Montana
If the school board tries to pass a bond issue, it won’t happen until 2011. Natrona County School District staff members and board members re-evaluated information from investment banking firm George K. Baum and Co. of Cheyenne on Monday concerning the possibility of asking district voters to authorize issuance of bonds for several construction projects. Several board members said gathering community support for such a proposal would not be possible before 2011.
A Kalispell man says he will try again to limit property tax increases with a constitutional ballot measure. John McMenamin failed last year to get enough signatures for placing a measure on the ballot that would have capped homeowners’ property tax increases at 1.5 percent a year.
City officials are pushing ahead with plans to move the Parmly Billings Library into the nearby Gainan’s building at 502 N. 30th St. Because the project partially relies on federal stimulus funds that must be allocated by the end of 2010, the city is moving quickly.
Pro-life supporters wrapped up a weekend-long tour of several cities to introduce a new initiative they hope to get on the 2010 general election ballot on Sunday. CI-102 would add unborn babies to the definition of “person” under the Montana code.
An initiative to ban trapping on public land in Montana has cleared its first hurdle toward appearing on the November 2010 ballot. The Montana Secretary of State’s office has concluded that the initiative proposed by Florence-based Footloose Montana can appear on the ballot if backers can get enough signatures to qualify the measure.
Several states –including Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming – ban or restrict paying people who collect signatures on a ballot initiative, referendum or recall petition based on the number of signatures they collect. Payment-per-signature allows citizens greater certainty in judging the cost of a petition effort. Moreover, in states that have passed such bans, the cost of successfully completing a petition drive has risen considerably, sometimes more than doubling.
The ASUM Senate will discuss Wednesday whether it supports a possible 2010 state ballot initiative that would redefine “person” in the due process clause. ASUM Senator Patrick Rhea and Students for Choice campus organizer Daniel Viehland co-wrote the resolution, which centers on student concerns regarding the impact of what Rhea and Viehland consider vague wording in the initiative.
The 2010 General Election is still more than a year away, but the campaign process has already begun. Officials report that 10 ballot issues have been submitted so far and Secretary of State Linda McCulloch is offering presentations to clarify the guidelines for proposed initiatives and referendums. She hopes more Montanans will go through the ballot issue process, “It goes through that process for the benefit of folks wanting to put forth a ballot issue, so its there to help you. But you have the ability to say yes or no”.
The attorney general approved ballot language for a proposed change to the constitution aimed at restricting abortions. Constitutional Initiative 102 defines a “person” as beginning of a human being’s biological development. A similar proposal fell short in 2008. It will take more than 40,000 signatures to make it on the 2010 ballot. Opponents call the proposal an extremist measure that runs against women’s right to privacy and it’s full of unintended consequences.
Property owners in Montana would be compensated for state actions that only partially reduce their property value under a ballot initiative currently gaining signatures. Under current law a property owner is paid compensation only when a government action reduces a property’s value in its entirety, meaning that governments can take actions that significantly impact property values without owing any compensation.
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After a legislative review raised some legal questions about three proposed anti-abortion constitutional initiatives, their backers submitted a single revised measure this week. The Montana ProLife Coalition, based in Bigfork, turned in a modified proposed initiative to state officials Tuesday that addresses some, but not all, of the legal concerns raised by an attorney with the Legislative Services Division. The revised proposed ballot measure now goes to Attorney General Steve Bullock for his review.
Voting is brisk in a ballot measure asking for additional taxes for Great Falls public safety, but some ballots aren’t being accepted until signatures can be verified, Cascade County Clerk and Recorder Rina Fontana Moore said. As of Tuesday morning, 8,838 of the 28,061 ballots had been returned, Fontana Moore said.
Footloose Montana, an anti-trapping group headquartered in Missoula, plans to file a ballot initiative today that would seek to outlaw trapping on public land in Montana. Anja Heister, executive director of Footloose Montana, said the move comes in response to the 2007 death of Cupcake, a boarder collie mix that was caught in a Conibear trap along Rock Creek east of Missoula.
A group of Eureka citizens have started a petition to recall Lincoln County Sheriff Daryl Anderson, accusing him of failing to fully investigate several alleged rapes. The Lincoln County Recall Committee, a community group of about 25 people, submitted a draft petition to oust Anderson to county election officials last week. Election officials had until Tuesday, May 23 to accept or reject the petition, reviewing it first for compliance with state statute.
Montana trappers are gearing up for a fight in the wake of efforts by an anti-trapping group to eliminate trapping on public land in the state. A group called Footloose Montana is working to place an issue on the ballot in 2010 that will outlaw all trapping on public land. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has already begun contacting other organizations to see how we may coordinate to help oppose it. Those groups include the Montana Trappers Association, the National Trappers Association, and Fur Takers of America.