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<title>Montana Policy Institute -  Roundup</title>
<description>Because Liberty Makes all the Difference</description>
<link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/</link>
<language>en-us</language>

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<title>Hamilton Moves Forward on Temporary Marijuana Dispensary Zoning</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;The Hamilton City Council has unanimously approved interim zoning for medical marijuana dispensaries.


The ordinance, which was passed Tuesday and goes into effect immediately, relegates such stores to certain business, industrial and commercial areas in various parts of the city. It does not apply to eligible patients growing up to six marijuana plants or in possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for private use.
The zoning will be in effect for six months and will give city officials time to make a permanent decision on where the businesses are appropriate.
For More of this Billings Gazette Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>March 5, 2010, 8:49 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=610</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>At Current Rate, Montana Facing a $366,000,000 Deficit By 2013</title><description><![CDATA[
Legislators received a cold, hard dose of fiscal reality Wednesday, learning that the state&rsquo;s economy is not rebounding from this recession as quickly as it has from past recessions and that in the 2011 session they will face a projected $366 million state budget deficit by mid-2013.
Ninety-five of the 150 lawmakers came to town, giving up a day of legislative pay, to attend a day of training put on by the legislative staff and featuring some national and state speakers.
The news was generally bleak, but not unexpected. It came as Gov. Brian Schweitzer is on the verge of cutting state agency budgets by at least $40.5 million, or nearly 5 percent, because of falling state tax collections.
&ldquo;We do see some historic challenges,&rdquo; said Legislative Finance Chairman Llew Jones, a Republican representative from Conrad.
In a question to one speaker, Senate President Bob Story, R-Park City, said reports from the recent National Governors Association meeting indicated that states are going to have to &ldquo;resize&rdquo; their government because of the impact of the recession on their budgets.
&ldquo;I would agree,&rdquo; said Chris Whatley, Washington director of the Council of State Governments. &ldquo;The backside of the state fiscal crisis is state government is going to look a lot different than it does today.&rdquo;
Patrick Barkey, director of the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research, predicted a 1.3 percent growth in the state&rsquo;s economy in 2010, far lower than the average annual growth rate of 3.3 percent rate from 2002-2007 but better than the negative 1.2 percent growth rates in 2008 and 2009. From 2010-2013, he forecast an economic growth rate of 2.4 percent.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a somewhat lower rate of growth than we had coming into the recession,&rdquo; Barkey said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the new normal.&rdquo;
For More of this Helena Independent Record Story, Click Here&nbsp;]]></description><pubDate>March 5, 2010, 8:46 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=609</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>State Repubs Challenge Adequacy of Schweitzer Budget Cuts</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;Republican legislators grilled Gov. Brian Schweitzer&rsquo;s budget director Thursday over whether the administration is proposing to cut spending in the right places and is overly optimistic about improving corporate tax collections.


