City Desk
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Thursday, December 14, 2023 - Rural America's jobs numbers are rebounding, but still below pre-pandemic days, a rural Oregon community has a new approach to affordable housing, the smallest communities benefit from the world's largest museum and the dark nights give way to light.
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Thursday, December 14, 2023 - MN voices carry environmental justice message at the global conference; House Approves Biden Impeachment Inquiry; Michigan and Great Lakes Slow Offshore Wind Collection; expert warns that some toys pose danger to kids.
- Details
- Category: City Desk
By Mark Moran - Producer-Editor, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Montana Counties and two conservation groups presented oral arguments in District Court in a lawsuit over a funding bill Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed earlier this year after the Senate had already adjourned. Senate Bill 442 would have funded road and recreation projects as well as addiction treatment and veterans services. Comments from Ross Butcher, president, Montana Association of Counties.
Click on the image above for the audio. Many of Montana's county access roads to public lands are shared by hunters and local residents. (Adobe Stock)
Mark Moran
December 13, 2023 - A District Court judge has heard oral arguments in a lawsuit over a vetoed Montana funding bill. The measure would have changed the way the state's marijuana tax revenue gets distributed.
Senate Bill 442 passed the Montana Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support and would have earmarked 20% of the revenue to maintain and improve access to public roads on county lands.
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed the bill after the Senate had already adjourned.
A coalition of environmental groups, including the Montana Association of Counties, sued the governor to give lawmakers the opportunity to consider overturning the veto.
Ross Butcher, president of the association, said because many of them are so remote, heavily used access roads are often in need of repair and expensive to maintain.
"It's quite onerous for those local counties sometimes to maintain some of those, and the folks that are farming or ranching in those areas, those are their access roads; the farm-to-market type roads," Butcher explained. "It really develops a lot of tension between our public land users and residents in those areas."
In his veto letter, Gianforte called spending marijuana revenue on county road projects a "slippery slope," and said the state should not establish funding mechanisms for county governments.
In addition to setting aside money to maintain the county's public-lands access roads, Senate Bill 442 would have also funded conservation and recreation programs, addiction treatment, and veterans services. The Senate had more than enough votes to override the veto if lawmakers had been given a chance, but since Gianforte vetoed the bill after the Senate adjourned, they could not.
Butcher noted the groups are asking the judge to allow lawmakers to have the opportunity to do their job.
"The legislators should be allowed to legislate," Butcher contended. "They shouldn't circumvent that because of a procedure that overrides the intent, which is that legislators should be allowed to legislate. "
Butcher worries Gianforte's post-adjournment veto could set a dangerous and undemocratic precedent for future governors, allowing them to kill bills with broad bipartisan and public support for political reasons. The judge has not yet ruled on the matter.
| Best Practices |
- Details
- Category: City Desk
Click on the image above for the audio.
PNS - Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - Watchdog report: IN should hit 'pause' on major water project; the United Nations demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war; apprentices in demand for Tennessee construction careers.
