A measure to reappropriate some of the revenue generated from marijuana taxes was passed today through its third and final reading in the House of Representatives.
Montana’s House of Representatives has passed Senate Bill 442 with a vote of 82 to 17. The vote comes a few weeks after it was passed by the Senate, 49 to 1. The House saw more opposition to the measure with some arguing that it would reverse the will of the voters who approved very specific uses for marijuana taxes when they voted to legalize marijuana in 2020.
Given SB 442 received minor amendments in the House, it will need to receive one final vote by the Senate before it can be sent to Governor Greg Gianforte for consideration, in what is considered to largely be a technicality at this point.
Filed by Senator Mike Lang, SB 442 will create a new special revenue account for county road habitat access. This account “would be funded by a 20% distribution from the marijuana state special revenue account and the funds would be appropriated to the Department of Transportation to be distributed monthly to county and consolidated city-county governments.” The funding would be used for “construction, reconstruction, maintenance and road repair”.
The bill would also:
- Change the $6 million into the HEART fund (to combat drug addiction) to instead be 11% of total revenue
- Increase the veteran’s account distribution from $200,000 to 5%
- Create a new habitat legacy account to be used by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for Habitat Montana and other wildlife habitat improvement projects, which would account for 20% of the marijuana state special revenue account. 75% of the funding deposited into the habitat legacy account would be required to “fund wildlife habitat purchases”
- Allocate 5% to the Department of Military Affairs
Under the marijuana legalization initiative approved by voters in November, 2020, $6 million of the state’s marijuana tax revenue is put aside for the HEART account, with the rest being distributed to benefit wildlife, state parks, trails and recreational facilities.
A separate proposal, House Bill 669, was recently passed by the House. That bill would keep the $6 million HEART fund, but would put 100% of all additional revenue into the state’s general fund. This would give lawmakers full discretion over how the funds are used.
The full text of SB 442 can be found here.
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