Bennett assumes leadership role for 2015

When the Montana legislature begins its 2015 session, Libby’s veteran representative Jerry Bennett will be reprising a leadership role he served in 2011: House Majority Whip.

As whip, it will be Bennett’s job to ensure that Republican House members are present for votes and that they vote in accordance with the leadership’s agenda. Additionally, the whip serves as a trainer and mentor for rookie legislators.

Bennett compares the job of a newly elected legislator to “drinking from a fire hose.” With term limits in place that ensure a revolving crop of new legislators for each biennial session, getting new members up to speed with procedure and policy is always a challenge.

Bennett is intimately familiar with those term limits. Having reached his four-term limit, Bennett will be unable to seek reelection in 2016.

While the official leadership agenda is not yet formally set, Bennett speculated that the state’s budget will occupy the majority of the legislature’s time. One of the items on the governor’s proposed budget that caught Bennett’s eye is a proposal to increase spending on pre-K education by $37 million.

Bennett questions that expense, citing studies indicating that children tend to “equalize out” by their third grade years. “If that is the case,” asked Bennett, “why should we spend an additional $37 million?”

Also tied to the state’s budget concerns is the issue of federal lands transfer. The federal government owns a large share of Montana’s land, an ownership share that is even more disproportionate in Lincoln County. A number of western states have been pushing for control of those federal lands to be given back to the state governments in hopes of increasing revenue generation from activities such as mining and timber harvesting.

State and county governments are compensated for the lost revenue through different federal programs, but those programs are appropriated each year by Congress and there is no guarantee that those funds will be available from year to year.

That uncertainty creates problems for counties, like Lincoln County, with a high concentration of federal land ownership.

Bennett said the Montana legislature will be looking at the issue of federal lands transfer, although he’s not yet sure what direction that take. “There are still a lot of questions that we have to answer there,” he said.

Another issue expected to consume the legislators’ time in the upcoming session is the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact. The compact has been under negotiation for over a decade, with a previous version being rejected by the 2013 Montana Legislature.

Following that vote, Governor Bullock and tribal leaders opened limited negotiations to revise some of the compact’s language. The legislature will be considering that revised language during the coming session.

Bennett said he also anticipates bills dealing with social issues, especially the issue of same-sex marriage. In the past year federal judges have voided marriage bans in 18 states, including Montana. Although he has seen no formal legislation as of yet on this issue, Bennett said he expects it to be a topic as the legislative session runs its 90-day course.

With that legislation and the responsibilities of leadership added to his normal duties, Bennett will have his hands full while in Helena. He said on busy days he receives more than 1,000 messages from interested parties, but he focuses on messages from Lincoln County. “I try to prioritize the messages that come from my constituents,” he said. “I want to hear from the people who sent me here.”