At a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, Republicans questioned the Democratic governor&rsquo;s budget director, David Ewer, who recommended $40.5 million in spending cuts because of declining state tax collections.
The panel can vote today to ask Schweitzer to change some of Ewer&rsquo;s proposed cuts, but it will be Schweitzer&rsquo;s decision alone where to reduce spending.
In defending his proposed spending reductions, Ewer told the committee, &ldquo;The Schweitzer administration is about strong fiscal management. It is the core.&rdquo;
Ewer said the proposed budget cuts are aimed at protecting public education, public health and public safety, which he called the core of government.
But Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, a former budget director himself, criticized Ewer for being dedicated to &ldquo;protecting the core of government&rdquo; while &ldquo;cutting off the flow of revenue to agencies outside of the core.&rdquo; On Wednesday, Lewis protested the Schweitzer administration&rsquo;s decision to not release $3.5 million in grants to 50 local governments for water, sewer and other public works projects.
He asked why Ewer hadn&rsquo;t taken such steps as imposing a state hiring freeze and greatly restricting out-of-state travel by employees.
For More of this Helena Independent Record Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>March 5, 2010, 7:32 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=608</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Bozeman to Zone for Medical Marijuana Stores</title><description><![CDATA[Bozeman city commissioners say they plan to adopt temporary zoning regulations for medical marijuana shops while permanent rules can be drafted.
Commissioners told staffers Monday to draw up emergency interim zoning rules that would keep the shops at least 1,000 feet away from schools, daycares and Montana State University.
Commissioners plan to vote on March 11 to enact the temporary rules, giving them four months to draft permanent rules for where medical marijuana can be grown, sold and used.
For More of this&nbsp;Billings Gazette Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>March 2, 2010, 11:11 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=607</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Montana's Delegation Not Content With Obama's Healthcare Proposal</title><description><![CDATA[Montana&rsquo;s congressional delegation had all shades of reaction Monday to President Barack Obama&rsquo;s health-reform proposal, from tentative support to outright derision.
Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a vocal critic of Democratic health-reform plans, called the president&rsquo;s proposal a &ldquo;lemon&rdquo; that isn&rsquo;t much different from earlier proposals Rehberg said have been &ldquo;soundly rejected by the vast majority of Montanans I heard from last year.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Montanans aren&rsquo;t fooled by the fresh coat of paint,&rdquo; Rehberg said in a statement.
Obama&rsquo;s plan is a modified version of Democratic proposals that would require citizens to buy or otherwise have health insurance by 2014, create government subsidies to help low- and middle-income families pay for coverage they must buy, expand public coverage programs for the poor, and toughen regulation of health insurance.
Obama unveiled the proposal Monday, four days before a scheduled &ldquo;health care summit&rdquo; in Washington, D.C., with lawmakers from both parties.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a key Democratic leader on health-reform legislation in the Senate, said Monday he likes many provisions of Obama&rsquo;s proposal and looks forward to discussing it Thursday at the summit.
&ldquo;Last week when I was home talking with folks, many made it clear that we have to pass health care reform to help rein in costs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This (proposal and the summit) will give folks on both sides of the aisle the chance to bring their best ideas forward, so we can work to get a bill passed that will lower costs for families and seniors.&rdquo;
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he&rsquo;s going to &ldquo;run (Obama&rsquo;s plan) through a gauntlet to see if it&rsquo;s right for Montana&rsquo;s families, small businesses and family farms and ranches.&rdquo;
&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not in the &lsquo;do-nothing&rsquo; camp,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;If nothing is done to reform health care, then Medicare will go broke, no one will hold insurance companies accountable, and health care costs will continue to break Montana families.&rdquo;
For More of this Helena Independent Record Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 23, 2010, 7:30 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=606</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Butte to Spend $1,000,000 on Pedestrian Bridge</title><description><![CDATA[A plan to build a $1 million pedestrian bridge over a busy road is drawing criticism from some Butte residents who say the money should be spent for other improvements for walkers.
Officials say the bridge over Montana Street is the safest option for those heading between the city's pedestrian trails on one side and Silver Bow Creek Greenway to the west.
Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff John Walsh says the crossing is a safety concern for his agency and others, and he's against any plan that has pedestrians just walking across the street.
For More of this Missoulian Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 22, 2010, 7:46 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=605</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Tester Wilderness Bill Lacked Transparency in its Creation</title><description><![CDATA[From the day he announced it at a Townsend lumber mill eight months ago, the shorthand on Sen. Jon Tester&rsquo;s wilderness and logging bill has gone like this:
It&rsquo;s a welcome marriage of environmentalists and loggers. Everybody wins. And, oh yeah, it was crafted in secret.
The &ldquo;secrecy&rdquo; motif has become such a part of the identity of Tester&rsquo;s bill, it&rsquo;s often mentioned before the actual wilderness or logging parts of the legislation.
But conversations with those who say they&rsquo;ve been &ldquo;left out&rdquo; &ndash; a group that includes environmentalists, motorized recreation enthusiasts and county commissioners &ndash; show that the truth may be much more complicated.
Their story also helps explain why politicians may be loath to even sponsor wilderness bills: They are a tough sell politically because almost everybody finds something wrong with them.
Tester, however, is undeterred. He said he knows the political difficulties of getting new wilderness created. But he is pushing for his new approach because he believes logging must happen on Montana&rsquo;s national forests and because it&rsquo;s time to move forward with wilderness.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be doing it if I didn&rsquo;t think this bill was going to work,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now is kind of a critical time for Montana. We can save some, if not all, of the timber (industry) infrastructure out there. We need it to help us manage the forest.&rdquo;
Tester&rsquo;s bill is different than past efforts. It creates about 660,000 acres of new wilderness, mostly in western and southwestern Montana. But it also requires logging on 100,000 acres over 10 years and it creates a new national recreation area near the Big Hole and enshrines certain places for motorized recreation.
For More of this Missoulian Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 22, 2010, 7:09 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=604</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Comment Sought on Schweitzer's Proposed $40,500,000 in State Budget Cuts</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;The Legislative Finance Committee is seeking public comment on the proposed $40.5 million cuts to state spending.


