Anthony Licata

Lawmakers are again in Helena for the second half of Montana’s 68th legislative session, and because of the general public talking up, we’ve had a number of good wins that defend our clear air and water and public lands.

Nevertheless, there are some unhealthy payments looming within the second half of this Legislative session, and time is working out to defeat them.

First, the excellent news. Any invoice not associated to income, appropriations, or constitutional amendments that doesn’t move one legislative chamber earlier than the transmittal deadline can’t transfer ahead, which signifies that a handful of crummy payments have now died.

Good riddance to SB 497, a sneaky invoice focusing on prescriptive easements that will have harmed Montana’s best-in-the-nation stream entry legal guidelines. The Legislature tried to push this by way of on the eleventh hour, however due to a lot of you, your Senators obtained 1000’s of messages urging them to not move this invoice and it died on the Senate ground, displaying that grassroots advocacy and public lands entry are nonetheless priorities in Montana.

One other unhealthy thought referred to as SB 357 would have accomplished away with everlasting conservation easements, making the utmost period of time for a conservation easement 40 years.

Perpetual conservation easements are actually necessary instruments for wildlife habitat and huge panorama conservation in addition to for maintaining farmers and ranchers on the panorama, particularly important as improvement is booming throughout the state. Montanans spoke up, and this invoice didn’t make it out of committee.

Sadly, some unhealthy payments are transferring ahead, and we solely have a number of weeks to cease them. Perhaps the worst thought is the plot for lawmakers to steal tens of millions of {dollars} in marijuana tax income from Habitat Montana, arguably the state’s most profitable and in style conservation program, the identical program that helped pay for the brand new Massive Snowy Mountains Wildlife Administration Space and the latest Mount Haggin Wildlife Administration Space addition.

SB 442, HB 669, and HB 462 would redistribute how leisure marijuana tax income is spent in Montana. Over the following biennium, these payments would strip tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in voter-approved income from the Habitat Montana Program and completely block this system from tapping these funds once more.

Lawmakers are claiming it’s only a query of “priorities” (so Montana’s wild locations and public lands aren’t a precedence?), however don’t allow them to idiot you. Whereas HB 669 sends all income besides that earmarked for the HEART fund to the overall fund, HB 462 and SB 442  arrange false decisions. There’s sufficient income to go to the packages outlined in HB 462 and SB 442 in addition to persevering with to fund  Habitat Montana at present ranges whereas nonetheless having further income to ship to the overall fund.

Simply a few weeks in the past Governor Greg Gianorte bragged at a press convention in Helena about growing entry to public lands by way of over “100,000 acres within the Massive Snowies alone.”

So why is he making an attempt to intestine this system that paid for it? Now could be the time to contact the Governor’s workplace and ask him to respect what Montanans voted for, and hold marijuana tax income funding for conservation.

Inform him, and your representatives, that Montanans want extra Massive Snowies and extra entry to public land for climbing, tenting, looking, and fishing, not much less. Because the state continues to develop and evolve, the one option to hold this the Final Greatest Place is to combat for what makes Montana particular.