On Thursday, Montana Governor Steve Bullock vetoed two House bills dealing with firearms, and afterwards Montana House Speaker Austin Knudsen criticized the governor's decision.
On Monday, the Montana Legislature's bipartisan Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural Resources and Transportation found over $220 million to fully fund Montana road construction projects.
In an order expedited by the Montana Legislature and the Montana Attorney General's office, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled that the term of Jonathan Motl, the state Commissioner of Political Practices, ended as of January 1, 2017.
One of the results following the national attention on Missoula regarding sexual assaults in recent years, is the effort to legally redefine the concept of 'consent', and that has led to Senate Bill 29, now moving through the state legislature.
According to testimony by Montana Department of Transportation Director Mike Tooley before the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee, Senate Republican leaders said the MDT and Governor Bullock knew there was a serious budget shortfall ‘before it became a crisis.
Missoula Republican Adam Hertz was sworn in along with all the other state house members on Monday, and jokingly added that 'now, I'm ready to be sworn at!"
At 2 p.m. on Monday, three individuals will cast Montana's electoral college votes for Donald Trump, as they had pledged to do, despite letters and emails urging them to vote for someone else.
Due to a projected shortfall in the state gas tax fund, Governor Steve Bullock has responded by proposing a cut in funding and personnel in the Montana Highway Patrol.
By law, Montana is obligated to have a balanced budget, but to have a budget that fits revenue can be tricky, and it requires the state to make fairly accurate revenue projections.