Legislative Update: Representative Marta Bertoglio

March 3rd marked the halfway point of the 68th Legislative session. We heard hundreds of bills in committee and on the House floor. The last week was filled with long hours and high emotion as legislators fought for their legislative priorities. Here are a few takeaways from our session thus far:

Key pieces of legislation have passed both chambers and will be sent to the Governor. These include a property tax rebate of $1000 to residential property owners paid out in 2024 and 2025, and an income tax rebate of up to $1,250 per individual taxpayer and $2,500 for married couples filing jointly. Additionally, we are paying down $200 million of Montana state debt. As a result, nearly $1 billion of our state’s historic budget surplus is on its way back to taxpayers. In addition, Montana’s income tax rate will drop from 6.75% to 5.5%. The 68th Montana Legislature passed the largest K12 funding package in state history.

As with any legislature, there are interesting unions formed to pass or not pass legislation, and this session includes a union between the further left and further right partisans to block important legislation for our schools to include school maintenance funding, a teacher health care trust, and Conservation district funding.

Serving on the State Administration, Local Government and Education committees, there are a few bills that I am proud to have passed to the House floor. These include bills to ensure election security and integrity, bills to strengthen our Montana National Guard men and women, bills to increase government accountability within state agencies, a bill to provide licensure reciprocity for educational certification and occupational licensing for military members, military spouses and veterans, and a bill to streamline the subdivision review process.

Of equal importance to passing good bills, I have voted not to pass legislation that would allow heavy handed state government interference in local government. I will continue to vote for and with the voices of my constituents despite hyper-partisanship.

I will spend much of the next month presenting twelve bills to Senate committees. I am hopeful the second half of the session will show good bipartisan work to provide funding for nursing homes, a stronger educational system for our students, improve access to affordable housing, and will ensure we “Keep Montana, Montana”.

Thank you for allowing me to be your Representative. I will continue to work hard for Montanans while representing our District with civility and respect. Doing the right thing for the right reasons is important to me.

I appreciate hearing your opinion. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. My contact information is: marta.bertoglio@legmt.gov.