Governor flexes amendatory veto power
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) When House Bill 145, aimed at raising nonresident base hunting license fees from $15 to $100, moved through committee hearings, the legislation saw opposition from the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association who thought the increase “drastic.”
Gov. Greg Gianforte agreed, and on Tuesday sent the bill back to the legislature with a recommended amendment for a more moderate increase — to just $50.
“Like the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association and other conservation groups, I support a modest increase of the nonresident base hunting license fee but believe the increase from $15 to $100 is too great,” Gianforte wrote in his amendatory veto letter.
The shift from $100 down to $50 still represents a 230% increase from the existing license fee. Forty dollars of each fee goes to fund access programs for hunters, including the Block Management Program, and will generate an additional $2.5 million, according to projections from the governor’s budget office.
The House and Senate on Thursday both approved of the governor’s amendment.
“This has been a really entertaining bill,” Rep. Gary Parry, R-Colstrip, said on the House floor. “It started out at 100, you go to committee, they drop it to 50, then it comes back from the Senate up to 100. I’m going ‘Yeah, no,’ I don’t even know in committee which one I’m supposed to defend.
“Anyway, so the governor got it and he said ‘No, gonna be 50,’ and here we are complaining we got so much money in the budget, I’m trying to give him more money and he’s taking it away. So, let’s concur.”
Parry said he was concerned that if the House rejected the amendment, the governor would exercise one of the executive branch’s check on legislative power and issue an outright veto.
Montana’s governor has three versions of veto power over legislation that reaches his desk.
The most basic is the outright veto, when the governor decides, for any reason, that he does not agree with a bill passed by the Legislature. A two-thirds vote by both chambers — conducted as normal business if in session, by a mail poll after adjournment, or during a special session — can override a veto.
Gianforte also holds the power to issue individual line item vetoes in bills that appropriate state funds, while approving the bulk of the bill — a power shared by 44 state governors.
Line item vetos don’t often receive much attention, as they often involve ensuring a budget is balanced, but a case in Wisconsin drew national attention in 2023 when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers removed a few words in a 158-page budget bill to increase school funding for 400 years, instead of the intended two.
Montana’s governor can also recommend amendments to bills, officially called an “amendatory veto.” Similar to amendments made in a legislative committee, altered bills must be approved by both chambers and then returned to the governor for final consideration.
If one or both chambers reject the amendments, the bill returns to the governor in its original form, where he could then opt to veto it outright. If only one chamber approves of the recommendations, a conference committee may be convened to hammer out the differences.
On Thursday, the House and Senate approved of the governor’s amendments to several bills in addition to House Bill 145.
Changes to Senate Bill 45, which creates a judicial performance evaluation system for sitting judges, removed a section which would have added the evaluation information to the state’s voter information pamphlet.
Amendments to a bill revising the Montana Heritage Preservation and Development Commission kept the legislature from reducing the number of members, while Gianforte amended a bill about reporting on the costs of fiscal legislation to be an annual, rather than bi-annual report.
According to a spokesperson for the governor’s office, Gianforte has recommended amendments to seven bills this session.