Republicans Clash Over Stalled Growth Bill

By Daniel Testa, 4-19-07

A Republican Senator says House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, is taking advantage of his leadership position to avoid hearing a bill that would encourage responsible growth planning.

“This is an abuse of power,” said Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby. “He has the ability to do this, but it doesn’t make it right.”

Laible said Sales is putting off scheduling the bill for a full House debate because of Laible’s failure to toe the party line. The House Speaker decides when to schedule bills for debate.

“I don’t want to raise the ire of the Speaker, I just want the bill to be heard,” Laible added. “There shouldn’t be a litmus test on the voting record of the legislator whose bill this is.”

At issue is Senate Bill 201, which would create a voluntary city-county planning process that encourages zoning and assesses a fee on developers to pay for it. The bill breezed through the Senate and last week passed the House Taxation Committee, 13 to 5.

SB201 is one of three bills, Laible said, he has stuck in legislative limbo, where they’ve passed out of committee with bipartisan support but have yet to be scheduled for a House debate. The others include a measure, which passed committee on April 3, to expand the rights of assault victims to gain an order of protection and a resolution setting up an interim study of zoning and land use planning.

Sales responded that there are many bills he has yet to schedule and he would never avoid scheduling a bill he doesn’t like.

“That isn’t a pre-requisite for a bill getting scheduled,” Sales said. “There’s a whole pile of bills that have passed the floor that I voted ‘no’ on.

“We still have plenty of bills to hear and I still haven’t made up my mind on 201,” Sales added.

Laible said he’s visited Sales’ office everyday encouraging him to schedule the bills.

Groups who helped draft SB201, including the Montana Smart Growth Coalition and the Montana Association of Realtors say they’re disappointed the bill has stalled out.

“What (Sales) is potentially doing is undermining democracy,” said Tim Davis of the Smart Growth Coalition.

Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, has a list in his jacket pockets of the more than 30 bills currently stalled in committee. Jopek said Sales is attempting to use a “pocket veto,” the privelege granted the governor which lets a bill die by simply not taking action on it.

“I think it’s a misinterpretation of the pocket veto authority,” Jopek said. “We have seven days, the bill’s been scheduled for seven days. Which of the seven days might the bill get scheduled for?”

But House Chief Clerk Marilyn Miller said lawmakers tend to over-react when they realize the session is ending and time is running out on their bills.

“This always happens and the sponsors are reasonably worried,” Miller said. “There’s certainly plenty of time to get it on the agenda.”

To demonstrate, Miller called up the data on the bills stalled in the Senate, and was surprised to find that there weren’t any.