Thread by @kendrainmontana

PSA: #mtleg literally made it against the law for local communities to do anything about COVID. If we pass a local mask mandate the state will strip our city's public funding and/or sue. It's an absolute nightmare. The only person who can take action right now is the governor.

City Councils aren't discussing mask mandates for this reason—not because we don't care. Our cities can't function (water, sewer, roads, transit) without state $$, which was the whole point of writing this threat into law. #mtnews #mtpol

"Just do it anyway, let the state sue you!" The loser there is you the taxpayer who then pays for the lawsuit on BOTH sides. And these aren't cheap lawsuits—they drag on for years. In the meantime the state has dozens of ways to punitively chop Billings' funding. #mtpol

They trapped us. #mtleg trapped local communities. Cities own libraries, police stations, fire departments, parks, airports, bus systems...and we can't even make the rules in OUR OWN BUILDINGS. If we do the state can pull funding & shut entire departments down.

All of this is because last spring @mtgop reversed state law. Before, state mandates were the minimum with local communities able to add additional restrictions. Now, state mandates (there are none) are the maximum. It's now against state law to add additional local restrictions.

Source: "Laws passed earlier this year include one allowing county commissioners to override rules by local health officials, essentially taking away their power to take quick action addressing the pandemic." billingsgazette.com/news/state-and…

"Another law states that if jurisdictions add public health rules stronger than state public health measures, they could lose 20% of some grants. There are no current statewide COVID-19 measures in place." (Gazette cont.)

Source: "The legislation alters the sections of state law dealing with the powers of counties and municipalities to enact ordinances and resolutions. It prevents those actions from denying customers 'the ability to access goods or services.'"
apnews.com/article/mt-sta…

“'The language eliminating local government authority to enforce any resolution or ordinance that interferes with a customer and business relationship is very broad and not limited to public health,' Eric Bryson, the [MACO] executive director, wrote in an email." (AP cont.)

Source: "House Bill 702 makes it illegal for an employer to require a vaccine, a sharp shift from where hospitals and doctors’ offices were a year ago when they could mandate that from their employees, with few exceptions." missoulacurrent.com/montana-today/…

"House Bill 121 also stripped local health boards of the authority to mandate masks or issue shelter-in-place orders, transferring that to elected local leaders, mainly the county commissioners." (Current cont.)

"Even then, HB257 says that a government cannot come between a business and its customers, meaning that even the elected officials could be powerless to enact such a mandate without possibly inviting a lawsuit." (Current cont.)