Montanans can submit comments until March 1 by e-mailing&nbsp;leginfo@mt.gov. The committee also will take comments at a public hearing on March 4 at 8 a.m. in Room 317 of the State Capitol.
Republican Rep. Llew Jones of Conrad says there will be limited time at the meeting for comments, so he comments by e-mail and asks that people include their name as well as the name of any agency or group they represent. Comments will be provided to legislators and summarized for discussion at the Legislative Finance Committee meeting.
For More of this Missoulian Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>February 19, 2010, 5:44 pm</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=603</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>State Sovereignty Favored as New Law Lifts Ban on Firearms in National Parks</title><description><![CDATA[Loaded guns will be allowed in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and other national parks under a new U.S. law that takes effect Monday.

The law lets licensed gun owners bring firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are allowed by state law. It comes over the objections of gun-control advocates who fear it will lead to increased violence in national parks.
The national parks law takes effect in a climate that favors advocates of gun rights. The debate shifted dramatically in 2008, when the Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in Washington and declared that individuals have a constitutional right to possess firearms for self-defense and other purposes.
Gun owners have rushed in record numbers to get concealed weapons permits, saying they worry President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress may impose stricter gun laws. The National Rifle Association lobbied hard to allow guns in parks and has spent millions of dollars to challenge its opponents.
Now gun-control advocates are on the defensive, seeking to preserve some gun restrictions in the face of aggressive assertions of gun rights.
As of Monday, guns will be allowed in all but about 20 of the park service's 392 locations, including some of its most iconic parks: Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park. Guns will not be allowed in visitor centers or rangers' offices, because firearms are banned in federal buildings, but they could be carried into private lodges or concession stands, depending on state laws.
For More of this Billings Gazette Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 19, 2010, 5:42 pm</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=602</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>State Budget Director Predicts Increase in Tax Collections for 2011</title><description><![CDATA[Amid the budget-cutting pessimism facing state government, some rays of optimism emerged for the next fiscal year from both Gov. Brian Schweitzer&rsquo;s budget director and the Legislature&rsquo;s chief revenue forecaster.
In presentations to the Legislature&rsquo;s Revenue and Transportation Interim Committee, state Budget Director David Ewer and Terry Johnson, a principal legislative fiscal analyst, independently predicted state tax collections would improve in the 2011 fiscal year that begins July 1.
&nbsp;

