Lots of Victories Amid Chaotic Legislative Session

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State Senate President Matt Regier Friday, May 23rd, 2025   9:56am  

The 2025 Montana legislative session got off to a rocky start on day one in the Senate when a group of nine Republicans defected to collude with Democrats in a surprise maneuver to change the Senate’s rules and committee assignments giving themselves and Democrats more power. For the entire legislative session, the 9 censured Republicans joined with all 18 Democrats to devise a majority of 27. This leaves the Montana voter confused on who they sent to be the majority in the Senate. 

That fiscally liberal 27 succeeded in passing too many bills that spent too much money, requiring the governor to now veto his way to a balanced budget. The collusion also gave unprecedented powers to the Democratic Senate Minority Leader and reduced the power of the Republican Senate President. They also blocked the expulsion of Senator Jason Ellsworth from the Senate after an ethics investigation found he gave his friend a no-bid contract funded with taxpayer money. It was unfortunate that they made this session more about personalities and not policy. 

Had there been fewer political shenanigans and more unity among Republicans, we’re confident we could have achieved more on judicial reform, property tax relief and the state budget. As it stands, we did pass several good bills to hold judges more accountable, but other important reforms died along the way. On property taxes our goal was meaningful reform but what Montana got was a tax shift. There will be some reduction of rates on primary residences (in many places it will be negated by the value and mill increase), but at the expense of massive tax hikes on other types of property. Most long-term structural reforms didn’t make it across the finish line. When you get your bill in November (especially the Ag community) know that there were many great legislators trying to stop the shift, we were just a few votes short. 

Despite the intentional chaos caused by the 27, strong leadership and conviction from the 23 Republicans produced some victories that Republicans can be proud of from the legislative session. 

We delivered a huge income tax cut that prioritizes relief to the middle class. We reformed Montana’s unemployment insurance system to reduce costs on businesses, passed bills to bolster apprenticeships in the trades, and boosted pay for new teachers. 

The legislature made Montana safer. We passed bills to enhance penalties for crimes committed against vulnerable people, strengthen theft laws, and address trespassing. Republicans also stood up for the safety and privacy of women and girls by passing bills to keep men out of women’s sports, bathrooms, and shelters.

We continued bipartisan work on housing policy to make owning a home in Montana more attainable and affordable, enacting even more limited-government changes to continue the “Montana Miracle” of pro-housing reforms that began in 2023. 

Montana also continues to lead the nation on privacy and technology policy. We expanded privacy protections for neurotechnology data and prohibited the use of genetic sequencers produced by foreign adversaries like China. The legislature also passed a bill protecting Montanans from having their phone or car shut off by a “kill switch” without due process, while also embracing Montanans’ rights to use new technologies by passing the Right to Compute Act and Financial Freedom & Innovation Act.

In sum, both a lot of good and bad came out of the 2025 Legislature. Thank you to all the Montanans who made your voices heard along the way. 

Matt Regier- President

Tom McGillvray- Majority Leader

Ken Bogner- President Pro Tem 

Sue Vinton- Majority Whip

Daniel Zolnikov- Majority Whip 

Barry Usher- Majority Whip