The "inevitable budget stand-off" in the Montana Legislature "won't stand for much" in the long run as "the issues will resolve themselves anyway," predicted Mark Staples, Montana Tavern Association (MTA) government affairs counsel in an interview hours before the Tavern Times news deadline.
In offering a broad overview of the session, Staples continued, "In a state so divided politically by such narrow margins, such a contreteps comes as no surprise. While the press makes it sound like the war to end all wars, those who have been around the process for a long time give (the partisan rancor) little notice, except to make sure one's bills don't get caught in the crossfire."
Regarding legislation of interest to operators of Montana's small licensed businesses, Staples said a bill that began moving late in the process to almost double taxes on video gaming machines was ill considered.
Sen. Christine Kaufmann, (D) Helena, has introduced SB560 which would increase tax rates up to 30 percent on most gaming machine revenue to fund health care programs.
"One would hope in a session with the kind of surpluses–or 'over-collection,' as some would say–we have in Montana, that it would be beyond argument that there should be no new tax increases," Staples said.
"Besides that, it has been proven, I think beyond much dispute, that the current 15 percent tax on gross revenue is an appropriate one given the steadily growing tax revenues now produced," he said.
Staples expressed similar sentiments regarding Sen. Kaufmann's SB559, which would more than double the current beer tax on producers of over 20,000 barrels annually.
"Again, in a time when Montana's income tax payers
have built the state an enormous, historic surplus, why would you impose on the taxpayers for yet more revenue?" he asked.
"Obviously her intended beneficiaries (government provided health care recipients) are indeed deserving, but our social needs should be born by all citizens, not just selected manufacturers, retailers and consumers."
Staples said he was "cautiously optimistic" SB140, a bill by Sen. Dan Weinberg, (D) Whitefish, to increase availability of "cabaret" restaurant beer and wine licenses "will pass as intended and have the positive effects the MTA intends it to have of relieving pressure on the (liquor) licensing system.
"It will also be nice to see the loopholes that developed in the cabaret licensing system eliminated," he added.
MTA is watching the progress of HB113, Rep. Bill McChesney's, (D) MIles City, bill to allow out-of-state ownership of Montana liquor licenses, which would bring state statute into compliance with recent court decisions that found in-state-only ownership laws to be unconstitutional.
"In one form or another, this bill has got to pass," Staples said. "The state needs to have the mechanisms to investigate out-of-state applications with the same thoroughness they have always applied to in-state applicants."
Another bill MTA is following with interest is HB492, a measure by Rep. Dennis Himmelberger, (R) Billings, that would address an inequity in the way Montana treats tip income for purposes of taxation.
"The Montana Restaurant Association is taking the lead in this effort to have tips declared either wages or gratuities," Staples said, "because currently the state treats them as gratuities when contemplating tax consequences for employees--which there are none--but treats them as wages when calculating taxes on employers for work comp and unemployment insurance.
"Consequently," he continued, "the bill is trying to address an institutionalized discrepancy. Opponents have unfairly characterized it instead as an attempt to reverse recent voters' endorsement of an increased minimum wage.
"In fact, it does nothing of the sort," Staples said, "and actually puts in statute the new increased minimum wage as the reference point that employers would have to use when calculating how much of an employee's tips could be calculated as wages.
"Even if an employee was making hundreds of dollars a night in tips--which some are--they would still have the first $6.15 in wages untouched in the calculations," he continued. "Forty-four other states see fit to allow employers to calculate some portion of tips as employee wages, so it's certainly not a radical concept. Opponents in Montana have characterized it as such for strategic purposes, but truly they know that' not the case."
HB633 by Rep. Ernie Dutton, (R) Billings, would fix problems with the current liquor license lottery system, and Staples noted it appeared to be headed for passage in the Senate at Tavern Times deadlines, with Sen. Joe Tropila, (D) Great Falls, carrying the bill there.
It would tighten up the lottery application process to dampen the rampant speculation in licenses seen the past few years, by discouraging those with no interest at all in launching a bona fide hospitality business from speculating.
Staples said, "I expect the bill to make its way successfully."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, April, 2007, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.