It is probably a good time to announce my intention of running for reelection as the Representative of Montana House District 27 (where the wind blows and the barley grows). Filing for office begins Jan. 12 and it is always good to let your intentions be known ahead of time.

During the 62nd Legislative session I served on the House Appropriations Committee and Long Range Planning Sub-Committee. During the interim, I am serving on the Legislative Finance Committee and I am one of four members elected as part of its management team.

I believe I had a very good freshman session in which I established excellent relationships with both the Montana Association of Counties (Harold Blattie) and The League of Cities and Towns (Alec Hansen). In fact, I carried legislation directly affecting these two entities when I proposed a new formula for the calculation of their statutory entitlement. This new formula provides county and city government with an index that is much more temporarily relevant then the previous one while including both a floor and a ceiling. The prior index lagged actual state economic conditions by as much as six years; the new index lags by a mere six months. The floor ensures that local funding will not decrease in severe economic conditions and the ceiling caps the maximum allowable rate of growth. This bill (HB-95) was passed into law and was signed by Governor Brian Schweitzer.