July 27, 2022

I am continually surprised at the hypocrisy from many red states like Montana where I live.  There is a constant stream of rhetoric about ‘government overreach’ and ‘States rights.’  There is a cacophony of voices talking about ‘freedom’, ‘Montana values’, ‘independence’ and ‘individual choice’.  And yet here in Montana during the last legislative session, our Republican controlled legislature passed something known as House Bill 407.  I didn’t even know about it.  My bad I guess for not keeping a closer watch on the State legislature.

This innocuous sounding bill basically strips ALL local municipalities of almost any ability to enact local laws that differ from what the State legislature deems appropriate.  That sure sounds like ‘government overreach’ to me. 

The first part of the bill simply refers to auxiliary containers, e.g., plastic bags.  If a city like Bozeman or Missoula which tend to be a bit more liberal leaning than the rest of the state wanted to enact a law prohibiting the use of plastic bags in supermarkets, for example, as a nod toward environmental responsibility, they are precluded from doing that.

One might think that since we’re just talking about plastic bags, it’s no big deal.  However, the real meat of the bill doesn’t show up until the second section of the bill.  In that section of the bill it states:

“7-1-111. (Subsection (21) effective October 1, 2021) Powers denied. A local government unit with self-government power is prohibited from exercising the following:

• Any power that applies to or affects any private or civil relationship, except as an incident to the exercise of an independent self-government power.
• Any power that applies to or affects the provisions of 7-33-4128 or Title 39, except that subject to those provisions, it may exercise any power of a public employer with regard to its employees;
• Any power that applies to or affects the public school system, except that a local unit may impose an assessment reasonably related to the cost of any service or special benefit provided by the unit and shall exercise any power that it is required by law to exercise regarding the public school system;
• …..”

It goes on but the bottom line is that it prohibits any local government entity from enacting any law in contradiction to what the State legislature deems acceptable.  A local municipality cannot enact any type of firearm restriction.  They can’t enact any law affecting landlords and housing.  They can’t enact local laws prohibiting or penalizing vagrancy.  Basically, the State legislature has emasculated all municipalities within the state of Montana and now all governance will come from the state capitol in Helena.  How the hell is that not government overreach?  Once again, the hypocrisy is deafening!

The state legislature has already stripped county health boards of the ability to impose any kind of restrictions in response to a pandemic such as COVID. 

This is not only a problem in Montana.  It is happening around the country, particularly in red states where the Republican-controlled state legislatures are consolidating control over almost all aspects of what is going on within a state within the state legislatures.  Many states have moved control or are trying to move control over elections away from election officials and into the halls of the state legislature.

This is a very dangerous trend and my guess is, like this HB 407 in Montana, that most state residences are unaware of this power grab taking places right under our noses.  Like I said yesterday, democracies generally don’t become autocracies because of violent coups, but succumb to and are weakened from pressures internal to the State.  HB 407 in Montana and similar legislation in other states is just another example of how our democracy which is supposed to be based upon the will of the majority of the electorate is being undermined one brick at a time.

I try to keep up on what is going on but I was certainly caught unaware that this bill had passed and had become law.  This is exactly why we all need to pay very careful attention to what is going on at the state and local levels.  The politicians who are enacting these types of laws are counting on the fact that we are not paying attention!   And right now, they are winning!!