Page 7 - John Esp News Today

KGVO encourages anyone interested in hearing and seeing further testimony on HB 218 to visit the Montana Legislature’s website.

Government agencies and offices have been jockeying for new resources, with an eye on the states estimated $2.4 billion surplus.

A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to scrap plans to send 120 incarcerated Montanans to a private prison in Arizona.

A Senate committee on Tuesday voted to scrap plans to send 120 incarcerated Montanans to a private prison in Arizona.

Montana lawmakers are grappling with a fresh question: Have programs advertising the Last Best Place to the rest of the country worked too well?

One of the bills would dilute the voting power of cities on energy matters through political redistricting, the other would prevent cities from addressing climate change.

The Montana DOC and university system said the bill to define sex as a man and a woman could be expensive. In an email Monday, Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, said she has talked to groups since Friday, like the Montana Association of Counties, who have expressed concern.

A technical note prepared by the Office of Commissioner of Higher Education and the Montana University System said that because this bill creates conflict with federal law, it may jeopardize federal funding the school system receives.

Senate Bill 458 is from Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila. It would define sex based on sex organs and chromosomes.

The districts approved would, for the first time in at least 20 years, split the state’s largest cities into two districts.