Positive results aren't about accident or luck
By Cole Boehler
The Montana Tavern Association and its allies have been tracking over 100 legislative bills or bill draft requests since before the 2009 Montana Legislature convened.
Many of the bill draft requests never emerged, some drafted bills were never introduced. Several dozen bills died in committee and some died on the floor of either chamber.
However, a few survived the meat grinder that is our legislative process. A couple were still alive as the Montana Tavern Times passed its news deadline, a couple were on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature or veto, and a handful of others had been signed and will become law.
An astute business association begins its legislative homework immediately after a session ends, just as the Montana Tavern Association will at its May 5 board meeting, and surely will the Gaming Industry Association (GIA) at its late May convention and will the Montana Coin Machine Operators Association (MCMOA) at its coming board meeting. They will analyze what happened in the last session, what went right and what went nowhere. And they will distill all the reasons for all the outcomes.
Further, the associations will look into the future: to the rules writing process that will follow to implement the laws just added to the books, to the coming election cycle and political races, potential ballot issues, probable legislation from opponents and possible legislation beneficial to licensed business members.
They will continue to monitor the work of the interim legislative committees where ideas and issues are often introduced to ferment into full blown bill drafts, ultimately even laws.
If the May 5 MTA board meeting is like others that have followed legislative sessions, members will likely express relief or regret over the failure or passage of various measures. They will toast a few small victories.
But mostly they will be consoled that they have merely—but largely—been left the heck alone for two more years. In the measure of these most highly regulated of businesses, that is generally thought to be a quite acceptable result.
But this outcome did not happen by accident or luck. It happened as the result of two years of hard work and continuous attention to the regulatory scheme and apparatus that defines the licensed business environment, and the whole political landscape that shapes it.
It takes the MTA Legislative and Gambling Committee and sometimes its more specialized subcommittees to monitor and sift everything that relates to government. It takes the full 42-member board of directors, weighing in and approving or rejecting the recommendations of its committees.
It takes the guidance of its 800-plus business owner-members who elect and communicate with their board representatives. It requires capable and dedicated organization officers and executive staff. It takes money.
It also takes lobbyists.
Association lobbyists are the ones who do the face-to-face work with elected officials, those running for office and even those contemplating a run. They work with the bureaucracies to assure rules conform to legislative intent. They work to resolve problems and conflict. Lobbyists are the communications conduit to the government through which flows the positions adopted by the members and the reasoning behind them.
In turn, association members learn from their lobbyists about the operation of government and the personalities that influence it.
Most readers know Mark Staples is the government affairs counsel for MTA; its lobbyist. Most would judge him one of the most effective in the business. He's been representing tavern owners and helping them navigate the murky government waters for two decades. His—and MTA's—track record is solid, even envied by many.
We have heard speculation as to why MTA is effective.
Is it because it can hire the most lobbyists? Some interests or industries literally hire dozens of them while MTA has one. Is it because MTA has so much money to work with? Hardly. It's budget is dwarfed by numerous other groups.
Is MTA so capable because it has one of the best lobbyists in Helena? No, though that is a part of the equation.
Here's why MTA is effective, and it's a statement Mark Staples has often made: because MTA represents 2,400 small businesses spread across Montana that constitute the state's third largest economic sector.
True, MTA has just—"just"?—800-plus business members, but those who do not belong have no other representation so are, by default and so in fact, represented by MTA.
They are almost always completely united, after much deliberation (and sometimes argument), on the positions they adopt, so they speak with one strong voice that emphasizes one message.
The 800 member-businesses, often operated by entire extended families, are located in every hamlet, village, town, city and legislative district.
They maintain fairly high profiles in their communities, and usually highly positive profiles. They are involved in their communities and its activities.
The owners of these businesses each know and serve hundreds and hundreds of other folks in these districts including their legislators. They understand and speak politics.
That's called grassroots clout.
Further, licensed businesses employ close to 25,000 Montanans and make a payroll of more than a quarter billion dollars. They spend $1 billion every year on local goods and services, including nearly $80 million in taxes paid.
That's called economic clout.
So when Mark Staples, or Neil Peterson at GIA or Ronda Wiggers at MCMOA, talk to a legislative candidate, or legislator, or the head of an agency or department, or the Attorney General or Governor, these folks understand they are in reality talking to the owners of thousands of small licensed businesses and the businesses that supply them.
They are talking to tens of thousands of workers and hundreds of thousands of customers of these businesses. They are talking to the representatives of the third largest economic sector in the state.
We suppose that can be called "Power." And there's nothing nefarious about it. It's simply logical and it is just. It is grassroots democracy in the best sense.
Amazing what an organization and its strategic alliances can do.