Montana News

Sally Mauk, Chuck Johnson and Rob Saldin review the legislature's busy week as the state budget heads out of the House and on to the Senate. They also discuss how the debate over healthcare and the Trump administration's proposed federal budget is affecting Montana's upcoming special election in May.

Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester was in Helena Friday afternoon for an in-person town hall. You can listen to the full meeting at the bottom of this post. Tester spoke for a little over an hour to a friendly crowd of 200 people at Helena Middle School. Town halls nationwide have become confrontational events for many members of Congress. Recently, Montana’s Republican Senator Steve Daines has taken heat for not meeting face-to-face with constituents back home. He hosted a so-called “tele

All day Thursday in the House Chambers at the state capitol, Democrats rose to their feet asking for more funding in the state budget shaped by the Republican majority. All of those proposals were rejected before the budget passed second reading along party lines.

A Kalispell Republican club says it wants to hear from an organization that some on the left say engages in hate speech. The Glacier Country Pachyderm Club is a Republican education group. Recently, it has invited speakers like local legislators, law enforcement officials and real estate agents to address its weekly meetings.

President Donald Trump Thursday proposed a 12 percent cut to the Interior Department's 2018 budget . And national park advocates like Phil Francis are not happy about it:

A bill entering the Montana House of Representatives Monday would create a voluntary preschool program for four-year-olds from lower income families. House Bill 563 , or the Montana Preschool Grant Program, would give children who qualify access to what Rep. Kathy Kelker, D-Billings, says is high quality preschool education.

The budget bill that doles out state money to agencies passed out of the House of Representatives today on a 58-to-40 vote. House Bill 2 , made up of more than $10 billion to be spent over two years, has been the most contentious bill in the legislative session thus far.

Glacier National Park will lift restrictions on non-motorized, hand-propelled boats this season. But park superintendent Jeff Mow says mandatory invasive species inspections will simultaneously ramp up across the park.

The state’s budget passed a final vote in the Montana House this morning and is now moving to the Senate. Democrats there are continuing efforts to increase taxes that they say would bring in more money to help currently underfunded state programs. The latest tax increase proposal introduced in the Senate today could raise the cost of beer, wine and hard alcohol. When Governor Steve Bullock released his budget late last year, he called for a 50 percent bump in the state’s wine tax to help make

Republican Rep. Wylie Galt says generating revenue for the state can be as simple as counting to 21, meaning, playing blackjack.