The latest from NAM:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s manager’s amendment to the Senate health care bill, available here as a .pdf file, proposes actual statutory language for federal grants to states to establish demonstration projects on medical liability, but it's not what you think.
The provisions run from page [...]
After a few hours of public testimony regarding the Otter Creek coal tracts in eastern Montana, the Land Board decided to go ahead with putting the tracts up for bid. The vote was 4-1 in favor, with Denise Juneau being the lone dissenter.
A couple of thing struck me as odd [...]
A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has bad news for congressional incumbents. Just over a third of people (38%) would vote to re-elect their own representative, while almost half (49%) would rather put in someone new. That doesn't have anything to do with being a Republican or Democrat. It's simply [...]
Poll Shows Pulse of Montana Voters
Respondents Give Answers on Economic, Political and Business Issues
The Power Base (P-Base) is an annual scientific poll of 600 Montana voters on a variety of business and political issues with a margin of error of 4.1%. The poll is commissioned by the Montana Chamber of [...]
Just got word that the Montana Judicial Nomination Committee released three names of candidates to replace retiring Justice John Warner. Governor Schweitzer can either pick from the list or reject all three. At least eleven lawyers submitted their names for consideration. Here are the three finalists:
1. Carlo Canty - a [...]
State fiscal analysts and lawmakers have been waiting for the decision in Satterlee to come out because the state government's general fund would be on the hook for some of the tab. Since the decision would have required payouts to people covered under the Old Fund, the state would have had [...]
GOPers are celebrating and predicting 2010 gains while Dems are largely dismissing the results as unimportant losses based on local factors. I think it's somewhere in between.
As most Democrats point out, these elections aren't always the best indicators of what will happen a year from now. A year is a [...]
Just received word that the Montana Supreme Court affirmed the Workers' Compensation Court in the Satterlee work comp case. This is the case where the plaintiffs were seeking to overturn a statute that prohibits the collection of work comp benefits after a worker is retired. This means that the statute [...]
This Election Day image is brought to you courtesy of www.failblog.org:
Come back tomorrow for commentary on today's elections in MT, NY, NJ, and VA, and a 2010 Election preview.
[...]Last week, the Governor's office asked the Montana State Fund to show more information on why work comp rates have doubled since 2000. His tone in the article is rather harsh to the State Fund without looking at the real reasons of increasing costs, including his own opposition to good [...]
Although health care reform is still #1 in Washington, climate change legislation is lurking in the shadows ready to move at a moment's notice. Here are a few good links you should check out on this important topic:
Senator Baucus expresses his concerns about a proposed cap-and-trade bill
Dr. Steve Running [...]
Every election year the Montana Chamber teams up with the Montana Electric Cooperative Association and the Montana Credit Union Network to host a series of non-partisan campaign schools around the state. We are still getting some of the details worked out, but we have some dates and locations set:
January 26th [...]
A new movie is bound to stir the climate change pot even further as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up cap-and-trade legislation after health care reform. "Not Evil, Just Wrong" is a response to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," and it sets out to shine some light on the devastating economic impacts [...]
As I've noted numerous times before, we are a separate organization from the U.S. Chamber, just like the local chambers work on their own. But we often team up on important issues for all businesses, large and small. The U.S. Chamber has started a new campaign to emphasize the unique [...]
Like Montana, Colorado ties it's minimum wage to the CPI-U, a price index of consumer products calculated by the federal government. The CPI-U uses data from all over the country, but it doesn't use any data from Montana, Wyoming, and the two Dakotas. But that's another story.
Colorado's state minimum wage [...]
This month Montana Main Street Blog is celebrating three years in the Montana blogosphere. Some blog have been around much longer, but three years is definitely on the "old" end of the blog spectrum. The number of posts on MMSB has dropped a bit recently, but we are getting ready to step things [...]
Two months ago, I saw an interesting article about a speech given by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of South Korea. In this climate change speech given on August 11th, the UN leader made a bold prediction:
"We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet."
You [...]
Even with 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, Democrats appear unable to pass the "Employee Free Choice Act", or card check, as first proposed. For months now, they have been negotiating behind closed doors as they try and work something out that can actually pass.
Health care has consumed so much [...]
Today the Waxman-Markey climate change bill will be introduced in the Senate. This cap-and-trade scheme may not overtake health care as the top issue, but it is something that should be strongly opposed because it will negatively impact Montana overall without having any real impact on the environment.
Jay Stevens [...]
There is a lot of blame being shifted on the issue of property tax reappraisal figures that may cause many Montana small businesses to pay much more on their property tax bill.
Republican leaders called a press conference yesterday to point out this problem, and speculating that a special [...]
One of the biggest complaints we hear from employers is that our work comp system is full of fraudulent claims. Having the second highest work comp premiums in the nation has really brought this issue to the attention of business owners all around the state. One of our top priorities [...]
After months of negotiating with Democrats and Republicans, Montana's senior senator Max Baucus is prepared to move forward with a health care reform bill. Republicans have not signed off on it yet, and many are not likely to do so. Democrats from the left are not happy with the bill [...]
