Montana Governor Greg Gianforte will soon receive legislation that would reappropriate some of the revenue generated from marijuana taxes.
After both the Senate and House approved slightly amended versions of Senate Bill 442 earlier this month, the two chambers have now coalesced around the same language with the Senate voting today to send the proposal as amended by the House to Governor Gianforte for consideration. The final House vote was 82 to 17 with the final Senate vote being 48 to 1.
Although Governor Giantforte has the option of vetoing the measure rather than signing it into law or allowing it to become law without his signature, the proposal was passed with well more than the 2/3rds support required to override a veto.
SB 442 creates a new special revenue account for county roads. The account will be funded by appropriating 20% of the revenue the state generates from legal marijuana sales, with the funds going 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”.
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 (to combat drug addiction), with the rest being distributed to benefit wildlife, state parks, trails and recreational facilities.
The bill, filed by Senator Mike Lang, would:
- Change the $6 million sent to the HEART fund to instead be 11% of total revenue
- Increase the veteran’s account distribution from $200,000 to 5% of total revenue
- Allocate 20% of total revenue to create a new habitat legacy account, with a majority of the funding to be used for “wildlife habitat purchases”
- Allocate 5% of total revenue to the Department of Military Affairs
The full text of SB 442 can be found here.
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. On April 26, HB 669 was tabled in the Senate Finance and Claims Committee.
