Troop 17 visits Helena Capitol
“Politics is like spectators at a
football game. The farther people are from the center of the field,
the louder they yell. I don’t listen to them as much as I listen to
the majority of the people who are closer to the middle, closest to
the 50-yard line.”
So began Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s
question-and-answer session with 15 Whitefish Troop 17 Boy Scouts
spending a day in Helena to learn about state government.
As guests of Sen. Ryan Zinke on April
11, the Scouts managed a full schedule of meetings with
legislators, the governor and a Supreme Court justice. Zinke showed
them onto the senate floor where they learned about how citizens
communicate with their legislators, and how legislators bring bills
through the committee process and on to final passage.
From there, the Scouts toured the
Capitol building, pausing at the statues of Mike and Maureen
Mansfield, Jeannette Rankin, and other leaders who have represented
Montana.
While in the senate gallery, the Scouts
watched Zinke debate a vehicle registration tax, and stood as he
introduced them to his senate colleagues.
They next walked over to the Montana
Justice building and attended a lecture conducted by Associate
Justice Beth Baker in the Supreme Court hearing room. Judge Baker
said the most interesting case she is working on at present
concerns whether the manufacturer of an aluminum baseball bat is
responsible for the death of a pitcher who was struck in the head
by a batted ball at a tournament in Helena.
Then it was on to the governor’s
reception room, a large office with a fireplace on the east end of
the Capitol building. Schweitzer introduced his border collie, Jag,
who performed a few tricks. Then it was business time.
“What is the most important lesson you
have learned as governor?” “How do you decide whether to approve a
bill or to veto it?” “What do you consider your most significant
accomplishment as governor?” “What issues do you think will be most
important for us as Montana citizens 20 or 30 years from now?”
The Governor gave lively, entertaining,
responses to each question. Montana government, he explained,
spends most of its money “educating, medicating, and
incarcerating.” But unlike nearly all other states, it is not
overspending its income. He spoke critically of the federal
government’s failure to control its spending, but assured the
Scouts that the federal government could clean up its deficits “in
a New York minute” if it paid only what other countries paid for
prescription drugs and medical procedures.
The Scouts asked about his biggest
disappointment — it was his inability to change the way classroom
education worked.
“We need to get the best subject-matter
teachers from around the world into a database of videos to help
our classroom teachers to instruct their students,” Schweitzer
said. “Every student needs to be equipped with a computer to tap
into those videos.”
After nearly an hour, Schweitzer
excused himself and the Scouts returned home with a memorable
first-hand experience of all three branches of state government at
work.