With most of the attention focused on health care, big issues like the poorly named "Employee Free Choice Act" have had to take a back seat. But that doesn't mean that card check proponents are not working behind the scenes on a bill that can get the 60 votes necessary [...]
Yesterday an experienced and respected state supreme court justice, John Warner, announced his retirement from the Court. His resignation is effective December 31, 2009.
His resignation opens up a spot on the Court - a spot that requires the Governor's appointee to run in the next general election in 2010. [...]
The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade scheme that narrowly passed the House has an uphill battle in the Senate. I think the bill's supporters in Congress and the administration had hopes of cramming the bill through the process before a United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. That appears less likely at this [...]
By now, you may have heard that Congressman Denny Rehberg, his state director Dustin Frost, Kalispell State Senator Greg Barkus, and two others were in a serious boating accident last night. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the group and we hope for full recoveries for all.
[...]Lee Newspapers ran an interesting story yesterday on cap-and-trade. The IR's online headline read: "Cap-and-Trade Backers Say Montanans Support Bill." This automatically caught my attention, so I scanned the article for any proof. The problem is there is no proof.
But guess what? The Montana Chamber has proof through scientific polling of [...]
As the President and Congress debate bills and new programs that will add to our record deficits, they should probably read the book described in this video. (You'll have to watch a commercial before you're able to watch the video.)
From what I know about the federal budget, our country [...]
Yesterday I was in Great Falls for the Mid-Year Economic Outlook presentation we organized with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. Senator Baucus was there to hear the presentation and accept an award from the U.S. Chamber for his voting record in 2008. He took the opportunity to briefly [...]
It's too early to declare victory, but it looks like the GM/Stillwater issue might be heading in the right directionthanks to our Montana elected officials. When GM announced it was breaking its contract with Stillwater Mining (employs 1,300 people with good-paying jobs) and keeping contracts with foreign suppliers after [...]
No mention was made in the Billings Gazette today of an event yesterday in the Magic City. The Mid-Year Update of the Economic Outlook series was in Billings and nothing (as far as I know) was in the paper about it today. The Bureau of Business and Economic Research gave [...]
As first reported by Paul Chesser and noted by the Flathead Beacon, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer appears to have had a change of heart on the issue of cap and trade. Up until last year, the second-term Governor has seemingly done everything possible to promote cap and trade, [...]
Senator Jon Tester has spoken out against GM's move to kill American mining jobs and created a webpage for Americans to send comments to GM. His actions follow Representative Rehberg and Governor Schweitzer's condemnation of GM's attempt to withdraw from a palladium and rhodium contract after receiving vast amounts in taxpayer [...]
Every year around this time, the Montana Chamber Foundation hosts the Governors' Cup Golf Tournament. This is the premier business golf tournament in the state where hundreds of golfers (more than 75 teams of five players) from around the country come and play and network in the Flathead. It's an [...]
We all know the state and national economies are in recession. And they are not in just any old recession either - unemployment is extra high, consumer confidence is low, and there seems to be a lot of anxiety about the country's direction.
For the fourth year in a row, [...]
Effective Friday, July 24, the minimum wage will be raised, according to the final phase-in of a federal bill passed in 2007. The current federal minimum wage rate of $6.55 per hour will increase to $7.25 per hour. However, Montana’s minimum wage is already $6.90 per hour because of voter-passed [...]
As many of you know, and as we've reported a few times already, GM is seeking to end its contract with Stillwater Mining Company for rhodium and palladium while maintaining its contracts with foreign suppliers in Russia and South Africa. This is after GM received billions in American tax dollars [...]
In 2008, politicos were shocked when two unknown, obscure candidates beat establishment candidates and emerged as the winners of their respective races. Perennial candidate Bob Kelleher won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate and John Driscoll won the Democratic nomination for U.S. House.
Fundraising numbers for the second quarter were [...]
Business groups have long claimed that EFCA, also known as "card check," would lead to more worker intimidation by unions. Labor unions have said that is a non-issue, and counter that employer intimidation is the real problem.
This example of worker "intimidation" is union vs. union. I guess SEIU may [...]
I just learned today that Representative Denny Rehberg has also sent a letter to the Obama administration asking it to review GM's decision to stop its contract with Montana's Stillwater Mining Co.
In the letter, Rehberg points out that Stillwater's tax dollars and the taxes paid by Stillwater's employees went [...]
Kudos to Governor Schweitzer for stepping in and asking the Obama Administration to put American jobs first when it comes to GM's decision to break it's contract with Stillwater Mining but keeping contracts with foreign mining operations. We hope our representative and our two senators make a similar push. [...]
A bankruptcy court petition by General Motors (i.e. Government Motors) has been filed to terminate its contract for palladium and rhodium with Stillwater Mining Company, a great Montana company. At the same time, no filing has been made to terminate similar contracts with foreign suppliers in places like Russia and South [...]
It appears the Senate Democratic leadership is growing tired of our senior senator's efforts to achieve a bi-partisan vote on the number one priority of the Obama administration: health care. Senator Baucus, who is also chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has a good reputation for crafting legislation [...]
