Pub. 5 2017 Issue 4

7 Winter 2017 The Community Banker announced in December that it would work with Representative Ryan Lynch of Butte to transfer $600,000 from the Montana Commissioner of Banking’s Special Revenue Account to the General Fund during the 2017 session. To state this another way, the Governor is looking to raid the Banking Commissioner’s funding source, which such source is paid for by assessments placed on your bank, in order to make up for the shortfall in state funding. This is not the first time that the Bullock Administration has sought to capture this funding. MIB worked against this proposal when it was proposed by the Bullock Adminis- tration during the 2015 session. Fighting off this bad idea once more will be one of the Association’s top priorities during the upcoming Montana legislative session. And, speaking of the legislative session, as both associations do every year the Montana legislature meets, MIB and the Montana Bankers Association will once again be jointly hosting the Bankers Day at the Capitol event. The meetings will be held January 18-19 at the Great Northern Best Western in Helena. We have invited the House and Senate legislative leadership to speak. In addition, there will be a legislative dinner and social on the evening of January 18 to which all state legislators have been invited. MIB’s Bankers Day is the premier advocacy event for Montana’s community bankers and we hope we will see you at this event. As a reminder, our MIB membership renewal packets will have sent out by the time of this publication. We encourage you to be on the lookout for those and return your membership forms once received. We here at MIB look forward to working on your behalf in 2017 and writing another chapter in the 50-year history of this amazing Associ- ation. Jim Brown, MIB Executive Director