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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,...
HELENA - The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a ruling from last year in which a state District Court judge criticized the Montana Public Service Commission's handling of a rate contract dispute between a solar power developer and NorthWestern Energy. However, the high court declined in its Sept. 22 ruling to review a portion of Judge James Manley's June 2019 order that concluded the utility commissioners had violated the solar developer's due process rights by publishing newspaper op-eds and making other public statements critical of...
HELENA - State government is facing a $300 million-plus revenue cliff in the coming year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislative analysts told lawmakers last week. Regardless, it's looking like Montana's reserve accounts will be adequate to stave off a full-blown budget crisis through at least 2021. "While fiscal year 2021 looks manageable, the next biennium may be more of a challenge for legislators," said fiscal analyst Susie Lindsay. The new projections, prepared by the nonpartisan...
HELENA - Gov. Steve Bullock issued a directive Thursday giving Montana counties the option of shifting to all-mail ballots for the November general election as they did for the June primary, saying the order gives local election authorities a way to prevent COVID-19 from spreading among election-day crowds at polling places. The governor, who will be on the fall ballot as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said he is issuing the order at the request of the association representing Montana's county clerks and election administrators. "It...
HELENA - Members of the commission tasked with redrawing Montana's legislative boundaries following the 2020 census expressed frustration over the state's dragging response rate in Native communities and other rural areas June 10, citing complications from the COVID-19 pandemic that have disrupted get-out-the-count efforts. One, Republican Jeff Essmann of Billings, worried a low count could cost Montana its opportunity to gain back a second seat in the U.S. House. "If we don't have these rural counties and our Native populations properly counte...
When it comes time for Montana voters to decide who they'll send to Washington, D.C., in November, the names on the ballot will be familiar. As U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, looks to win his second six-year term, he'll be challenged by two-term Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, who is looking for a new job as he runs up against term limits atop the state's executive branch. In the race for Montana's seat in the U.S. House, which is up for election every two years, Republican voters endorsed State Auditor Matt Rosendale, who was also their...
HELENA - An advisory council appointed to help Gov. Steve Bullock decide how to spend $1.25 billion in coronavirus relief money from the federal government submitted its formal recommendations Friday, laying out a framework focused on providing additional support to pandemic-disrupted businesses and nonprofits. "It's critical, certainly, that this funding reaches all corners of our state, considers really all the sectors of industry and the economy," Bullock said. Task force chair Larry Simkins...
HELENA - Gov. Steve Bullock unveiled the state's official plan April 22 for gradually shifting Montana out of anti-coronavirus emergency mode, specifying dates for scaling back his stay-at-home directive and reopening some non-essential businesses that have been shuttered in an effort to slow the outbreak. In making the announcement, Bullock touted the state's anti-coronavirus efforts, saying aggressive government action, dogged public health work and individual Montanans' commitment to social distancing have given the state the lowest...
HELENA - Jim Murphy, Montana's chief epidemiologist, has heard the same stories most everyone in the state has heard about residents who've made unsuccessful attempts to get themselves tested for COVID-19. But even as national headlines worry over testing backlogs in some parts of the country, he says testing constraints haven't hampered Montana's coronavirus response. "I'm not aware of what I would consider valid access issues," Murphy said in an April 7 interview. "I think the providers in...
Editor's Note: This story was originally published by Montana Free Press. For more information, please visit www.montanafreepress.org HELENA - Four days after President Donald Trump signed the largest emergency spending measure in U.S. history, the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, Montana-based stimulus watchers are waiting with bated breath for details about how the act will bring aid to bear on the state economy. While the CARES Act responds to the COVID-19...
