On Thursday morning, May 4, House District 75 representative Marta Bertoglio made an appearance at the Boulder Transition Advisory Committee meeting. The grueling legislative session had just ended, and Bertoglio said she was still processing, and still recovering. Nevertheless, she was happy to share her thoughts and answer questions from her constituents.
BTAC Chairman Drew Dawson opened the floor for all in attendance to share thoughts on the legislative session, and to address bills that impacted them one way or another.
Bertoglio would eventually share some sucesses (such as House Bill 217 addressing teacher shortage, and HB 264, addressing long-term needs for veterans) but disappointments and frustrations were at the forefront.
Jefferson Counnty Preventional Specialist Barb Reiter wanted to know about the marijuana tax allocation bill (HB462). Bertoglio said she fought hard for this one. It was Bertoglio’s hope to see marijuana tax money go toward the Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) fund, veterans and the Department of Justice, but the bill failed. A similar bill that came out of appropriations was passed (HB442) but then vetoed by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte.
“After all of that work – hours and hours – we’re back to status quo,” Bertoglio said.
There were a lot of good bills – and a lot of bad bills – especially pertaining education, a subject dear to her heart. Bertoglio said she was the House Republican carrying the public school flag.
“There are a lot of people in the party that would say ‘no’ to public education, but I fought hard,” she said.
There are some bills involving public education Bertoglio said she also said ‘no’ to, such as HB837, which she said would bring far too much government into public schools.
“This bill would require all lesson plans to be on a searchable website and, if anything new is introduced it must be posted within five days,” she said.
Bertoglio said she received more texts and emails opposing this bill than any others. Teachers from all over the state told her they’d quit if this kind of “top-heavy government approach” became the norm.
Jefferson High Superintendent Erik Wilkerson – who was also in attendance at BTAC – said HB837 wouldn’t just accelerate the teacher shortage but would also create an administrator shortage.
“If something like that passed, I’m sorry, I’d leave,” he said. “It’s hard enough to manage…that kind of micromanaging would make the job almost impossible.”
Fortunately, Bertoglio said, the bill failed.
Another bill that concerned Bertoglio was HB774, a bill that would generally revise election laws and combine all Montana elections on the same ballots in even-numbered years, be it bond elections, levies, school board trustees or presidential elections.
“Schools would have been rolled into party politics, which I think we need to avoid,” she said. “Eventually this failed in the Senate.”
Jefferson County Public Health Supervisor Pam Hanna also shared an update at BTAC. Public Health was active this legislative session, she said, as she had her eyes on clean indoor act bills and bills that would ultimately lessen regulations for vaping. The bills Hanna said she was most concerned about were tabled. These included House Bill 2 on the HEART fund and some vaccination-related bills.
“Senate Bill 450 was the most concerning of these [an act requiring acceptance of religious or conscience exemptions to certain medications], and fortunately, it was tabled,” Hanna said. “This bill would have added vaccination exemptions to daycare. Those little ones are most susceptible to disease outbreaks. There are more severe consequences, so we are very happy this was tabled.”
Bertoglio said she appreciated the resolve of Hanna and others with the Public Health Department, as those they opposed were determined and passionate.
“You had some heavy-lifting people on those particular committees,” Bertoglio said, referring to some of the other House Republicans. “It took a lot of courage.”
Despite much discord throughout the session, Bertoglio said she still feels a strong sense of accomplishment and leaves feeling pleased about a lot of action that was taken.
“We did great things for the department of military affairs to help with our guards, to help with workers comp and to help with pay,” she said.
Bertoglio added she also feels good about passing a budget.
“Overall I think we set a budget that saves money,” she said. “We increased our fire fund and we made sure we had a rainy day fund. We’re not always going to have these surpluses.”
