Asked Thursday if Schweitzer’s amendments to House Bill 426 fell within the title of the bill as required, Greg Petesch, the legislative branch’s chief lawyer, said in an interview, “Not in my opinion. They’re not germane to the bill, and they change the original purpose.”
On Wednesday, Schweitzer’s attorney, Ann Brodsky, e-mailed Petesch to ask if the amendment from the governor’s office could be drafted and sent to the governor’s office by 1 p.m., according to e-mail provided by Petesch at the Missoulian State Bureau’s request.
Brodsky replied, saying, “Greg - I disagree and we want to move forward. Thanks. Ann.”
With his amendatory veto issued later Wednesday afternoon, Schweitzer put some stream access provisions in HB426, a previously obscure bill that lifted the present $500,000 cap on a county’s road and bridge capital improvement fund.
The Schweitzer language requires that before county commissions can spend money from these capital improvement funds, they must certify that the roads and bridges they are building and repairing offer public access to the streams.
The amendment basically puts into law a 2000 opinion by then-Attorney General Joe Mazurek that the public may gain access to streams and rivers by using a county road and its right-of-way and that bridge and its abutments are part of the public highway and subject to the same public easement as the highway to which the bridge is attached.
To become law, both the House and Senate have to approve Schweitzer’s amendments.
HB426’s sponsor, Rep. Jack Ross, R-Absarokee, was unhappy about the amendment Wednesday, telling some Republican colleagues, “We just got hijacked.”
Schweitzer said in an interview Thursday he has plenty of faith in his legal staff, given its track record defending past amendatory vetoes.
“I have a pretty good legal staff and a lawyer who’s done the case law study, too,” Schweitzer said. “I think I’ll go with my quarterback. It’s within the title of the bill. Clearly it is.”
Schweitzer said the phones started ringing early in his office this morning, with the calls overwhelmingly supporting his amendatory veto. The callers, he said, included a number of Republicans and independents who said they were baffled at House Republicans’ refusal to pass the stream access bill that has been tabled.
Likewise, he said, his office has received a number of e-mails supporting what he did.
Meanwhile, stream access supporters, both Democratic legislators and sportsmen, staged a rally in the Capitol.
Sen. Lane Larson, D-Billings, said he is still holding out for his bill, SB78, which passed the Senate on a bipartisan 34-16 vote but was tabled in the House.
“I’m real disappointed the Republicans in the House have chosen to kill SB78,” he said.
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