Report card time for legislators MEA-MFT 2005 legislative voting record he 2005 Legislature was bittersweet for MEA- rollment and ongoing spending caps, most TMFT. We scored some major victories for our school districts will see no real relief for their on- members and lost some crucial battles. We will going budget difficulties and will only be able to not give up on the bills we lost; we will be back maintain the status quo dismantling of quality at the legislature when it next convenes, fight- that started over a decade ago. ing for our members and the people they serve. MEA-MFT position: Oppose The voting guide that follows explains the bills Votes: MEA-MFT used for our voting record. These are 3rd Reading Concur, House Floor 4/14/05 the votes most important to public services and 3rd Reading Concur, Senate Floor 4/14/05 public education. Status: Became law. HB 124 (Facey) K12 SHIP: HB 124 was MEA- Throughout the HB = House Bill SB = Senate Bill HB 2 (Witt) General Appropriations for MFT’s top priority for k-12 schools in the 2005 session, MEA- State Government: Authorizing all state spend- session. Had it passed, it would have provided MFT members ing for the next two years, HB 2 is the omnibus affordable, cost-efficient, and ongoing health benefits for every teacher and almost all other stayed informed budget act for the State of Montana. Easily the most debated and amended bill in the session, school employees in Montana. and involved. HB 2 is traditionally the focus of partisan de- Pooling school employees statewide into one Your calls, bate and finger pointing. health benefits system would provide millions This year, Republicans made several last- of dollars in net savings to Montana taxpayers, letters, and minute efforts to trim over $100 million out of schools, and school employees. e-mails made a the state budget. This would have decimated Tragically, despite broad bipartisan support, huge difference. state agency budgets and services. all the governor’s horses and all the governor’s With a House evenly divided along party men wouldn’t let SHIP pass the House. THANK YOU! lines, it took four separate votes to gain the final MEA-MFT position: Support Votes 1 and 2; 51-48 vote that protected a reasonable state bud- Oppose Vote 3 get and ended the 2005 session. Votes: MEA-MFT position: Support 1) 2nd Reading, House Floor 3/15/05 Votes: 2) Motion to bring from table, House Floor 3rd Reading, House Floor 4/21/05 3/23/05 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 4/19/05 3) Motion to Table, House Floor 3/29/05 Status: Became law. Status: Bill tabled. To be continued. HB 63 (Villa) School Funding Tourniquet: HB 148 (Lambert) Preserving Montana’s Originally an innocuous “clean-up” bill, HB 63 Public Employees Retirement System: HB 148 morphed into the 2005 school funding bill that sought to inject over $2.4 million new dollars purported to address Montana’s school funding into the Public Employees Retirement System crisis. (PERS) to help the system regain its financial As amended, HB 63 continues the Martz footing after historic losses during the 2001 re- administration’s restrictions on using county re- cession. Without this funding, the system main- tirement levies for federally funded personnel. tains excess unfunded liabilities in violation of Unfortunately, this means an ongoing cost to lo- Montana’s constitution and actuarial good sense. cal school district budgets of over $10 million a MEA-MFT position: Support year. HB 63 provides a total of $29 million in new Vote: 3rd Reading, House Floor 3/24/05 dollars to schools in Fiscal Year (FY) ‘06 and Status: Passed House, tabled by Senate Finance maintains that funding level in FY ‘07. & Claims Committee at governor’s request. However, when coupled with declining en- HB 181 (Musgrove) Preserving Montana’s 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 4/5/05 Teachers Retirement System: Like HB 148 for Status: Became law. PERS, HB 181 would have allocated additional state and local revenue for the Teachers Retire- HB 447 (Gallik) State Pay Plan: HB 447 is ment System (TRS), meeting the state’s consti- the state executive branch pay plan negotiated tutional requirement that its retirement systems by MEA-MFT and the Montana Public Employ- be actuarially sound. ees Association with the governor’s office. HB MEA-MFT position: Support 447 provides salary increases of 4% and 3.5% Vote: 3rd Reading, House Floor 3/21/05 in the next two years. Maximum salary increases, Status: Passed House, tabled by Senate Finance targeted to the state’s lowest paid employees, will & Claims Committee at governor’s request. be as high as 10% per year. And the state will cover insurance premium increases of $46 in HB 338 (Jent) Professional Retirement Op- year 1 of the