&ldquo;This economy is kind of chugging along,&rdquo; Ewer said.
He said he doesn&rsquo;t believe certain economic modeling used for forecasting adequately captures how corporate earnings are exceeding expectations for three out of four corporations nationally.
Still, Ewer warned later, &ldquo;I am not suggesting it&rsquo;s all rosy, peaches and cream.&rdquo;
For More of this Billings Gazette Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>February 19, 2010, 5:40 pm</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=601</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>$21,000 in Tax Money Spent By Livingston, Not Surprisingly On Tennis Courts</title><description><![CDATA[Livingston city officials say the city spent over $21,000 in federal economic stimulus money to resurface its tennis courts last summer.
Bozeman's $50,000 plan to resurface its tennis courts this spring raised the ire of Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer appeared at a Bozeman City Commission meeting last month to ask them to use the money elsewhere, but city officials declined and noted the state had approved the expenditure.
City Manager Ed Meece says a Billings company took about two weeks to resurface the courts in August. He says applying the state's formula for stimulus projects, the project created or sustained the equivalent of three-fourths of a job for one year.
For More of this Missoulian Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 16, 2010, 3:01 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=600</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Capitalism Solves Woes Yet Again As Billings Landfill Turns Into Natural Resource</title><description><![CDATA[By the end of this month, the backside of the Billings Regional Landfill may begin to resemble a refinery.
About 15 months after drilling three test wells into the decomposing muck, Montana-Dakota Utilities is ready to sink another 59 holes into the ground to capture and sell methane, or natural gas.
Starting Feb. 22, the company will drill the wells and build a piping system to move the gas to a refining facility on site that has yet to be built. MDU expects to ship 1 million cubic feet of gas a day from the landfill, beginning in August.
MDU is partnering with the city on the venture. The utility company does the work and assumes most of the risk, while the city gets a cut of the gas sales and has one less environmental headache to worry about because the city would have to deal with the increasing gas levels one way or another.
&ldquo;They did find that they had to put out more wells than they thought because (the garbage) was shallower in some areas,&rdquo; city Public Works Director Dave Mumford said. &ldquo;But it still came out as a good project.&rdquo;
The City Council signed a 40-year deal with MDU in 2008. The agreement can be reviewed every 10 years. The deal gives the city 15 percent of the net gas sales and 15 percent of any carbon credits generated as a result of the project.
Carbon credits are awarded for preventing the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and can be bought and sold in special carbon markets. While speculative, the credits are appealing to companies that expect future government regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions.
The gas deal&rsquo;s value to the city could change depending on the price of gas and the value of the credits.
Using gas prices at the time, city leaders bought into the plan thinking that it would bring in an average of $500,000 a year for the city over the life of the project. That amount is still accurate, said MDU gas superintendent David Hood.
For More of this Billings Gazette Story, Click Here]]></description><pubDate>February 16, 2010, 2:50 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=599</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Increase in Demand for Medicinal Marijuana Frustrates Regulation-Minded Gov't</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;The number of medical-marijuana patients in Montana increased by more than 600 percent in 2009, taxing state regulators and embroiling city governments in disputes over how to regulate the new businesses emerging to meet that demand.&nbsp;


&ldquo;It&rsquo;s people starting to realize that there&rsquo;s another alternative out there, and that they&rsquo;re not going to be persecuted,&rdquo; said Rich Abromeit of Montana Advanced Caregivers, a company in the Billings area that grows marijuana for about 55 patients.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Between 2008 and 2009, the number of people seeking a legal registration to use marijuana as a pain reliever surged from 830 to 6,069. That brings the total statewide to 7,339.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Obviously, it&rsquo;s an unanticipated workload,&rdquo; said Roy Kemp, deputy administrator of the state&rsquo;s Quality Assurance Division. The division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services is charged with licensing medical marijuana patients and caregivers.
The spike in demand &mdash; along with concerns that the state law offers only vague guidelines about how to regulate a rapidly growing new industry &mdash; is leading some communities to temporarily restrict the opening of new medical-marijuana businesses.&nbsp;
On Monday, the Billings City Council voted to create a committee to examine whether there should be zoning restrictions on medical-marijuana businesses. Lewistown, Great Falls, Whitefish and Roundup have temporarily restricted new providers from opening their doors as they consider how to regulate the nascent industry.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;re enough clear-cut guidelines, and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s good for either side of the story,&rdquo; Roundup Mayor Bill Edwards said.&nbsp; &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just keeping an open mind with it. We&rsquo;re not saying we&rsquo;re not going to do it or we are going to do it, but if we do it, we want to do it right.&rdquo;
No medical-marijuana businesses currently operate in Roundup, Edwards said. But Musselshell County is home to eight registered caregivers. To help the Roundup City Council decide how to proceed, a survey being sent out in the near future will query citizens as to whether they think businesses selling marijuana should be allowed to set up shop within city limits. &nbsp;
For More of this Billings Gazette Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>February 14, 2010, 7:29 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=598</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Tea Party Groups Poised to Influence 2010 MT Elections</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;Ten months ago they were an angry mob standing in the rain. Now with elections approaching, Montana&rsquo;s Tea Party groups are organized and ready to spoon political sugar, or saccharin.


