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A district court judge has ruled that Montana state legislators must have an opportunity to override the governor's veto of a bill that would direct funding to conservation and other programs. At the end of Montana's state legislative session in May 2023, Governor Greg Gianforte vetoed Senate Bill 442, a broadly-supported bipartisan bill which would have directed recreational marijuana tax revenue to a variety of conservation programs, among other purposes. This allocation of revenue reflects the will of Montana voters who passed Initiative 190, which legalized recreational marijuana and directed that revenues go to those conservation programs and other purposes, in 2020 with 57 percent of the vote.
In response, Wild Montana, the Montana Wildlife Federation, and the Montana Association of Counties filed a lawsuit challenging the timing and procedure of the veto and arguing that legislators should have the opportunity to vote on whether to override it. Lewis and Clark County district court judge Mike Meahan agreed, ruling last week that the framers of Montana's state constitution clearly intended for the governor to have the power to veto a bill and for the legislature to have the opportunity to override that veto, regardless of technicalities of timing.
“The governor has to play by the rules, just like everyone else,” said Noah Marion, political and state policy director at Wild Montana. “He can’t hijack the legislature’s authority, and the court’s decision makes it clear he has to respect the constitution. Now the legislature can do what it voted for months ago: pass SB 442 and invest $30 million in habitat conservation and public access.”
Unless Gianforte chooses to appeal the ruling, legislators will soon vote by mail on whether to override the veto of SB442. A successful veto override would require two thirds of both chambers of the legislature. The bill received the support of 130 of Montana's 150 state legislators during the 2023 session, making a veto override—and the restoration of millions of dollars of conservation funding contained in the bill—a real possibility.
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The oil and gas industry has basically been in charge of the leasing process for the last hundred years. Almost any parcel of land in the West that has produced oil or will ever produce oil is already under lease.”
