Three statewide ballot issues go to voters

Northwest Montana / News Network

Montanans will have a chance to vote on three statewide ballot issues this year.

? The 2007 Legislature submitted Constitutional Amendment 44, which would allow the state's retirement funds and workers compensation insurance funds to be invested in private corporate capital stock. The Montana Constitution currently allows only 25 percent of state trust funds to be invested in stocks.

Proponents of C-44 claim the constitutional provision is outdated and costing the state millions of dollars. One hundred and twenty-five of the legislature's 150 members voted to put the issue to the voters.

Opponents note that similar ballot issues were overwhelmingly defeated in 2002. They warn that large corporations could gain influence over state government if stocks in those companies is held by the state.

? The legislature also submitted a 6-mill levy request for the state's university systems. Montanans have approved the same levy every decade since 1920. The levy is projected to take in $12.5 million for 2007 and grow 3.36 percent per year through 2018.

Proponents note that the levy is not a tax increase. The levy will cost taxpayers about $12 on a $100,000 home.

Obtaining a college education may be admirable, opponents say, but forcing someone else to pay for it is not, especially if the Montanans paying the tax can't afford to go to college themselves. They also suggest the university system is too big.

? Initiative 155, the Healthy Montana Kids plan, was put on the ballot by petition. The plan calls for expanding and coordinating health coverage for uninsured children under the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

More than 30,000 children in Montana are without health coverage, supporters say, and the number has increased from 19 percent to 29 in the past four years. The plan will provide comprehensive coverage to children in families who make less than $50,000 per year, supporters say, by using $22 million a year paid to the state by insurance companies and $70 million in matching federal funds.

Opponents say a large increase in the CHIP program during unstable economic times is not fiscally responsible. They say "children" under the plan could include individuals up to 25 years old, and a family of four earning up to $60,000 per year could still have eligible children. They say treating the growing number of unhealthy and chronically ill adults is a bigger concern.