Helena Independent Record

By a wide margin, the Montana House gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $97.8 million bonding bill for new university system buildings and a new Montana Historical Society museum if state revenue collections exceed a certain trigger.

By a 77-23 margin, the House passed House Bill 439, by Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh, D-Helena. It faces a final House vote later this week and needs at least 67 votes to move on to the 50-member Senate where another two-thirds majority vote is necessary.

The Montana Constitution requires two-thirds majorities by both chambers for the state to create debt.

There was little discussion on the floor.

“It’s a jobs bill that provides an appropriation for immediate jobs for our construction industry,” Hollenbaugh said

afterward. “It provides an opportunity for our students to prepare themselves for the workforce of tomorrow.

“It provides an opportunity for our workers who were fired or laid off because of bad economic conditions through no fault of their own, so they could retool and get back into the workforce.”

Here are the projects that would be funded in the bill:

-- Combined state laboratories (veterinary diagnostic lab, analytical lab and wildlife lab), $6.7 million.

-- Montana Historical Society museum, $23 million.

-- Montana State University-Billings, science and instruction tech building, $14.25 million.

-- MSU-Bozeman, classroom renovation, $2.5 million.

-- MSU-Bozeman, Montana agricultural experience stations, $1 million.

-- MSU-Great Falls College of Technology, agricultural and trades building, $4 million.

-- MSU-Northern, auto tech center, $7.9 million.

-- Southwestern Montana Veterans Home, Silver Bow County, $5 million.

-- University of Montana-Missoula College of Technology, new facility, $29 million.

-- UM-Western, main hall, $4.45 million.

The bill provides that the bonding will take place only if the actual general fund revenue and transfers for fiscal year ending June 30 exceed by at least $20 million the estimates for the year made by a bipartisan interim committee in mid-November.

In separate action, the House voted 58-42 to pass HB296, by Rep. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, to provide funding for the Southwestern Montana Veterans’ Home in Silver Bow County. A final House vote will occur later this week before the bill goes to the Senate.

The bill originally called for using $4.8 million from the state special revenue from cigarette taxes and $8.9 million in federal money through the state Public Health and Human Services’ federal special reserve fund.

However, HB296 says if the separate bonding bill appropriates at least $5 million from the capital projects fund for construction of the veterans’ home, which it does, it would change the funding approach in Sesso’s bill.