HELENA - Nearly 100 employers from across the state will be telling legislators at four hearings Saturday what changes they think are needed to get Montanans back to work.
Originally planned as a single hearing for business employers only, the event has evolved into four hearings that, at the insistence of Democratic leaders, will also include nonprofit groups.
Legislative organizers want to hear from business and nonprofit employers directly. They have excluded lobbyists and trade association representatives from speaking on grounds that lawmakers can hear from them often at hearings and in the Capitol hallways.
The 98 employers invited to speak responded to an open invitation from Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House. Each speaker will be limited to seven minutes.
Speakers are being asked to suggest specific solutions to problems they perceive, instead of just registering their complaints.
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There will be four separate hearings, presided over by a bipartisan team of legislative leaders.
One hearing will be to hear employers from the agricultural, mining, tourism and labor. Another is for technology, retail and manufacturing. One is on construction and energy and timber industry. The final hearing will be on health, safety and insurance.
The testimony at each hearing will run from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The final half hour of each hearing has been set aside for others to speak.
Legislators won't have time to ask questions. But each employer has been asked to provide a one-page summary, including an e-mail, so lawmakers may ask follow-up questions.
Senate Majority Whip Chas Vincent, R-Libby, who is handling many of the organizational details, said the legislative leaders came up with the idea of for the hearings.
"We hope to hear from Montana employers about ways to enhance and maintain job creation in Montana," he said. "We've seen unemployment go from just over 3 percent to over 7 percent the last several years."
Vincent said he's encouraged by the response and hopes many of the ideas can be turned into drafts for proposed bills to be considered this legislative session.
As legislators take up balancing the state's budget, "we need to create real and new wealth that comes with job creation," Vincent said.
He said the hearings were set for a Saturday in hopes of making it easier for more employers from around the state to be able to travel to Helena.
"When you're swimming in policy, it's always a good idea for people to come in and give you ideas you might not hear otherwise," Vincent said.
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Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, said she's looking forward to the hearings.
"Democrats have forever been singing the mantra about jobs, jobs and jobs, so we want to hear what they're suggesting," she said. "We're certainly going to open to everyone's point of view."
Williams said she and House Minority Leader Jon Sesso, D-Butte, urged their Republican counterparts to open the hearings to nonprofit groups, such as hospitals, besides private businesses.
"We just told them it had to be a broad diverse discussion and have nonprofits as well as for-profits to be able to have a voice," she said. She praised Republican leaders for agreeing to expand the hearings to include nonprofits.
Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center, praised Williams and Sesso for pressing to get the scope of the hearings expanded to include more small businesses.
"That will provide more opportunities for a broader array of businesses," she said. "Small businesses are Montana's backbone."
Hedges said she hopes the expanded roster of participants will make the hearings better than she had anticipated.
"My original fear was that this was going to be just a cheerleading session for the past energy economy as opposed to a true analysis to where we should be going, which is a clean energy economy that has a focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency and systems that are cheaper and better for ratepayers," Hedges said.
Still, Hedges added, "I worry that our environmental laws will be a scapegoat for problems we are facing, as opposed to looking at true solutions."
Jon Bennion, government relations director of the Montana Chamber of Commerce, said he is looking forward to the hearings.
"It's a great opportunity, and we're grateful for the chance to do this," he said.
Bennion said the chamber put the word out that employers have an opportunity to testify before legislators and encouraged them to take advantage of that opportunity to tell lawmakers what they can do to help create more good-paying jobs.
Missoulian State Bureau reporter Charles S. Johnson can be reached at (406) 447-4066 or at chuck.johnson@lee.net.
