Montana Legislative Session comes to a close

The legislative session ended very quietly without much fanfare.  The session seemed to be very civil without a lot of arguing or fighting over legislation.  Observing the committee and floor votes the members were very respectful of each other.  It seemed that good decorum was maintained through the session.

During the session we monitored 23 bills that involved insurance issues, of those 23 bills only 9 appeared to have passed. Five of those bills are still waiting for the Governors’ signature.

Of those bills the most important are probably HB114.X that involved revisions to general consumer protection laws and HB533.X.

 HB533.X is a revision to insurance laws regarding the use of Fire Risk scores relating to residential properties. This bill is very important and will force admitted carriers to comply with new guidelines involving the use of Fire Risk Scores for rating. This bill is currently waiting for the Governor to sign!

There were a number of bills involving Workers Compensation.  The most significant of those bills is probably SB394.X.  This bill will require Workers Compensation coverage for PTSD for First Responders. Currently PTSD coverage is nor provided for Montana First Responders. This bill is waiting for the Governor to sign.  There is a real possibility long term for this bill to provide “Coverage Creep”.  Currently it only covers First Responders, however it will likely be utilized to increase that coverage for other trauma related jobs-particularly in the medical field. That could have a negative impact on long term economics for Montana State Fund.

The effort to provide Property Tax Relief apparently failed. HB892.1 missed the deadline and will be dead for this session.  SB90-the enacting legislation to redistribute certain tax revenue to primary residence property tax relief was not passed.

We will continue to monitor the legislature for any surprises or revisions to the status of bills.

Lobbying services provided by D.L. Williams