MT Legislature: Speed is Freedom

On January 5, 2015, the 64th session of the Montana Legislature will convene.

For those of you not from Montana, the Montana Legislature is really pretty good entertainment to warm up Montanans in the dead of winter. The state legislature meets every two years for 90 days. There’s an old joke told that many Montanans believe the legislature should meet every 90 years for two days.

I’ve called the legislative sessions a three-ring circus, and I’ve called many of the legislators clowns from time to time.

It looks like the 2015 session will be the same old circus. They have already held at least one secret meeting, probably more. It seems that many of the legislators don’t feel the need to follow the open-meetings law in the Montana Constitution.

One thing for sure, it’s always interesting to see what bills are proposed leading up to the next legislative session. Over the weekend, I happened to read about a few legislators (state senators Scott Sales and Jonathan Windy Boy, and state representative Ken Miller, and state representative-elect Art Wittich) who want to raise the daytime speed limit on Montana’s interstate highways. The current speed limit is 75 and they want to raise it to 80 or 85.

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