While wrangling over the budget has hogged the spotlight at the Capitol, lots of bills of special importance to Helena -- and the several thousand state workers who live here -- advanced through the Legislature during the first 45 days of the session.

In a meeting this week with the IR Editorial Board, members of the local delegation talked about issues of special import in and around the Queen City. A summary:

n State Pay. After a brief stalemate on the House floor, the pay plan, which calls for 3 percent raises in each of the next two years, passed as negotiated by the state and unions last year and now moves to the Senate.

The bill was briefly stalled after Republicans attached some amendments that would disrupt "the broadbanding effort the state has spent years on" in an effort to make pay more competitive with surrounding states, according to Rep. Hal Jacobson, D-Helena. "That would have derailed the negotiated process."

With the amendments stripped, the bill passed the House comfortably.

n Montana Historical Society. Local lawmakers are generally pleased that the historical society is moving forward in negotiations to buy the Capital Hill Mall as a site for a new Montana history museum.

No additional funding is in the works this session for the purchase or renovation of the site, but a bill introduced by Sen. Mike Cooney, D-Helena, would make it more attractive for a potential deep-pocketed private donor to finance the new museum.

The bill, which coasted through the Senate and now will be considered by the House, allows for a private citizen's name to be attached to a building within the Capitol complex (defined as the 10-mile area surrounding the Capitol).

"We've already got Washington-Grizzly Stadium (at the University of Montana, named for industrialist and donor Dennis Washington)," said Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, who helped Cooney push the naming bill. "What's the big deal?"

Other local building projects: H.B. 5, the long-range building bill, includes money for a pair of Helena projects. The bill, which passed out of the Joint Appropriations Subcomittee on Long-Range Planning and is now bound for House Appropriations, includes $1.7 million to complete the expansion under way at the UM-Helena College of Technology, and $3.75 million for a new classroom building at the Law Enforcement Academy in the Helena Valley.

Meanwhile, H.B. 14, which includes appropriations for technology projects, includes money for a new information technology building in Helena along with a second, data backup facilty in eastern Montana. That bill is likewise bound for House Appropriations.

Zoning: The ongoing scrap over zoning in the Helena Valley has flared up on a few fronts in the Legislature, with a pair of local lawmakers seeing bills tabled in favor of a bill calling for a study of zoning laws across Montana.

A bill by Lewis would have extended the moratorium on zoning from one year to five years after a successful protest. It would have applied retroactively, meaning the successful protest in the Canyon Creek-Marysville Planning Area would forbid zoning in that area for five years.

Meanwhile, a separate bill by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, would have changed the way zoning protests are tabulated. Under current law, 40 percent of landowners in an area or the owners of 50 percent of the agricultural and timber land must protest in order to be successful. Kaufmann's bill would have eliminated those requirements and set a new standard: 40 percent of all registered voters in an area.

Both those bills died in committee. In their stead, a resolution by Sen. Rick Laible, R-Darby, calls for a comprehensive study of zoning laws where those laws overlap with subdivision and annexation laws. That resolution passed out of the Senate on a thin 26-24 vote that wasn't along party lines.

Lewis and Kaufmann said the study is a fair compromise.

"It's a good effort to say, 'Let's take a look at this,'" Kaufmann said.

Annexation: In another bill born of a local dust-up -- a Jefferson County developer's interest in annexing across county lines into the City of Helena -- Sen. Terry Murphy, R-Cardwell, is advancing a measure that would require county-commission approval for annexation across county lines. The bill passed through the Senate by a comfortable margin and heads for the House.

Mike Horse Dam: A bill co-sponsored by Lewis, Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh, D-Helena, Rep. John Ward, R-Helena, and several other lawmakers authorizing legal action to force clean-up of the Mike Horse Mine and Dam near Lincoln sailed through the Senate.

The bill authorizes the state to sue Asarco as well as any other potentially responsible parties for natural resource damages and restoration of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex.

State offices downtown: A bill by Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, that would encourage downtown development in Helena and other cities with state offices died in the House State Administration Committee.

The bill, which would have required state agencies to locate offices in downtown areas whenever it was cost-effective to do so, had both support and opposition from the development community, Caferro said.

"The vote was tied, and it was brought back up for re-consideration on not a very good day, and was killed," she said.

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or john.harrington@helenair.com.