Dale Mahlum, Chair
Mike Sprague, Vice Chair
Sherm Anderson
Vicki Cocchiarella
Kelly Gebhardt
Bob Keenan
Sam Kitzenberg
Ken (Kim) Hansen
Glenn Roush
Don Ryan
Carolyn Squires
Fred Thomas
_________________________________
Members of the Senate Finance & Claims Committee:
Ask them to support SB 115 (see above)
Tom Zook, Chair
Bill Tash, Vice Chair
Gregory D Barkus
Keith Bales
Edward Butcher
John Cobb
Mike Cooney
John Esp
Rick Laible
Royal Johnson
Bob Keenan
Bea McCarthy
Linda Nelson
Trudi Schmidt
Debbie Shea
Corey Stapleton
Emily Stonington
Jon Tester
Joseph (Joe) Tropila
_________________________________
Members of the House Business & Labor Committee:
Ask them to support HB 76 (see above)
Joe McKenney, Chair
Donald Steinbeisser, Vice Chair
Jim Keane, Vice Chair
Bob Bergren
Rod Bitney
Sylvia Bookout-Reinicke
Nancy Fritz
Dave Gallik
Kathleen Galvin-Halcro
Ray Hawk
Bob Lawson
Rick Maedje
Gary Matthews
Scott Mendenhall
Penny Morgan
Allen Rome
Sandy Weiss
Bill Wilson
_________________________________
Members of the Senate Taxation Committee:
Ask them to support SB 12 (see above)
Bob DePratu, Chair
Bob Story, Vice Chair
John C Bohlinger
Mike Taylor
Jerry W Black
Bill Glaser
Walter McNutt
Jon Ellingson
Dan Harrington
Jim Elliott
Ken Toole
_________________________________
Members of the House Appropriations Committee:
Ask them to support HB 276 (see above) and oppose HB 177 (see above)
Dave Lewis, Chair
Edith Clark, Vice Chair
Rosalie (Rosie) Buzzas, Vice Chair
John Brueggeman
Tim Callahan
Stanley (Stan) Fisher
Eve Franklin
Dick Haines
Donald L Hedges
Joey Jayne
Carol C Juneau
Dave Kasten
Christine Kaufmann
Monica Lindeen
John Musgrove
Jeff Pattison
Rick Ripley
John Sinrud
John Witt
_________________________________
Members of the House Taxation Committee:
Ask them to support HB 268 (see above)
Daniel Fuchs, Chair
Ronald Devlin, Vice Chair
Ron Erickson, Vice Chair
Joan Andersen
Joe Balyeat
Gary Branae
Eileen J Carney
Jill Cohenour
Larry Cyr
Gary Forrester
Kim Gillan
Verdell Jackson
Bob Lake
Carol Lambert
Jesse Laslovich
Jim Peterson
John (Jack) W Ross
Karl Waitschies
_________________________________
How to Contact Your Legislator
The phone number for the Legislative Information Office is (406) 444-4800. At this number you can receive information related to the session, and leave messages for legislators.
FAX numbers:
House of Representatives (406) 444-1865 /// Senate (406) 444-4875.
Session mailing addresses:
Representative _______, MT House of
Representatives, PO Box 200400, Helena MT 59620-0400.
Senator ________, MT Senate, PO Box 200500, Helena MT 59620-0500.
You can send a message to a legislator online. Hit this hotlink
http://leg.state.mt.us/css/sessions/58th/legwebmessage_2003.asp
to access the web form
OR send email directly to a legislator. Use this
hotlink http://leg.state.mt.us/css/sessions/58th/roster.asp?HouseID=0&SessionID=80
to locate individual legislators and find the e-mail addresses of those who
have e-mail.
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