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2011 Legislature: House Speaker Milburn says focus is on jobs, efficient government

As chairman of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee at the 2007 Legislature, Republican state Rep. Mike Milburn http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/62nd/leg_info.asp?HouseID=0&SessionID=105&LAWSID=3842 was in prime position to kill the session’s major stream access bill – and he did.

"It had been amended so many times by the time it got to our committee that we decided to kill it and start over," says Milburn. "It did not address property rights concerns."

Yet in the following two years, Milburn, a farmer and rancher from Cascade, helped draw together warring sportsmen and landowner factions over the stream access issue, eventually helping usher a Democrat-sponsored bill through the Legislature to become law in 2009.

Sen.-elect Kendall Van Dyk, the Billings Democrat who sponsored the 2009 bill clarifying public access to streams from roads and bridges, says other Republicans wanted to sabotage the bill and kill it. Milburn, however, stuck by the deal and brought other Republicans along, leading to its passage by wide margins.

By MIKE DENNISON Missoulian State Bureau missoulian.com

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_9aa59776-1619-11e0-916b-001cc4c03286.html

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