Major piece of Montana budget taxes still up in the air

[TexasTowelie]

HELENA — As the Legislature nears its halfway point, one key piece of the budget picture that’s still in play are revenue enhancers — better known as taxes.

Since tax bills are revenue bills, they’re not subject to the transmittal deadline on Wednesday. Bills that bring in money must be through the chamber they were introduced in by the 67th legislative day, or March 30.

In November, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock presented lawmakers with his $9.7 billion two-year plan budget. In addition to cutting spending by about a third of a percent in the first year and increased it shy of two percent in the second, the governor proposed $280 million in new revenue in the form of several new taxes or tax increases.

Bullock was responding to declining state revenues because of a slow in oil and gas extraction, but estimates show things improving in 2018 and 2019. Lawmakers got new projections recently but look more toward March's estimates, which include Montana-specific details as tax payment information comes in.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/major-piece-of-budget-taxes-still-up-in-the-air/article_3c4f8cf3-3c59-5498-96bc-5746d9a70e60.html

[2naSalit]

1. I would be glad

if the extraction industries weren't still operating... but you know what we have a lot of up here? Wind. And a good amount of sun.

There's a lot of potential do engage in developing energy production with wind without trashing out the landscape, we have a lot of it that is important habitat for all the wild animals too.

Large wind and solar plantations would need too much maintenance but a point-source paradigm would work well up here. Localized power is probably the better solution in cold country. Systems that incorporate hybrid systems combining wind, solar with storage capacity would be my preference.

We have some really hard core trumplodites in our legislature but I see that the citizenry is speaking up, time will tell.