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A bill heard Tuesday at the Montana Legislature aims to increase the number of modestly priced homes available to Montana residents by reining in the power of city and town governments to require that new homes be built on properties of a certain size. House Bill 337, sponsored by Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, would dictate that local governments can’t require minimum lot sizes bigger than 2,500 square feet in areas served by municipal water and sewer systems. It’s among the first major proposals to come before this year’s Legislature that... Full story
As lawmakers negotiate Montana's next state budget this winter, the Republican-controlled Capitol has a once-in-a-generation windfall to spend - the state's $2.5 billion surplus. Naturally, opinions on what to do with the pile of cash vary. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has proposed a budget that would fill the state's reserve accounts, patch up health and social service programs, and put $525 million into short-term property tax rebates. Various factions within the legislative GOP have their o... Full story
Standing in front of a luxury apartment complex under construction in Bozeman Thursday, Gov. Greg Gianforte touted his efforts to address Montana's housing affordability crunch by promoting new residential development. Flanked by construction industry leaders and hi-viz-clad apprentice tradespeople, the governor's press conference focused on his administration's decision to bolster the state's skilled construction workforce by letting companies train more apprentices. He also pointed to the zoning reform measures and other recommendations...
A task force charged with identifying solutions for Montana's housing crunch formally passed recommendations for legislative action to Gov. Greg Gianforte Wednesday, teeing up debates over state subsidies and local control that appear likely to play out as specific housing bills are considered by lawmakers this winter. The group, appointed by the governor in July, had been asked to recommend measures that could be implemented by the Legislature to reduce the burden placed on many Montanans by... Full story
A draft report released last week by Gov. Greg Gianforte's housing task force details a slew of ideas to boost housing supply in an effort to tackle Montana's affordability crunch, previewing legislation that could be advanced by the governor and lawmakers during next year's legislative session. Several of the task force's recommendations involve scaling back local zoning restrictions such as minimum lot sizes, building height limits and parking requirements to make it easier to develop more dense housing developments in urban areas with... Full story
As Gov. Greg Gianforte described the job facing his newly convened housing task force Wednesday, he made a point of asking the group's 26 members to think outside the box as they spend the next several months working to identify the root causes of Montana's housing crunch and propose solutions for consideration by the governor and state Legislature. "When it comes down to it, the health and well-being of all of our families, and our communities, our businesses, our economy, rely on affordable... Full story
A proposed property tax cap and three other ballot initiatives supporters had hoped to put before Montana voters in November's general election are dead in the water after failing to meet signature-gathering thresholds, their respective backers have said. The failed proposals included CI-121, which would have amended the state Constitution to dramatically reconfigure Montana's tax system by capping residential property taxes. That initiative, sponsored by Bozeman attorney Matt Monforton and... Full story
Gov. Greg Gianforte's Return to Work bonus program, announced last year as he scaled back expanded pandemic unemployment benefits, ultimately paid about one-fourth as many bonuses as the state initially funded, according to a new post-program report from the state Department of Labor and Industry. The program delivered $1,200 payments to workers who were on the state's unemployment rolls as of May 1, 2021, and subsequently held new jobs for at least four weeks. It ultimately paid bonuses to 3,05... Full story
The root cause of Montana's increasingly stifling housing market? Too few homes to go around, a researcher told a legislative committee studying the state's economic condition Monday. "There is by any metric an enormous housing shortage in this state," Alex Horowitz of Pew Charitable Trusts said in a presentation to the Legislature's Financial Modernization & Risk Analysis Study committee. "There has been an increase in population that has outstripped the increase in homes." The rub, Horowitz said, is that Montana's population increased by 10%... Full story
HELENA - With a final vote Friday, Montana's Districting and Apportionment Commission made it official: The state has a new congressional map, political lines drawn to define how Montanans are represented in the U.S. House through the 2030 election. While the boundaries could still be subject to a court challenge, the vote represents the likely culmination of a monthslong districting process that kicked into gear when detailed 2020 census results were published in August, triggering a... Full story
The state's first major winter storm dropped snow on parts of southern Montana early this week, signaling the final act of an active fire season that had prompted Gov. Greg Gianforte to issue a wildfire emergency declaration in July and mobilize hundreds of National Guard troops to assist in suppression efforts. Nearly 940,000 acres have burned across the state this year, the highest tally since the record-setting 2017 season that prompted lawmakers to revisit their budget. Part of the season's...
An effort to divide Montana into two districts for U.S. House elections over the next decade now has a set of nine finalist maps — and an unmistakable partisan divide. The maps were advanced this week by the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission, which is up against a Nov. 14 deadline for drawing the new congressional districts. Commissioners, who said they adapted their proposals after reviewing dozens of unique maps submitted by members of the public, are looking for additional public feedback in the coming weeks. In addition to a...
