“I was part of a coalition that worked together last session to try and get something done,” Hill Smith explained. ”There are three legs to the stool – the distributors, the tavern owners and the breweries – and we could never get anything over the finish line. So this bill is not a product of any of them telling us what to do.”

Hill said she joined with her friend Hertz to talk about revising a law so that it makes sense for Montanans, not just for special interest groups.

“We are coming at this from a pure tax revenue perspective,” she said. “Breweries in Montana generate $36 million in tax revenue every year. From my perspective, this isn’t about everyone on the three legs of the stool getting what they want. This is about our ability to get our state more money, and Republicans and Democrats are coming together to do this on our own.”

Hill Smith said that she believes that government regulation is stopping breweries’ ability to make more money.