HELENA, Mont. – The Majority Leadership of the Senate and House today released the following statement on the possibility of a special session to address infrastructure bonding bills.
“We want to first remind Montanans that this legislature has already passed roughly $1 billion for priority infrastructure projects including water, sewer, roads and bridges across the state for the next two years.
Our position on prioritizing essential infrastructure hasn’t changed and it doesn’t appear that the Governor’s priority pet projects have changed either, so at this point a special session for infrastructure bonding would be premature. A special session as short as five days would cost taxpayers over $340,000 and it’s not a good investment in spending our state’s limited resources at this time.
There are a number of issues on the federal level that may require a special session to be called and when that time comes we will make a determination on the impact on Montana and if calling legislators back to Helena is necessary.”
According to Legislative Services the cost of a special session is approximately $106,794 for the first day and $58,547 each additional day. The first day is more expensive because it includes the round trip mileage.