&ldquo;It&rsquo;s absolutely been a success,&rdquo; said Eric Olsen, organizer for the Billings Tea Party group Montana Shrugged. &ldquo;What we&rsquo;re basically about is limited government, keep it simple, and that&rsquo;s government on all levels.&rdquo;
The group that didn&rsquo;t exist a year ago now produces a weekly TV show with elected officials regularly in the guest seat. It organizes weekly outdoor rallies on government issues, rain or shine, and occasionally participates in nationally networked events.
Locally, there are 1,600 people signed up for the e-mails sent out by Olsen and his daughter, Jennifer, two petroleum engineers with time on their hands because, they said, government regulation and talk of new laws to combat global warming has interrupted drilling.
As the GOP meets in Great Falls this weekend for its Republican Roundup, the Tea Party is at the table as an invited guest. The Tea Party, which believes federal lawmakers, Democrat and Republican, have overspent and stepped over constitutional boundaries, avoid party affiliation.
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re just a diverse group that&rsquo;s out there that doesn&rsquo;t want to be roped into any corral,&rdquo; said Will Deschamps, Montana Republican Party chairman. &ldquo;The first thing I&rsquo;m going to do is walk over to their table and thank them for being there and say, &lsquo;What can I do for you?&rsquo;&rdquo;
In the Tea Party, conservative Republicans see the potential for a grass-roots movement not unlike volunteers that pushed President Barack Obama into the White House in 2008. Groups countrywide communicate through Twitter, Facebook and e-mail, but have no official leaders. Because they collect no official dues, their cash clout is questionable, but their activism is as good as gold.
&ldquo;We do events that are strategic and timely,&rdquo; said Henry Kriegel, a marketing professional who directs the Bozeman Tea Party. &ldquo;We do large events, we hosted the Tea Party Express,&rdquo; a national Tea Party tour. &ldquo;We did the Obama town hall protest, went toe to toe with the SIEU,&rdquo; the Service Employees International Union.
For More of this Helena Independent Record Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>February 14, 2010, 7:08 am</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=597</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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<title>Secretary of State McCulloch Includes Her Salary Amongst Other Budget Cuts</title><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;Secretary of State Linda McCulloch said Wednesday her office has cut spending by 18 percent, or $1.3 million, in her first year of office.


Her office budget was trimmed to $5.9 million in calendar 2009 from $7.2 million the previous year. McCulloch was elected in 2008 and took office in early January 2009.
She reported reducing travel by 84 percent, temporary staffing by 70 percent and overtime by more than 60 percent.
McCulloch said she closed an underutilized building, canceled underperforming contracts, left vacant positions unfilled, declined her statutory pay increase, limited supply orders and discontinued the office&rsquo;s use of a car from the state motor pool.
&ldquo;I reviewed the budget on day one, and took an ax to the budget on day two,&rdquo; McCulloch said. &ldquo;We cut spending by 18 percent in one year, but there&rsquo;s still more to do. I will continue to look for ways to save money.&rdquo;
The Secretary of State&rsquo;s office, unlike most state agencies, is not financed by the state general fund. As an enterprise fund, the office must operate with the revenue it generates from fees it charges for services such as business filings, notary applications and records management.
It also receives Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, from the federal government to help pay for the federal requirements such as maintenance of a statewide voter file and voter accessibility equipment for counties. Since 2003, Montana has received $17 million in HAVA funding, but has only $3 million in these funds remaining. That money is expected to be exhausted by 2012 unless Congress appropriates more money.
For More of this Helena Independent Record Story, Click Here
]]></description><pubDate>February 11, 2010, 12:27 pm</pubDate><link>http://www.montanapolicy.org/main/news.php?news_id=596</link><category>Blog Entries</category>
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