Montana needs to be sure it can hire and keep snowplow drivers to clear highways, for starters.

The state needs to fill open positions at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge as well — with a 40 percent vacancy rate, according to the director of the Department of Corrections.

It also needs psychiatric technicians at the state hospital in Warm Springs, among the state’s health care facilities with an “extraordinarily high vacancy rate.”

Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee, Sen. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, presented a proposal to raise wages for state government workers.

In his presentation, Fitzpatrick presented four basic changes outlined in the bill:

• The Election Day holiday is no longer in effect for executive branch agencies; it will be replaced with a “floating holiday.”

Keila Szpaller

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