Economic Affairs Interim Committee

Economic Affairs Committee Gets New Vice Presiding Officer, Additional Committee Bills

Committee: Economic Affairs Interim Committee
Author: Pat Murdo
Posted on May 3, 2018


generic icons of group meeting and presentations

Rep. Ryan Lynch, appointed to the Economic Affairs Interim Committee (EAIC) in place of now Sen. Nate McConnell, won election to take former Rep. McConnell’s place as the committee’s vice presiding officer on April 26. As a senator, McConnell no longer could serve on the EAIC, which already has all senators’ seats filled. Rep. Lynch was chair of the committee in the 2015-2016 interim.

In other action at the April 26 meeting, members moved forward with two committee bills and possibly a third. One bill will undergo further refinement after the committee reviewed proposed changes to a liquor license auction bill, Senate Bill 5 from the 2017 special session. A newly requested committee bill would repeal the Rail Service Competition Council. Sen. Tom Facey, a legislative liaison to the RSCC, suggested that the governor or a department head could create a council if a need arises instead of having the council based in statute. The third possible bill relates to the committee’s approval of most recommendations listed in the Senate Joint Resolution 20 study of unemployment in high-poverty areas. The suggested policy is to revise awards of extra incentives under Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund grants to encompass both high-unemployment and high-poverty areas.

In other action, the committee:

  • Heard from the administrator of the newly named Alcohol Beverage Control Division of the Department of Revenue, formerly the Liquor Control Division. Becky Schlauch described the division’s activities and reviewed implementation of SB 5 from the special session.
  • Heard from a representative of the State Auditor’s Office about implementation of air ambulance bills from the 2017 session: one requiring arbitration between insurers and air ambulance providers to remove the patient from balance billing and one requiring State Auditor Office regulation of air ambulance memberships. After enactment of House Bill 73, no air ambulance provider has sought to license memberships. As for balance billing concerns, Deputy Insurance Commissioner Bob Biskupiak said some--but not all—patients continue to get balance bills. He described two situations of continued balance bills: one involves patients not subject to SB 44 because their health insurance is through self-insured plans governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and the other affects patients whose insurers determine that a flight to a distant city is not medically necessary if a closer hospital is able to address the problem for which the patient is transported. Biskupiak said his office is working with insurers on those denials. 
  • Accepted recommendations in the draft report of the SJR 20 study of unemployment in high-poverty areas. The committee recommended not adopting discontinuation of the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund grant program.

For more information on the April 26 meeting, visit the committee website, review the audio minutes at http://leg.mt.gov/css/Video-and-Audio/archives/av.asp,  or contact committee staff. The committee’s next meeting will be July 9 in Room 137 of the Capitol in Helena.

Committee website: http://leg.mt.gov/eaic
Committee staff: Pat Murdo, pmurdo@mt.gov, or 406-444-3594