The Blog at MSPC

Wyoming legislators should make strengthening the Public Records Act and other government transparency initiatives their center of attention in next year’s legislative session. This would build on the progress made this session for medical cost transparency.

House Bill 516 does not ban unions. It does not prevent teachers from joining them. It does not end collective bargaining. Even critics admit as much. What it does is far simpler — it stops government from acting as the middleman for union operations.

Lawmakers across our region were very busy during the 2026 Legislative Sessions. More than 2,300 combined bills were introduced in Washington (1,157), Idaho (817), and Wyoming (335). There wasn’t a legislative session this year in Montana. Several of Mountain States Policy Center’s (MSPC) recommendations were among those to make it across the finish line.

This year, Idaho lawmakers introduced more than 800 pieces of legislation—again. That’s not a one-off spike. It’s part of a clear trend: more bills, more activity, and more output from a citizen legislature that was never designed to operate at this scale.

Across Idaho, citizens and journalists have faced inconsistent rules about whether they could film or record public meetings. In some cases, they were told to stop. In others, policies varied from one city or school district to the next. The result wasn’t transparency—it was confusion.

The growth of Idaho and Montana’s largest counties is not happening in isolation. It is part of a broader rebalancing across the West—one driven by policy, affordability, and opportunity.

The people of Washington must now consider a question once familiar to Americans: what recourse remains when government refuses to listen?

It is now far too late to challenge the constitution’s legality. However, Montanans deserve a constitution that is not under a legal cloud. A state constitutional convention could propose such a document.

The best way to defend the constitution is not to dig in one’s heels to protect an inaccurate and distorted version. The best way is to call a convention to, first, clean up drafting mistakes that tend to discredit the document, and, second, to correct judicial distortions of it.

We were honored to have Montana Governor Greg Gianforte attend and address the crowd at our policy event in Helena on February 24. Governor Gianforte discussed his plans for the upcoming 2027 Legislative Session, noting that moving the Treasure State to a flat income tax and providing families with more education choice opportunities were among his top priorities.

The only way the people of Montana can systematically update their constitution is to commission a state convention to propose a new one.

While workers in Wyoming have the ability to opt out of union membership, requiring them to proactively send dues instead of having them automatically deducted from paychecks ensures that they want to belong without doubt.

Civic education doesn’t belong to one type of school or region. It belongs to everyone. Our hope is that teams will come from across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Eastern Washington, so students can meet peers from different communities, compete respectfully, and go home with a deeper appreciation for how our system works.

Lawmakers willfully defying a ruling they don’t like in hopes that different judges will change a century of legal precedents, against the backdrop of voters consistently rejecting income tax constitutional amendments, is a recipe for constitutional chaos.

Government belongs to the people. The people don’t need permission to watch it work.

Because water is so precious, the law governing it should be fair and certain. People are entitled to know what they can and can’t do. They need assurance that the rules will not change suddenly. Unfortunately, the Montana state constitution’s water provisions are confused and contradictory.

Our Founders gave us a precious constitutional right to correct the federal government when it has gone off the rails. It is our privilege, and obligation, to use it, and Idaho has the opportunity to join the majority of other states that have voted to do so.

Wyoming legislators are right to address the necessity of upholding the principles of federalism in the 2026 Legislative Session in the form of SJ 2.

The Founders of the Constitution would not have provided the Article V option to the states if they were concerned that a “runaway convention” would undo all their hard work.

A plethora of research has found that economic prosperity depends on secure property rights. The insecurity of property rights was one reason Montana lagged economically for so long. Moreover, property owners serve as a necessary counterbalance to government power. And protecting the benefits people earn is simple justice.