Senator pursues veto override of cannabis revenue bill
A consensus bill to expand habitat conservation funding from cannabis tax revenues surely had the votes to override a governor’s veto during the session, but whether it’ll get the chance after the Legislature adjourned appears to be on unstable ground.
Senate Bill 442 from Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, passed the Legislature with 130 out of 150 lawmakers voting in support. Along with expanding habitat conservation project funding, it also set aside millions of dollars for county road repairs.
Gov. Greg Gianforte, also a Republican, vetoed the bill on Tuesday, writing to lawmakers that the bill “creates a slippery slope” for the state in paying for local costs. A veto override would require two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature, or 100 votes.
On Tuesday, the Senate adjourned after Gianforte signed the veto, but before the Senate was officially notified he had rejected SB 442. By the end of the day, multiple officials had different interpretations of whether the bill was dead. By one understanding, the Senate never acted on the veto, so the veto stands. By another, the Senate never heard the veto read across the rostrum, so the upper chamber never got a chance to act on it.
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In an email to Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen on Friday, Lang requested she begin the process of polling lawmakers for a possible veto override. Doing so, in effect, would settle the question.
“As an independently elected official with your own statutory authority, it is of utmost importance that you protect the Legislature’s ability to review and evaluate the Executive’s veto action,” Lang wrote to Jacobsen, also a Republican. “I look forward to receiving a copy of the bill, veto message and a ballot with a return envelope so we can perform our duties as well.”
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office was not available to clarify Jacobsen’s position on the request.
Further complicating the matter is the stagger-step at which the Legislature adjourned this session. The Senate called for sine die hours before the House adjourned; during that gap, Gianforte’s veto was read across the rostrum in the House, potentially giving the House a chance to override the veto, but whether it could do so without the Senate was unclear.
Cannabis on display at Collective Elevation in Bozeman on the first day that recreational cannabis sales were legal in Montana.
Along with the reasons laid out in his veto letter, SB 442 was also at odds with Gianforte’s own vision for rearranging the existing distribution model for Montana’s growing marijuana tax revenues. Before the session got underway, he began a campaign to see those revenues spent on public safety resources, although the Legislature turned that option down twice during the session.
Some of the beneficiaries of SB 442 sounded off in support of Lang’s call to begin the override process Friday.
“From veterans to public land advocates to farmers trying to get their goods to market, SB 442 carved out limited marijuana tax resources exactly where the public wanted them spent,” Eric Bryson, executive director of the Montana Association of Counties, said in a press release Friday. “We believe that this was the wrong choice for Montana and encourage the Secretary of State to follow the law and conduct a veto-override poll.”
Earlier in the session, a humungous coalition of 93 organizations cosigned a letter supporting SB 442. Monday, Lang had gathered a group of about two dozen lawmakers from both parties and advocacy outfits to make a final showing of support for the bill.
“For months, the administration told us that if we got good bipartisan bills on the governor’s desk, he’d sign them,” Noah Marion, state policy director at Wild Montana, added in Friday’s press release. “We all held up our end of the deal, but the governor didn’t. SB 442 is bipartisan. It’s popular. It’s got something for everyone. It should be law and the Montana legislature has the right to take another look at this.”
Capitol bureau reporter Seaborn Larson covers justice-related areas of state government and organizations that wield power. His past work includes local crime and courts reporting at the Missoulian and Great Falls Tribune, and daily news reporting at the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell.
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