HELENA — The Montana Legislature held more marathon sessions on Friday, with a deadline looming on Saturday.
Any bill that affects state revenues needs to pass either the House or Senate by the end of Saturday in order to stay alive. The Senate came in at 1 p.m. Friday for a floor debate, with more than two dozen bills on the agenda.
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During the floor session, senators voted down Senate Bill 543 – the latest proposal to allow candidates for judicial offices to use political party labels – on a 27-22 vote. Nine Republicans joined all 18 Democrats in opposition.
The Legislature has taken up at least five bills this session that sought to change the state’s current nonpartisan judicial elections. Republican lawmakers have argued judges aren’t truly impartial, and the current system hides information about their leanings from voters.
“They are partisan,” said Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls. “They make decisions on a partisan basis – on a political basis, by the way.”
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte called for a switch to partisan judicial elections during his State of the State address earlier this year. His office backed Senate Bill 42, which would have made all judicial elections the same as other state elections, with party primaries and the winners from each party moving on to the general election.
SB 543 made a smaller change. It would only have applied to Supreme Court races – not elections for district court judges – and it would have kept the current primary system, but given candidates the choice of declaring a party affiliation or not.
Opponents of changing judicial elections said bringing any partisanship into the system would damage judges’ independence and the public’s faith in their decisions. They made the same arguments against SB 543.
“I think it's pretty simple: When Montanans go before the court, they want their case decided according to the facts and what would be best for their districts, not what their politics might look like,” said Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula.
The House has rejected several of the partisan judicial election bills in recent weeks, including voting down SB 42 41-59 on Tuesday.
House Speaker Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage, is sponsoring a very similar bill to SB 543: House Bill 838. That bill remains alive and would need to pass the House by next week to keep moving forward.
The Senate also voted 32-18 Friday to advance Senate Bill 561, which would change the way members of the Montana Public Service Commission are selected. The PSC is the agency that regulates electric, gas, water and other utilities in the state.
Currently there are five elected commissioners, each representing a geographic district and serving four-year terms. SB 561, from Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, would switch the body to two elected members and three appointed by the governor and confirmed by a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Commissioners would serve six-year terms, and the appointed members would be chosen for their experience in fields like finance, law and energy.
“What happens in almost every single state is some regulatory individual who understands this stuff very well gets appointed,” said Zolnikov. “How many of those people are going to run for office and become elected to the Public Service Commission? How many wonky individuals are going to run for it?”
Senate President Pro Tem Sen. Ken Bogner, R-Miles City, opposed the bill, saying the changes would encourage people to use the PSC as a springboard to higher office and weaken the public’s voice.
“By going from five elected PSC to two, we take away control of the PSC from the voters, and we give control of the PSC to the executive branch,” he said.
The Senate also gave initial approval to a bill that would change the way state marijuana tax revenues are distributed. Senate Bill 537, also from Zolnikov, would take some of that money from the general fund and direct it toward grants for law enforcement agencies, drug and alcohol prevention and the state’s behavioral health system. However, it leaves in place the existing allocations of marijuana revenue to conservation programs, and it allows the money going to the Habitat Montana program to be used for a wider variety of projects.
“It's a pretty thorough bill,” said Zolnikov. “I'd say, working on it, I learned about a lot of problems, that I think there's some gaps that we're not filling. And this really helps fill some in the future and even continuous moving forward.”
The House also endorsed House Bill 932 on Friday. It similarly expanded what the Habitat Montana conservation revenue can be used for, like wildlife crossings over highways.
“What this bill will do is expand that bucket for private landowners and conservation groups and Fish, Wildlife and Parks to work together to expand that program, so that we can have additional things going on in the landscape,” said Rep. Ken Walsh, R-Twin Bridges, who sponsored HB 932.
Senate Bill 307, from Senate Majority Leader Sen. Tom McGillvray, would have removed all the marijuana revenue allocated to conservation programs and used it for law enforcement and treatment. It passed an initial vote in the Senate last month, but on Tuesday, it failed to pass a vote in the Senate Finance and Claims Committee – the committee that reviews the fiscal impact of bills.
Since the start of the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers have introduced and considered more than 1,500 bills. According to the Legislature’s “billboard,” 923 of those had made it through at least one chamber by the end of the day Friday.
There are 24 legislative days left in the 90-day session.
