Author: Kent Kupfner
Now that the 2023 Montana legislative session has wrapped up, here’s a quick recap of several of the new laws and the possible impacts to Montana wheat and barley producers.
Following the introduction of thousands of bills, 896 made the cut and passed! Approximately 300 of these bills have been signed into law by Governor Gianforte thus far. Roughly 50 of the bills dealt with the sale of alcohol, and several had a direct effect on agriculture, such as an exemption allowing alcohol display at trade shows. Also, MSU Bozeman will now be able to brew beer on campus! This new law will complement MSU’s existing barley breeding and malting programs and MSU will be the only academic institution that has such extensive comprehensive barley programs (breeding, malting and brewing).
The Montana Wheat and Barley Committee MWBC) has been exempted from the state government procurement rules. This should benefit the committee by streamlining the process and reducing the red tape involved with procurement.
On the tax front, the first $1 million (an increase from $300,000) in market value of class eight property of a person or business entity will be exempt from taxation starting in 2024. This change should be beneficial and lead to tax savings for most wheat and barley growers.
And finally, House Bill 10 revises laws related to financing information technology capital projects. This bill appropriates money for the development and acquisition of new information technology systems. Specifically, the Department of Agriculture received $370,000 to develop software for a new Commodity Assessment System. The funds will be used to develop software to streamline and improve the processes involved with check-off programs such as MWBC assessments. The new software will also help with audits and the commodity dealer licensing process. We’re excited and looking forward to the efficiency and cost savings new software should create for the collection process of wheat and barley check-off funds.