My first
column from Montana’s legislative trenches this
session, “GOP Advances Agenda to Barbeque the Easter
Bunny,” cautioned readers news reports from Helena
sometimes stretch the truth to promote readership. A
dozy hit print last weekend, so I will explain the
rest of the story.
The legislative process is purposely slow and
deliberative—exactly as our framers intended. Each
legislative thought is drafted into a standard
format, submitted for legal review, read across the
rostrum of the first chamber, heard in committee,
possibly amended and acted on, sent back to the
original chamber for a second reading, possibly more
amendments and then acted on, before the third and
final reading where the bill then travels to the
second chamber for a repeat of the above procedure.
Just like forking hay into the feed trough of a
previously starving cow, it takes a couple days of
ruminating before you need a manure fork. This is a
dangerous analogy, but to stick with it, our
legislative cow is not producing manure yet and
probably will not for a couple more weeks, then
there will be cow pies everywhere.
With both chambers actually ahead of schedule, the
House Speaker decided the workload was too small to
hold a floor session on Saturday, January 26th, so
Representatives and staff adjourned for a rare
two-day weekend. The Senate convened on Saturday, so
by rule the legislature was officially in session
and all 150 elected officials received their $82
day’s wage. Later in the session as the workload
ebbs and flows, the reverse will likely happen and
the Senate will enjoy a day off while the House
convenes. When averaged across the entire 90 day
session, and without considering the time spent
campaigning, this job requires 70-80 hours of effort
every week, so this is not easy street.
I zipped home for the weekend and was surprised to
read Saturday’s Billings Gazette headlines with
Senator Jim Keane (D-Butte) implying we
Representatives were not giving the Montana
taxpayers “a fair day’s work for a day’s pay.”
Senator Keane is a likeable fellow and such
partisanship is completely out of character for him,
so I concluded the column was the desperate act of a
story starved journalist facing a deadline. Later, I
noticed the Gazette hosting an on-line poll asking
readers if legislators should be paid for days they
do not work, so they managed to keep this non-story
churning for several days.
Just so you know the story behind the headlines,
Senator Keane along with 49 other Montana Senators
did hold session on Saturday so they could give
Montana taxpayers an honest day’s work for an honest
day’s pay. They adjourned their session 37 minutes
after it opened. Apparently, honest work days in
Senator Keane’s hometown of Butte are significantly
shorter than the honest work days of my youth on
Pass Creek. My mother’s reaction to me spinning the
idea 37 minutes being a full day’s work would have
left a few marks on my psyche. Fortunately for me
and my brothers, we were raised before the
contaminating influence of self-esteem became the
supreme ideal.
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