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In response to your editorial of March 30 regarding firefighting costs: Somebody has their head in the sand but it’s not the state Legislature.

During the regular 2007 session I carried House Bill 66, which provided a means to improve cash flow for wildland fire suppression costs. Unfortunately, the bill was killed in the House Appropriations Committee due to squabbling over the budget. During the special session in September 2007, I brought the bill forward again as HB 3 and was successful in getting it passed.

The bill establishes a fire-suppression fund to pay for costs as they occur rather than a supplemental appropriation after the fact. The way things were prior to this law, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation had to expend general fund authority established for other purposes to fight fires and had to wait for the legislature to convene and provide a supplemental appropriation. The Governor’s $16 million emergency fund was also used.

HB 3 does four things: It establishes a fund, provides a statutory appropriation for the fund, provides a

$40 million appropriation to start the fund and requires an annual transfer of general funds to keep the level at

$40 million. One of the concerns expressed in your editorial was that the money would get used for other things. In response to that: The money is statutorily appropriated and can only be used for fire suppression activities.

Another thing the law does is to allow the fund to retain its own interest. In lower than average years, this will help grow the fund. It also requires reimbursements from negligent parties to be deposited to the fund. A disaster or emergency does not have to be declared to use this fund.

During the special session in September 2007, the Legislature also passed HB 1, which provided funding for fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008). Because of this, the law will not take effect until July 1, 2008. When the bill went to the Senate, senators amended it to give it a termination date of June 30, 2009. This is better known as a “sunset.” I tried to get it sent to conference committee so that we could remove the sunset date but to no avail. So we have a law that is in effect for only one year. Perhaps someone will carry a bill to remove the sunset date in the next legislative session.

Ray Hawk represents House District 90 in the Montana Legislature. He writes from Florence.

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