MONTANA

Legislature Oks Medicaid expansion

A Republican proposal to leave current levels of Medicaid coverage in place in Montana headed to the governor’s desk as Congress considers billions of dollars in cuts to the low-income health program.

The Montana Senate gave final legislative approval to the bill Feb. 27 in a 30-20 vote. Expanded coverage had been set to expire on the safety net program that insures more than 76,000 Montana residents. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte voiced support for continuing coverage, but hadn’t commented on the specific proposal.

A coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats carried the bill across the finish line, after effectively wresting control of the Senate agenda from conservative GOP leaders. The measure includes new work requirements for some Montana Medicaid enrollees, criteria that had been blocked under former President Joe Biden.

In 2015, Montana lawmakers voted to extend Medicaid coverage to adults between the ages of 18 and 65 with annual incomes slightly higher than the federal poverty level. The program also covers disabled, pregnant and elderly people, and children in low-income households. It now insures nearly 80 million people nationwide.

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The state renewed the expanded program in 2019, but set an expiration date for this summer. Under the latest bill, lawmakers would no longer need to periodically renew the program.

State Rep. Ed Buttrey, a Great Falls Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said the program has been a lifeline for low-income residents and the state’s rural health care providers, which no longer need to spend as much money caring for uninsured patients.

Republican opponents such as state Sen. Carl Glimm of Kila warned Montana could soon be saddled with much higher costs if Congress cuts funding for the states. The $880 billion Medicaid program is a prime target for the GOP-controlled body as it looks to slash federal spending.

WYOMING

Gun-free zone repeal becomes law

CHEYENNE — Gov. Mark Gordon announced on Feb. 27 that he would let a bill to repeal gun-free zones go into law without his signature while calling it a “legislative power grab.”

In a letter to House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, the governor reiterated his support for the repeal of gun-free zones in Wyoming but expressed frustration that “Gun-free zones are not repealed — they are now determined exclusively by the legislature.”

“Elections are impactful, and I recognize the overwhelming majority of this legislature opted to drop a political bomb,” Gordon wrote in his letter.

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Gordon said he vetoed a “remarkably similar bill” at the end of last year’s budget session, noting that he believes each government entity should get to decide whether to allow firearms in their public spaces.

Gordon said he was tempted to “copy and return the same veto letter,” adding that since his veto last year, 60% of school districts, every community college and the University of Wyoming had taken his suggestion and decided the question themselves.

He noted that a handful of legislators tried to pass amendments recognizing that local process and grandfathering in those local decisions.

Bill removes otters from protected list

A bill removing otters as protected animals in Wyoming passed the Senate on Feb. 20 and headed to the governor’s desk to be signed.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, would remove otters from a list of protected animals that the Wyoming Legislature penned in the 1950s — before the Endangered Species Act was law.

The bill, Byron said, would let Wyoming Game and Fish remove or relocate otters — something not allowed due to otters being on the list.

The bill passed both legislative chambers by wide margins.

A Senate committee passed an amendment to the bill removing all species — black‑footed ferrets, fishers, lynx, otters, pikas and wolverines — from the existing statute but the amendment was reversed on the floor of the Senate.

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Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said that the changes went too far and changed the original intent of the bill.

Byron and Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce repeatedly stated in committee that the bill would not allow for the trapping and pelt collection of otters, which would be treated like other non-game species. The designation includes other animals such as bats, pikas and prairie dogs.

The bill faced opposition from some environmental groups and scientists.

University of Wyoming Ecology Professor Merav Ben-David — who has studied otters using Wyoming Game and Fish Department funds — said that it was too early to remove otters from the list before “viable populations” existed in multiple places.

NEW MEXICO

Governor names brother to university board

LAS VEGAS — The governor of New Mexico has appointed her brother to the board of regents at New Mexico Highlands University, as concerns about wasteful spending and cronyism roil the state’s regional university system.

Greg Lujan — the 64-year-old brother of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — was appointed as the student regent to the five-member board at Las Vegas, New Mexico-based Highlands University, pending state Senate confirmation, the governor’s office confirmed on Feb. 18.

Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, said Lujan was chosen from among several student applicants. Lujan, a mortgage loan officer, returned to college last year to pursue a degree in business and applied sciences, studying under a state scholarship and making the dean’s list with high grades, McGinnis Porter said.

Republican state Sen. James Townsend of Artesia told the Albuquerque Journal that the appointment of a sibling will be met with skepticism in the confirmation process.

“I just think she’s put her brother in a really unfortunate circumstance,” Townsend told the Journal.

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The appointment takes place as state prosecutors try to undo a lucrative severance package for Joseph Shepard, former president at Silver City-based Western New Mexico University. It included a nearly $2 million payout approved in the wake of a scathing report that detailed wasteful spending and lax financial oversight at the school.

State Attorney General Raúl Torrez has outlined several allegations that included breaches of fiduciary duty and violations of the state’s open meetings law and state constitution.

William García, the departing chairman of the board at Highlands University, said that the student position on a university board carries full voting authority. The university has roughly 3,000 students, including many aspiring teachers and social workers.

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