What the Helena 2023- Issue #9

Well, readers, we are officially halfway through this absolute whirlwind of a legislative session. The Capitol building is the quietest it’s been in months, and after a series of marathon days and rapid-fire bill debates, our legislators are taking some hard-earned time off over this transmittal break to rest, recuperate, and then do it all again.

So, WTH is transmittal? Great question! Transmittal is the midway point of the legislative session. It’s also the deadline for all general (non-budget-related) bills to be passed out of the chamber where they originated, or else they’re outta luck. That’s why, over the last week, both the House and the Senate frantically debated and voted on hundreds of bills, many of which could have gigantic impacts on the way life looks in Montana. 

Bills that passed out of one chamber this week will now move to the other chamber  (chambers = the House and the Senate), where they’ll be scheduled for another hearing prior to moving to the floor for a full vote. This means that the public will have another opportunity to testify, so if there was a bill you missed that you want to speak to, start working on that testimony now!

If bills pass in the second chamber, they’ll be sent to Governor Gianforte’s desk. If they’re signed there, we anticipate that many of them will end up in court.

Queer and Trans Rights

Once again, scads of legislators are proving to us that their personal agendas and misinformed fears of trans community are more important to them than the tens of thousands of LGBTQIA2S+ people living in Montana. These legislators are not being accountable to the people they were elected to serve, nor are they respecting our rights delineated in the state and federal Constitutions. 

Here are the bills that we’ll be keeping an eye on after the transmittal break. Stay tuned for updates on how you can take action! 

❌SB 99, the misleadingly titled “Youth Health Protection Act,” would ban minors from receiving any sort of gender-affirming care – from puberty blockers & hormones to affirmation of a new name or pronouns at school. 

❌SB 458 would insert an incorrect and harmful definition of sex into the Montana legal code, preventing intersex, trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit people from having accurate documents from birth to death, and effectively removing sexual orientation and gender identity from the list of protected classes. 

❌HB 361 would make it illegal to discipline students for deadnaming and misgendering their peers.

❌HB 359 would ban drag performances in any public space, with a definition of drag that could criminalize any trans person in public.

❌HB 303, the so-called “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act” would allow any medical provider to withhold services based on ethical, moral, or religious beliefs. 

❌HB 234 would ban any materials considered to be “obscene” (read: queer, brown, black) from public schools, placing public school employees at risk of criminal penalties for sharing information.

---

Affordable Housing and Tenants Rights

We’ve seen several recommendations from Governor Gianforte’s Housing Task Force appear in bills that have both passed and died during the first half of the legislative session. Most of these recommendations are backed by bipartisan support and center around state-level zoning reforms, like legalizing accessory dwelling units and multi-unit developments in Montana neighborhoods. While we’ve been happy to support a handful of  statewide reforms we think could really move the needle on our state’s housing crisis, there are a few, like a bill banning local governments from regulating Air BnBs, that we’re concerned about.

❌SB 268 would prevent local governments from restricting short-term rentals.

❌HB 282 would allow landlords to post a “deficiency notice” notifying a tenant of a lease violation; if not addressed & remedied within 3 days (amended from 24 hours), the landlord can terminate the lease. 

✅HB 785 requires landlords to give 60 days notice to tenants whose lease is being changed or terminated.

✅SB 245 would revise municipal zoning to allow multi-family and mixed-use developments in areas currently zoned for parking, office, and retail uses.

✅SB 323 would legalize duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes anywhere a single family home is allowed.

✅HB 546 would allocate funding from Montana’s Coal Trust toward loans for the development and preservation of affordable multi-family homes.

✅SB 382 would make a handful of changes to Montana’s zoning policy that would push local governments and developers toward creating denser, more walkable, more liveable neighborhoods where more Montanans can afford to live.

✅SB 320 would require landlords to refund unused portions of rental application fees to applicants who aren’t granted the rental.

---

Climate Justice

Bozeman, Missoula, and Billings, are continuing to push for change, bringing awareness to their communities and legislators alike! Grassroots organizing and bottom-up approaches have the power to make changes that truly reflect what our communities want, so let’s keep learning, spreading the word, and pressuring our legislators!

