HB 256 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Creation of Montana water trust and special revenue accounts

HB 256 proposed creating the Montana Water Development State Special Revenue Account to fund water-related projects and infrastructure. This new account would be established with gifts, legislative transfers, and $100 million transferred from the state's general fund over two years. The earnings from this account would be distributed, with 90% allocated to the water storage state special revenue account for state-owned water storage projects. The remaining 10% would go to the natural resources projects state special revenue account to support water storage pilot projects and dam inspections, ultimately affecting water infrastructure and safety across Montana.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action May 20, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC2024.pdf HB0256_1.pdf · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from LC 2024 to HB 256.1 and updated with the full list of sponsors. The core policy, funding amounts, and effective dates remain unchanged, though the text was reorganized to align with standard legislative formatting.
TECHNICAL

The bill title and header were updated from 'LC 2024' to 'HB 256.1' to reflect its status as a House Bill.

The list of sponsors was expanded to include additional legislators (K. Walsh, W. Galt, E. Albus, D. Bedey, W. Curdy, B. Gillespie, L. Jones, R. Miner, J. Cohenour, P. Tuss) who were not listed in the previous version.

The text was restructured and renumbered to conform to the official authorized print format, removing placeholder lines and standardizing section headers.

Floor votes · House Feb 6, 2025

How they voted

8812
Passed
Total votes 100
Feb 6, 2025
D Democratic42
35 Yea 7 Nay
83% Yea
R Republican58
53 Yea 5 Nay
91% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
25
Key actions
3
Committee
4
Amendments
1
Apr 3, 2025
Amended
(H) Tabled in Committee - (H) Appropriations
lower
Feb 6, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (88-12)
house
Feb 6, 2025
Committee
(H) Rereferred to Committee - (H) Appropriations
lower
Feb 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Feb 3, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Jan 20, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Ken Walsh
Ken Walsh
RRepublican
MT
69