The Montana Free Press reports that the effort to override Governor Gianforte’s veto of SB 442 failed. SB 442 would have reallocated some of the state’s marijuana tax revenue to support the Montana Disabled Veteran Assistance Program, which “reduces the property tax rate burden on the homes of veterans who were disabled in service or their surviving spouses. Depending on the income level, the tax rate can be reduced between 50 to 100%.”
Citizen initiative I-190 that legalized recreational marijuana in 2020 originally earmarked the taxes it would produce for a number of funds including the general fund. But after the initiative passed the governor and legislature swept most of the revenue to the general fund, where today it helps offset Governor Gianforte’s 2021 and 2023 income tax reductions for the highest earners, including himself.
The 2023 legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor of SB 442 that would reallocate the marijuana tax money to various funds, including a very large increase to the woefully underfunded Disabled Veteran Assistance Program. Despite the huge bipartisan legislative support Gov. Gianforte vetoed the bill, saying he didn’t want to fund some programs with “general fund” monies.
When after much legal wrangling it finally came time to try and override that veto and reallocate marijuana tax money to funds like Disabled Veteran Assistance, legislators representing portions of Cascade County mostly voted “no”, either specifically “no” like Sen. McKamey, or no by cowardly non-participation (most of the usual Great Falls suspects). The only other legislators representing various corners of Cascade County who showed up to to vote were Bergstrom (Y), Tempel (Y), Bartel (Y), and Gillespie (Y). The MTFP story linked above has a link to the state’s official override polls results as recorded by SOS.
By not bothering to vote at all, most Cascade County Republicans have demonstrated they do not care enough about disabled veterans to even cast a vote yea or nay.
Categories: Veterans
Cascade County Democrats 