Only two of the main bills we’ve been following have made it past committee, and unfortunately they’re not good:

❌HB 170 would repeal both the state’s energy policy and the mechanism to make those policies, with nothing to replace them. As a reminder, policies like these are what guide the making of new laws!

❌SB 228 would ban not only local governments, but the people who live in and understand our communities, from having an active say in the construction, placement, or impacts of petroleum or methane plants, pipelines, and other facilities 

You can find a whole bunch of others being followed by our friends at the Montana Environmental Information Center. 

---

Democracy & Judicial Independence

SB 200, HB 464, SB 302, and HB 595 all would have done away with nonpartisan elections in some way or another, whether it be all nonpartisan races or just judicial ones. Thankfully, these bills were either tabled in committee or failed their floor vote.

SB 372, which would have eliminated state Supreme Court elections entirely, was tabled in committee. 

SB 441, which would have revived the Ballot Interference Protection Act (which has already been found to be unconstitutional multiple times) had its committee hearing canceled, effectively killing the bill.

Tons of bad democracy bills have died this session, including many during transmittal (such as bills to make city elections partisan, unnecessarily involve the Attorney General in inspecting voting machines, and to require Montanans to register to vote with their party affiliation) that we just don’t have the space to cover in-depth! 

But it just wouldn’t be a session of the Montana Legislature without attempts to limit our right to participate in democracy. Going into the second half of the session, here are some anti-democracy bills to keep an eye out for:

❌HB 598 would prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting in Montana, a method which isn’t used anywhere in Montana but should still be an option for municipalities to implement if they choose.

❌HB 712 is an entirely pointless bill because it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote, and does nothing other than enter prejudiced language against immigrants into our state’s law.

❌HB 733 allows successful election candidates to contribute any leftover money from their campaign to a new election fund, creating a huge disadvantage for challengers and allowing for more money to enter our politics.

❌HB 774 and SB 420 would both change the dates of Montana’s elections. Currently, Montana has its elections for federal and state-wide offices on even years and local elections on odd years. These bills would place elections on even years or all city elections on even years respectively, which would make ballots longer and contribute to the problem of voters deciding not to vote in certain elections. 

❌SB 93 establishes a $3,700 barrier to entry for citizens who want to put a ballot initiative to the voters.

---

Hero of the Week- Rep. Zooey Zephyr

If you’ve had to look for new housing lately, you know that 30 days is often not enough time to find, apply for, secure, and gather the money to pay a deposit on a new apartment. This bill could be the difference between people being able to stay in our communities and being forced out or becoming unhoused. As the Representative for a district that’s around 50% renters and one of the few renters in the legislature, we applaud Rep. Zephyr’s commitment to pushing for policies that would make a real difference in the lives of the folks who sent her to Helena. 

“All we’re asking is that tenants have enough time to make decisions that are right for them and not be forced out of the communities that they want to put down roots in.” – Rep. Zooey Zephyr

---

Villain of the Week- Sen. Carl Glimm 

So, what would SB 458 do? Its stated purpose is to “define sex in Montana law” – but it would do a whole lot more than codify a scientifically incorrect definition of sex. The bulk of this bill inserts this new definition into sections of the law to:

• Enforce the use of one’s “biological sex” in documents ranging from birth certificates to marriage licenses to burial records, forcing transgender people to disclose private information and deny the sex that they live as.  How any intersex or gender-diverse person is expected to navigate these processes is unclear. 
• Redefine the meaning of “sex based discrimination” in all instances where it is illegal. At a federal level, sex based discrimination includes gender and sexual orientation based discrimination – this bill would remove gender and sexual orientation from the list of protected classes.

After hearing more than 40 people testify against this bill (and only 6 people in support), Sen. Pat Flowers aptly asked Glimm, “Given what we’ve heard about all the impacts this is going to have on human beings, why is this so important?…If this is a solution, what would be the problem?”

---