Latest news with #SenateBill542
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats pick first woman of color to be next state Senate president
California's state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026. Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics. She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position. The uncertain times, she said, were "a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here." Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill. "No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón," said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. "She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state." McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins' blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state's progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs. The Sonoma County Democrat's takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón's district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn't confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats pick first woman of color to be next state Senate president
California's state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026. Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics. She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position. The uncertain times, she said, were "a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here." Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill. "No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón," said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. "She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state." McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins' blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state's progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs. The Sonoma County Democrat's takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón's district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn't confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Democrats pick first woman of color to be next state Senate president
SACRAMENTO — California's state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026. Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics. She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position. The uncertain times, she said, were 'a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here.' Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill. 'No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón,' said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. 'She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state.' McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins' blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state's progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs. The Sonoma County Democrat's takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón's district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn't confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Property tax relief package clears Montana Legislature
The Montana state capitol pictured after a late-night Senate vote on Jan. 9, 2025. (Micah Drew/Daily Montanan) The final priority for the 69th Montana Legislature — one many lawmakers campaigned on — passed both chambers on the final day of the session. Property tax relief for residential payers has been top of mind for legislators following historic increases in property values during the last few years, with more anticipated this year, according to Department of Revenue estimates. According to one representative, lawmakers debated at least 47 different bills related to property taxes this session. On Wednesday, the House took the final votes on a major property tax bills — House Bill 231 — passing it on a bipartisan basis with 69 representatives voting 'aye.' The Senate on Tuesday passed HB 231, and a coordinated bill, Senate Bill 542, 28-22 and 29-21, respectively, with one Democrat opposing both bills and the GOP split. Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, sponsored HB 231 and was largely seen as the architect behind both bills' final forms, as well as the state budget, working closely with the governor's office and coalitions of lawmakers to push the massive pieces of legislation through. 'I came here to have residential, owner dwellings get a tax cut. This bill, in conjunction with 542, does that.' Llew on the floor, adding that he anticipated around 30,000 to 40,000 small businesses would also get a cut. But many hard-line Republicans, especially in the Senate, decried the property tax bills as complicated and burdensome, and the Legislature still had time to come up with a better plan. 'It's unfair. It's complicated. It's expensive to implement,' said Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray of the two bills. 'I'm all for providing property tax relief for residential taxpayers, but not with this bill. As I've said, this bill's unconstitutional, it's violated our rules,' Sen. Greg Hertz echoed. 'There's better ways to do this, and we can. I'm fine if you just kill this thing and Senate Bill 542, and come back in a special session. We need to get it right, and we're not getting this right.' A major sticking point for many detractors was that the bills don't reduce overall property tax collection in the state, but merely shift the burden between different types of properties, an outcome supporters said is only realistic. The relief package contains a homestead exemption — championed by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, that taxes second homes at a higher rate than owner-occupied homes. To prioritize residential homeowners, other shifts would result in higher taxes for some large businesses and utilities, and the bills were heavily opposed by the Montana Chamber of Commerce and energy and utility companies. But Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, said the outrage at the shift in taxes was hypocritical. He said that before the 2023 session, lawmakers received a memo from the Department of Revenue warning them that residential property taxes would increase if they didn't take action. 'We did nothing. There was a tax shift,' Flowers said. 'In some cases — in my case — my taxes doubled in Gallatin County. Doubled. Where was the outrage on that shift? So there's outrage now, because apparently the oil refinery is going to pay slightly higher taxes. But what about the shift that occurred in 2023 when our residents saw their taxes jack up? Where was the outrage?' '…(Our constituents) didn't ask us to maintain exactly the same taxes on oil refineries.' In the House, Jones echoed the same sentiment, asking where the'scream of anguish' had been when taxes shifted towards residential payers. Jones said that when residential properties saw tax spikes upwards of 40%, centrally-assessed properties, like refineries and utilities, saw tens of millions of dollars of decrease. Meanwhile, the average reduction for a median home value in Montana — $360,000 according to DOR revenue Jones cited — would see a $719 decrease in taxes from the previous year. 