SB 258 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Revise school funding laws to clarify the legislature's authority related to inflationary adjustments

SB 258 clarifies the state legislature's authority regarding how public school funding is adjusted for inflation. It amends existing law that outlines how the Superintendent of Public Instruction calculates an annual inflation factor for various school entitlements, which is capped at 3%. This bill explicitly states that the legislature can, through its appropriation and lawmaking authority, provide inflationary adjustments that differ from these standard calculations and may exceed the 3% cap. This affects the financial resources allocated to public schools across the state.
Bill status vetoed 4 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Apr 2025
Senate Passage
Apr 2025
House Passage
May 2025
Vetoed
May 2025
Introduced Feb 3, 2025 Vetoed May 12, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

SB0258_X.pdf SB0258_X(1).pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill text shows minor formatting adjustments and the removal of the 'END' marker, indicating the document is likely a finalized or clean version. There are no substantive changes to policy, funding, eligibility, or legal requirements.
TECHNICAL

Removed the 'END' marker and extra blank lines, likely to clean up the document format.

Adjusted whitespace around the bill title and amendment description for consistency.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 19, 2025 · House Apr 23, 2025

How they voted

2722
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 50
Feb 19, 2025
D Democratic18
18 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican32
9 Yea 22 Nay 1
68% Nay
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
37
Key actions
8
Committee
6
Amendments
1
May 12, 2025
Vetoed
(S) Vetoed by Governor
upper
May 5, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Signed by Speaker
lower
Apr 29, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Signed by President
upper
Apr 23, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (59-40-1)
house
Apr 17, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Education
lower
Apr 16, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Education
lower
Apr 10, 2025
Amended
(H) Tabled in Committee - (H) Education
lower
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Education
lower
Feb 19, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (27-22-1)
senate
Feb 14, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Feb 13, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Feb 5, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Education and Cultural Resources
upper
Feb 3, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Laura Smith
Laura Smith
DDemocratic
MT
40