Game-farm bill dies a quick death
By JENNIFER McKEE, IR State Bureau - 04/01/03
HELENA — A panel of lawmakers took about five minutes Monday to quietly kill a bill that would have rolled back major sections of a 2000 voter ban on game farms — a measure that has sparked clamorous debate this session.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 12-7 to table House Bill 379, by Rep. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek.
The bill would direct counties containing game farms to hold county-wide elections early this May to decide if local game farms can sell hunts of captive game farm deer and elk and to decide if local game farmers can sell their licenses. Both those provisions were outlawed by Initiative I43, which banned captive hunts, selling game farm licenses and issuing new game farm licenses.
The bill also called for spending $700,000 of fishing and hunting license dollars on a research project under way at Montana State University to study chronic wasting disease, a mysterious brain-wasting disease of deer and elk associated with game farms. The bill also calls for a new $100 fee to be paid to the state for each captive hunt.
Committee Chairman Dave Lewis, R-Helena, said he thought the bill was done for.
"I do not believe it will get off the table," he said.
The bill, along with an effort to either buy out game farmers or repeal I-143, has been tenacious this session, with HB379 undergoing several revisions and, at one point, appearing to perish only to come back later.
The bill flew out of the House Agriculture Committee 14-2 in January and cleared a preliminary vote on the full House floor. But instead of taking a final vote on the bill, the House voted to send HB379 back to the House Agriculture Committee. Ripley said Monday he decided to send the bill back to committee in the spirit of compromise, although others at the time said the bill was going to die.
Ripley said he was not going to revive the bill again this session.
"I never should have pulled it the first time," he said, adding that he probably won't pursue the issue in the next legislative session, either.
"I think (the debate) will be settled in the courts by then," he said.
Several game farmers have sued, alleging the state owes them money for lost profits they believe I-143 illegally deprived them of.
By JENNIFER McKEE, IR State Bureau - 04/01/03
HELENA — A panel of lawmakers took about five minutes Monday to quietly kill a bill that would have rolled back major sections of a 2000 voter ban on game farms — a measure that has sparked clamorous debate this session.
The House Appropriations Committee voted 12-7 to table House Bill 379, by Rep. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek.
The bill would direct counties containing game farms to hold county-wide elections early this May to decide if local game farms can sell hunts of captive game farm deer and elk and to decide if local game farmers can sell their licenses. Both those provisions were outlawed by Initiative I43, which banned captive hunts, selling game farm licenses and issuing new game farm licenses.
The bill also called for spending $700,000 of fishing and hunting license dollars on a research project under way at Montana State University to study chronic wasting disease, a mysterious brain-wasting disease of deer and elk associated with game farms. The bill also calls for a new $100 fee to be paid to the state for each captive hunt.
Committee Chairman Dave Lewis, R-Helena, said he thought the bill was done for.
"I do not believe it will get off the table," he said.
The bill, along with an effort to either buy out game farmers or repeal I-143, has been tenacious this session, with HB379 undergoing several revisions and, at one point, appearing to perish only to come back later.
The bill flew out of the House Agriculture Committee 14-2 in January and cleared a preliminary vote on the full House floor. But instead of taking a final vote on the bill, the House voted to send HB379 back to the House Agriculture Committee. Ripley said Monday he decided to send the bill back to committee in the spirit of compromise, although others at the time said the bill was going to die.
Ripley said he was not going to revive the bill again this session.
"I never should have pulled it the first time," he said, adding that he probably won't pursue the issue in the next legislative session, either.
"I think (the debate) will be settled in the courts by then," he said.
Several game farmers have sued, alleging the state owes them money for lost profits they believe I-143 illegally deprived them of.