'I think that's significant,' Jones said. After the new bills are implemented, those types of properties, and business properties, will still be lower than they were four years ago, Jones said. The two final property tax bills saw many changes during the last weeks of the session, including last-minute amendments made to HB 231 on Tuesday morning. Jones described the final changes as necessary to coordinate the two bills and ease implementation for the Department of Revenue, preventing delays in seeing results for homeowners. Another change also attempts to address an issue with city charters — namely in Sunburst and Billings — that have fixed mills and could potentially see large increases in property taxes. The latter issue united many lawmakers from the Billings area — including one Democrat — against the bills, saying they're 'bad bills' for the Yellowstone County area. But overwhelmingly in both chambers the consensus was that Montanans sent lawmakers to Helena to address high property taxes, with these bills as the best option. 'It's not a perfect product. I would posit there is no such thing as a perfect product, because the essence of the property tax relief is that somewhere, somehow, there are going to be tax shifts,' Rep. Dave Bedey, R-Hamilton, said in the House. Bedey added that the disagreements and fingerpointing between various factions of lawmakers — including a Senate coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans who joined together on major pieces of legislation — prevented the Legislature from delivering property tax bills earlier on in the session, as requested by the governor. 'Yeah, the cake might have been baked. It should have been baked. We should have had it out the oven earlier,' Bedey said. 'And now we're doing the best we can.' In the upper chamber, Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, said legislators could go home and be proud of the work they accomplished on property taxes this session. An estimated 230,000 to 240,000 homeowners will be impacted by the tax cuts, according to Jones. '(Those) homeowners will be helped, their rates will go down, their taxes will go down,' Dunwell said. 'And you can tell your constituents that will happen.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate pushes $250M bill for new women's prison, $6M bill for closed sawmills
The Montana Women's Prison in BIllings (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan). The tension about property taxes is filtering into debates about other bills including a proposal to spend $250 million on a new women's prison and another bill to allocate $6 million for sawmill revitalization. Both proposals, however, advanced this week. House Bill 833 would set aside money for a new prison, and in an interview Wednesday, sponsor and Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, said the women's prison in Billings is well over capacity. It houses 240 people, but he said Montana needs beds for at least 400, possibly 500. 'Unlike the men, we have no place to put them out of state,' he said, referring to a contract with CoreCivic that sends male inmates to prisons in Arizona and Mississippi. Fitzpatrick said the bill includes a study the Department of Corrections will lead to determine a new location for a women's prison — not excluding Billings or Deer Lodge, where the men's prison is located, but not favoring them either, he said. 'It could be anywhere,' Fitzpatrick said. He anticipates that study should be complete by the end of the calendar year, and a groundbreaking could take place in roughly a year. He said the current women's prison likely would be eventually repurposed by the state. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, said the female population with the Department of Corrections has been rising faster than the male population, and just one 'relatively small' facility houses women in the state. 'There's no option to contract with others for this population,' Esp said. Esp said the waiting list for the women's prison in Billings has about 85 people, and the facility is probably eight to 10 people over capacity. 'And they don't turn over very fast,' Esp said. The bill would allow the state to build a new facility, or a private contractor to do so and sell or lease it back to the state, Esp said. Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Great Falls, said he acknowledged the problem, but he had a hard time spending so much money with property taxes yet to be resolved. 'We're going to spend $250 million on prisons before we figure out what we're going to do with property taxes,' said Trebas, who voted against the bill. On a final 46-4 vote Wednesday, the Senate approved HB 833, including with support from all Billings legislators. The bill earlier passed the House 86-12, also with support from Billings legislators. It is included in the governor's budget. Later the same day, the Senate also advanced a major property tax bill, House Bill 231, and the House advanced another one, Senate Bill 542, but both proposals still need to clear multiple votes to pass. The Senate also approved House Bill 876, the Sawmill Revitalization Act, sponsored by Rep. Fitzpatrick and Rep. Connie Keogh, D-Missoula. It passed 29-21 on Wednesday, and also raised questions about property tax bills. The bill sets aside $6 million for loans with interest rates of a maximum 4% 'to parties with the capacity to revitalize a closed sawmill and return it to commercial operation.' Originally, the bill had given priority to sawmills that had closed in the 12 months before Jan. 1, 2025. In March 2024, Pyramid Mountain Lumber announced it would close its Seeley Lake mill. In the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, however, Esp proposed an amendment to strike that limitation, and the committee approved it. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, said in the 1970s, Montana had more than 50 operating mills, and it now has just five major ones. In the last three years, mills closed in St. Regis and Seeley Lake, and Cuffe said the closures represent 'major lost economic activity.' Sen. Becky Beard, however, said the mill in Seeley Lake is pretty much dismantled, and it would take at least $40 million to get it up and running again, not just $6 million. 'There is not really anything left there except the shells of the buildings where the machinery was housed,' said Beard, R-Elliston, who voted against it. Sen. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, said Montana has the lumber for the Seeley Lake mill, but it needs staffing, and the bill would help. 'We have people ready to come and do the work in Montana to get these facilities up and running. I think that's a great thing for us,' Morigeau said. Sen. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, said the state sells roughly 60 million board feet of lumber a year, and the mill is located close to state trust land timber. He said every mile needed to move a log to a sawmill makes the lumber worth less to the state. 'This mill is located in a strategic location for the taxpayers of the state of Montana,' Curdy said. But Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, said the $6 million shouldn't be spent that way. Regier said he supports the industry and remembers seeing homemade signs in the Flathead in the 1990s that said, 'This Family Supported by the Timber Industry.' At the time, however, he said that industry supported itself. 'We're spending taxpayer dollars to do what loggers did in the '90s,' Regier said. Sen. Barry Usher, R-Billings, said even as the Senate tried to help a sawmill, it was contemplating a bill that would hurt commercial businesses. He pointed to HB 231, which aims to support residential property taxpayers, but passes on increases to other groups, including commercial property taxpayers, he said. Usher said he was told many people were lined up to try to help revitalize the sawmill at Seeley Lake, and he had a question: 'Were they advised in advance that if House Bill 231 passes, that their commercial property taxes are going up?'
