Republicans aren't optimistic they have votes for special session
A proposal from Republican state lawmakers to come back into a special legislative session July 16 to try to win passage of their own ballot initiatives on mining regulations and Medicaid restrictions is far from a done deal, party leaders said Tuesday.
Democrats and organizing groups have said the special session would be an end run designed to thwart the citizen ballot initiatives on those two topics, both of which appear to have obtained enough signatures to go before voters in November.
The citizen initiatives would require new hard-rock mines in Montana to have reclamation plans that assure they will not require perpetual treatment of water, and would increase the tobacco tax to extend the state's Medicaid expansion program, set to expire next year.
Some Republicans want to use the special session to pass their own initiatives with the goal, they say, of protecting mining and placing additional requirements on Montanans to be eligible for Medicaid coverage.
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