biennium and $50 in year 2. tion for Teachers: Introduced at MEA-MFT’s The vote recorded here represents the only request, HB 338 would increase the TRS benefit speed bump in what otherwise was the quickest multiplier to 2% per year of service for retirees pay plan approval in modern legislative history. with 25 or more years of TRS credited service. Republicans staged a last-minute partisan effort MEA-MFT position: Support to nix the deal MEA-MFT members overwhelm- Vote: 2nd Reading, House Floor 3/8/05 ingly ratified with the governor. MEA-MFT Status: Passed the House, referred to House member Bernie Olson heroically refused to vote Appropriations Committee where it was tabled. for his party’s amendment. MEA-MFT position: Oppose amendment, HB 404 (Koopman) Anyone Can Teach— support HB 447 as introduced and For Free: Not only do radical anti-public Votes: school members of the legislature want teacher Motion to Amend, House Floor 2/4/05 licensure to be optional, they also want teachers 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 2/18/05 to simply volunteer. HB 404 was a pot-shot at Status: House amendment failed. HB 447 as the profession. introduced became law. MEA-MFT position: Oppose Vote: Motion to bring from committee, HB 456 (Koopman) Anyone Can Run a House Floor 4/4/05 School and Get the State to Pay: As a fitting se- Status: Motion failed. HB 404 remained quel to his HB 404, Rep. Koopman sought to give deadlocked in House Education Committee. public education dollars to anyone who wanted to play school. Wal-Mart, the Taxpayers’ Asso- HB 418 (Keane) Definition of Supervisor: ciation, or anyone could open and run a public Another bill introduced at MEA-MFT’s request, school, so long as they gained approval from a HB 418 was designed to end a growing practice school board, university unit, or local govern- by some public employers to “define” bargain- ment. The schools would not have to abide by ing units out of existence. any standards, because there wouldn’t be any. HB 418 provides a consistent definition of a Another attempted shot to the gut of public supervisor that will allow workers to organize education, HB 456 was stuck in committee un- even when they are given occasional assignments til Republicans used a “silver bullet” to bring it to guide or lead teams of workers. All kinds of to second reading where it died. state agency opposition surfaced to kill this bill, MEA-MFT position: Oppose but in the end, the governor signed it after al- Vote: 2nd Reading, House Floor 2/22/05 lowing MEA-MFT to make our case. Status: Bill failed. MEA-MFT position: Support Votes: SB 48 (Harrington) Business Equipment Tax 3rd Reading, Accept Senate Amendments, Freeze: The most important piece of tax legisla- House Floor 4/13/05 tion to pass the 2005 session, SB 48 freezes the SB 299 (Toole) Clean Contracting: After business equipment tax at 3% and strips the ill- watching botched and misguided privatization conceived mechanism that eventually would have of state services ranging from prisoner transfers eliminated this source of revenue for Montana’s to state purchasing, MEA-MFT asked that SB 299 struggling public agencies and schools. be introduced to bring sunlight, process, and MEA-MFT position: Support accountability to privatization decisions. Votes: Position: Support 3rd Reading, House Floor 4/16/05 Votes: 3rd Reading, House Floor 4/6/05 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 3/15/05 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 2/11/205 Status: Became law. Status: Became law. SB 78 (Harrington) Increasing the Mini- SB 520 (Elliott) Residential Property Tax mum Wage: SB 78 would have increased the Rebate: SB 520 would have redesigned the 2003 Montana minimum wage 30 cents in 2005 and Martz income tax cut benefiting the wealthiest another 35 cents in 2006. The current minimum Montanans to provide property tax relief for low wage is $5.15. and middle income Montanans. How did your MEA-MFT position: Support MEA-MFT position: Support Votes: Vote: 3rd Reading, Senate 4/4/05 legislators do? 2nd Reading, House Floor 4/5/05 Status: Passed the Senate. Tabled in House Voting records appear 3rd Reading, Senate Floor 2/1/05 Taxation Committee. on the following pages. Status: Bill failed. To be continued. SB 525 (Tester) Quality Schools Interim Voting record key SB 152 (Ryan) Definition of Quality Educa- Study: SB 525 provides funding and a work plan R = Right vote accord- tion: SB 152 provoked a slug-fest at the very be- for an interim study to address the state Supreme ing to MEA-MFT ginning of the session when senators spent Court’s directives in the school funding lawsuit. position. nearly a week hammering out differences along MEA-MFT position: Support W = Wrong vote ideological and party divides.