His expectation was to work hard for the people that elected him. In that regard, and perhaps some others, he probably got more than he bargained for.
“I couldn’t believe how much people really work,” Nooney said. “You’re working 12 to 15 hours a day. You’re voting on an average of 17 bills a day and there were more than 1,500 bills introduced.”
“It’s like drinking out of a fire hose and then trying to make sense of it all,” Nooney added.
Nooney said it is virtually impossible to read every bill that comes up for consideration in its entirety. He concentrated more on the bills considered by the three committees on which he served - local government, taxation and transportation. He was vice chair of the latter.
For bills outside his committees Nooney tried to network with people who served on the appropriate committees, committee chairs and occasionally the House leadership for information and input.
The fiscal notes attached to bills often contained summaries of their contents along with projected costs to the state which also was helpful in trying to keep up.
It was a contentious session, especially in the House, for what Nooney thought were a number of reasons.
“Any time you have a $1.2 billion surplus I think you have people line up on both sides … and have their agendas on where they’d like to see that money go or stay,” Nooney said.
Nooney took some issue with Gov. Brian Schweitzer related to the tone of the session beyond the fact that he was gone for parts of it.
“One of the things that surprised me as a freshman is that he was the first governor since Forrest Anderson (1969-73) not to meet with the leadership of the House or Senate during the legislative session,” Nooney said. “And I think that’s one of the things that set a tone.”
Nooney also thought some of the strategies employed by the House during the session to leverage positions on issues also led to increased tension. He noted that it was a strategically difficult session for the Republicans because the Democrats controlled the Senate and the governor’s office.
Nooney said 80 to 90 percent of the time agreement is reached on issues fairly quickly and easily. It’s the other 10 to 20 percent, he said, that gets a lot of the media attention.
“What was covered was probably relatively fair but … a lot goes on that people agree on that wasn’t covered,” he said.
The Missoula Republican thinks breaking up the budget bill was the right thing to do. Nooney said budgets in his family-owned business are dealt with by departments.
“I think you can look at it easier,” Nooney said. “I think it’s easier to understand and easier to vote on.”
Nooney got some pleasure in Helena from sponsoring a bill - along with all of the other first-year legislators from both parties - making it easier for handicapped hunters to access hunting areas. The bill originated with a handicapped constituent from Lolo, and it did become law.
Nooney also pointed out that all of the freshman legislators from both parties met once a week for dinner during the session. That kept things civil through even the difficult days of the session, at least among first timers.
“We still had civil conversations,” Nooney noted. “We still agreed to disagree. We had fun. We have a good freshman class.”
Like so many legislators before him Nooney was frustrated that the 2007 session was unable to come up with meaningful tax reform. Nooney thinks being in Helena for only 90 days every two years is one thing that makes tax reform tough to achieve, although he wasn’t fully prepared to endorse annual sessions.
Two of the biggest areas the taxation committee dealt with in Nooney’s mind were long-term property tax relief - a Republican issue that his party was unable to achieve - and the issue of so-called tax cheats raised in part by Gov. Schweitzer.
“In my opinion there was very little evidence that there (were) these tax cheats out there,” Nooney said. “And all the bills that they wanted to pass would have … made business in Montana more difficult. So we were able to kill those bills in committee and I think that was a good thing.”
Nooney said the Montana Department of Revenue already has the authority to go after tax cheats but he doesn’t feel they’re doing what they could in that regard. Acknowledging that there are a number of people who don’t pay their taxes Nooney charged the DOR to be more diligent in pursuit of those people.
He also said funding shouldn’t be an issue since the DOR - which Nooney said per capita has one of the largest staffs of any state - received a $38 million two-year budget increase during the 2007 session.
House Republican leaders Scott Sales and Mike Lange - the latter with a well-documented verbal tirade against the governor - did the best they could under the circumstances, Nooney said.
“I was never told how to vote on anything,” Nooney said. “Scott Sales was gentleman to me at all times. I really appreciate the leadership of Mike Lange. There were some things he did wrong, obviously.
“(But) in terms of a person that works hard, that has his heart in the right place, I just think a lot of those folks.”
Nooney acknowledged the difficulties presented when you have a certain political philosophy and you’re asked to compromise, sometimes butting up against that philosophy to do so.
“It’s hard to give up some of your values,” Nooney admitted, “but … when you’re down to the last hour (and) you don’t have a lot of options you’re forced to compromise.”
He said some of those areas of needed compromise probably could have been dealt with earlier in the session and could have made things go more smoothly. But he also thinks a special session would have been necessary anyway.
“If you spend time understanding the values of the other party or the other person that you’re talking to, I think common ground comes pretty fast,” Nooney said.
Nooney was one of the Republicans who attended the so-called cabin meeting between the regular and special sessions. What surprised him was that there were no Democrat legislators there, only House Republicans and representatives from the governor’s office.
“I think that shows how much influence the governor had over the Democratic Party in this case,” Nooney said.
Nooney ran in 2006 because he had watched his father give back to the community and wanted to do the same. He said two things can happen to a new legislator, especially during and after a session like the 2007 one.
“You either get mad and you don’t want to do it anymore,” he said, “or you get to a point where you want to go back and … continue to try to change things. I think that’s where I’m at.”
As for anything he’d do differently, Nooney said more sleep would be a high priority.
“I think I burned myself out trying to keep up with everything,” he said. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and I was trying to sprint every day.”
Nooney said he’s ready to go back, particularly because he enjoyed the people he worked with in Helena.
“I enjoyed the process,” he said. “But more than anything I enjoyed the people. If you make up your mind to get along with people and to facilitate, I think it’s a fun place to be and you can get things done.”
Click here to listen to the entire interview with Bill Nooney.
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