The 2019 Legislative session was gaveled to a close on Thursday afternoon.

Republican Speaker of the House Greg Hertz was proud of the accomplishments this session produced.

“We were able to create a balanced budget and make sure we had a strong ending fund balance without raising taxes on the people of Montana,” said Speaker Hertz. “In regard to the budget, we eliminated 200 full time equivalent positions, but those were empty jobs that were empty for over a year, so we didn’t eliminate anybody’s employment, but we certainly saved the state a lot of money.”

Hertz continued his praise for the accomplishments of the legislators on both sides of the aisle.

“We worked hard on protecting Second Amendment rights, promoting businesses, helped people reduce their prescription drug costs, helped the timer industry, worked with other industries and I think we did a loot of good things this session.”

Hertz said there wasn’t enough support for one bill that would have made getting an abortion in Montana nearly impossible.

“That particular bill was a Constitutional amendment, and basically what it would say in our Constitution was that life begins at conception, so it would make it very difficult for anyone to have an abortion in the state of Montana,” he said. “That required 100 legislators to put that on the ballot and we just didn’t quite make it to that level in the Montana Legislature.”