The 2025 Montana Legislature

There are two main ways to learn how effective your Montana legislator is at representing your values:

First, study how they voted. In Janet’s case, she received a 100% voting record/scorecard from the following organizations in 2025 (in alphabetical order):
o Forward Montana (See scorecard HERE):
o Montana Conservation Voters (MCV) (See scorecard HERE);
o Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC) (See scorecard HERE);
o Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE) (See scorecard HERE); and
o Northern Plains Resources Council (See scorecard HERE).

NOTE: if there are other voting records that you know about, please let us know! You can contact our campaign in the way you choose by CLICKING HERE.

Secondly, learn what your legislator has accomplished. During the 2025 session, Janet focused on:

• A Balanced budget. Since 2021, she has served as the Senate Minority Vice Chair on the budget committee and was involved in building the budget.
• Property Tax Relief. Legislators successfully passed a series of bills to reduce property taxes on primary residences and long-term rentals. Because the bills only became law in late Spring, the first year of relief is through a rebate; in subsequent years, the relief will be reflected on property tax bills.
• Maintaining Impartial Courts. She joined with other legislators to defeat numerous (slightly different) bills that would have made judges run in partisan elections. Janet believes that judges should not be loyal to any Party (Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian). Montana’s courts should be strong and independent – and our judges should be fair and listen to all sides of every argument.
• Reauthorized Medicaid for more than 90,000 working Montanans. This reauthorization is especially important for veterans, low-income workers, and rural communities (and their healthcare clinics).
• Defending Reproductive Rights. In spite of the fact that Montanans spoke clearly in November 2024 when CI-128 passed, the ballot measure that affirms Montanans’ constitutional right to privacy and access to abortion care, many bills were introduced in 2025 attacking abortion rights. Although Janet joined other legislators to defeat the worst bills, costly litigation is required to eliminate several measures that passed.
• Funding Public Education. Legislators delivered clear results for Montana’s students, families, and teachers in 2025, with education wins on higher teacher pay and more support for young learners.
• Affordable Housing. Critical gains were made to tackle Montana’s housing affordability crisis, including securing an overdue investment in the Montana Housing Trust, which will help local communities create solutions on workforce housing and affordable options for families and seniors.
• Protecting the Environment. Protecting Montanans’ constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” is a key driver for many legislators. This priority is well-illustrated by Janet’s 100% voting record with Montana Conservation Voters, the Montana Environmental Information Center, and Northern Plains Resource Center (see above).

Janet also successfully sponsored several pieces of legislation and amendments, including ones that:

• Created a Bowhunters with Disabilities Program (SB 238) in the state that will collect donations to be used to modified archery equipment for disabled Montana hunters to use during archery season.
• Revised public record laws (HB 100) by requiring all public agencies (including all state agencies, the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Auditor, and Office of Public Instruction) to establish a public information request process. This bill also revises fees for public information requests.
• Required Disclosure of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use in Elections (SB 25). This requires that deepfake AIs used in elections carry a disclosure identifying the material as deepfake AI generated. NOTE: because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, it is almost impossible to regulate communications in elections; the best we can do (for now) is identify when deepfakes are being used.

Janet was also able to add several amendments to the state budget, including:

• Extending the deadline to spend $3.7 million to reimburse schools for testing and mitigation work for water faucets and fountains under the lead in public school drinking water program (a program at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality);
• Adding $2 million to assist with cleaning up underground storage tanks that are leaking petroleum products into groundwater (another program under the Montana Department of Environmental Quality);
• Securing the use of $100,000 for weed control and riparian enhancement of fishing access sites, as well as taking care of fishing access issues due to increased recreation (a program under to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks).

I look forward to working for you through 2026 and beyond. Please feel free to reach out with your concerns and ideas!

Senator Janet Ellis