HELENA - The commission tasked with dividing Montana into two U.S. House districts for the first time since the 1980s asked the public for input last month. Montanans responded with an earful, submitting 231 proposed maps, some of them duplicates, and more than a hundred pages of written comment as of an initial deadline this week. The proposals are, literally, all over the map. They include efforts that group most of the state's urban areas into a single district and divide the state... Full story
An initial round of funding drawn from Montana’s share of the March federal coronavirus relief bill is heading toward 86 water and sewer projects around the state. The awards, totalling nearly $127 million, were formally announced Thursday by Gov. Greg Gianforte. They follow an allocation process that was outlined by the Montana Legislature this spring in which project applications were submitted by local government entities, ranked by staff at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and reviewed by an advisory committee last m...
HELENA - State Budget Director Kurt Alme, Gov. Greg Gianforte's top fiscal adviser, will leave his position Oct. 1, less than a year after being named to one of the highest-profile roles in state government. In a statement released by Gianforte's office Tuesday, Alme cited family considerations, specifically the strain of commuting to the state capital from his home in Billings. He will be replaced by Sen. Ryan Osmundson, R-Buffalo, a longtime lawmaker who has for years played a central role in...
HELENA - The commission tasked with dividing Montana into two U.S. House districts for the first time since the 1980s has a Nov. 14 deadline to submit a final district map to Montana's secretary of state. To help it do that, the commission is seeking public input in the form of written comments and specific mapping proposals. The five-member Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission formally acknowledged receipt of detailed data from the 2020 U.S. census at a meeting last week, kicking...
The U.S. Census Bureau released detailed statistics Thursday on the 2020 populations and racial compositions of Montana counties, cities, towns and neighborhoods, providing a once-in-a-decade look at demographic change across the state, and also handing the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission the block-by-block data it will use to define the state's two U.S. House Districts. The new data, which has been delayed more than four months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, represents the primary release from the constitutionally... Full story
HELENA — Officials serving on a commission tasked with helping Gov. Greg Gianforte spend $150 million of the state’s COVID-19 relief money to bolster Montana’s post-pandemic economy agreed Wednesday to consider proposals sorted into four buckets: business innovation, value-added agriculture, workforce development and affordable housing. The Economic Transformation and Stabilization and Workforce Development Advisory Commission also heard from economists and public commenters about how worker, housing and childcare shortages are holding the s...
HELENA — Montana’s Districting and Apportionment Commission voted Tuesday to finalize the criteria it will use to draw Montana’s new U.S. House and state legislative districts using data from the 2020 census. The commission previously approved criteria specific to U.S. House districts at a meeting earlier this month, but ran out of time to hash out criteria for state legislative districts. That language regarding congressional criteria specified that U.S. House districts “must be as equal in population as is practicable,” and also committed...
HELENA - Montana lawmakers approved about $16 billion in spending during the 2021 legislative session, more than $17,400 per Montana resident. That's money for everything from plowing highways to paying district court judges and administering COVID-19 vaccines over the state's next two-year budget period, which started at the beginning of July. It turns out that more than half the money flowing out of Helena this budget cycle won't be collected by the state Department of Revenue. A majority of...
Montana will gain a second representative in the U.S. House as seats are reapportioned according to population counts from the 2020 census, the U.S. Census Bureau said last week. The news means that, starting with the 2022 election, Montana will have two U.S. representatives for the first time since losing its second seat following the 1990 census. The state’s five-member 2020 Districting and Apportionment Commission will be responsible for drawing district boundaries. Montana’s official 2020 population count, intended to represent the num...
HELENA — Racing to beat a procedural deadline, Montana lawmakers have advanced a first-draft plan for spending billions of dollars in federal stimulus money through an initial vote in the state House less than three weeks after President Joe Biden signed the nation’s latest coronavirus relief package into law. The plan, enshrined in House Bill 632, details spending for more than $2.3 billion of the roughly $3 billion expected to flow through state government under the new stimulus act, the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. It directs that mon...
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, passed by U.S. Congress Wednesday and heading to the desk of President Joe Biden, will bring billions of stimulus dollars into Montana under the auspices of a wide-ranging effort to pull the national economy out of a COVID-19 pandemic slump. In addition to another round of individual stimulus checks set at $1,400 for most taxpayers, the act includes provisions intended to cover the costs of COVID-19 vaccination programs. According to a March 8 analysis by the governor’s Office of Budget & P...
On November 3, Montana voters gave the GOP unified control of state government, electing a Republican to the governor's office for the first time in 16 years, Republican candidates to all statewide offices, and expanding GOP majorities in the state House and Senate. Even so, while at least one written policy agenda draft has been circulating in Republican circles, the party's legislative leaders say they're still working to define the priorities the party will bring to the Capitol when lawmakers meet this winter to craft a budget and debate...
A late July article from Big Sky Times looks at first glance like a piece of old-fashioned investigative journalism, published on what appears to be a modern news website. "Montana media, GOP failed to investigate Bullock's conduct," reads its headline, over a stock photo of incumbent governor and U.S. Senate candidate Steve Bullock, a Democrat. The first few paragraphs of the piece quote former Republican legislator Matthew Monforton, criticizing the governor for alleged incompetence and corruption. It continues in a similar fashion,...
