Swallowing A Bitter Pill
by: Rep. JP Pomnichowski
On Tuesday, voters in Bozeman and Gallatin County received a mailing from the Republican Party. The oversized postcard showed a woman’s corpse, hands bound, in a plastic bag. The caption read, “Is this your neighbor?” On the reverse of the piece, my picture, name, and cell phone number were given, along with an opinion of the vote I cast against House Bill 340.
You can see the front an back of the card here and here.
I need to be absolutely clear. Every statement on that postcard is a despicable lie. This is the worst of vicious character assassination style campaigning.
In a novel approach, instead of launching this smear during the campaign, the Montana Republican Party decided to do it in the middle of the legislative session, just as the citizens are asking that we cut out the bickering and work together.
We have since learned that the same mailer went to the districts of four other Democrats. All freshmen, all having defeated Republican incumbents.
Here is the back story. (more…)
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Getting Social Security Numbers Off of Conservation Licenses, Mostly
by: Rep. JP Pomnichowski
Many Montanans have been unhappy about having to give their Social Security number to get a fishing or hunting license. We’re about to change that, I’m happy to say.
Back in 1997 and ‘98 the Legislature enacted this requirement in order to stay on the right side of the requirements set forth by Congress having to do with what were called deadbeat dads. We had to start asking for SSNs to comply with the Feds on child support collections, so we did.
This has made many of us unhappy with our government, for a variety of reasons.
Since then, a few states have finagled a compromise: collect only the last 4 digits of the SSN, not the full number. Combined with a name, the last 4 digits serve the purpose of finding folks who have skipped on their child support. Not giving the entire number maintains some privacy for our citizens, and prevents ID theft.
I’m happy to announce that we’re about to get this deal in Montana.
I introduced House Bill 450, which would change state law to allow for the exemption, if we got it. HB450 passed through the House and awaits attention in the Senate. Meanwhile, the Montana Department of Health and Human Services just got the exemption from the Feds last week, so we’re very close to success.
The exemption is good only with HB450 to enact it in Montana law. Your help with convincing your Senator to support HB450 would go a long way. You can find your Senator here.
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