Scores of laws take effect with new budget year Wednesday

[...] others, such as a $67 million plan to raise state employees' wages and increase the state's contribution to their benefits, will go into action in January or later.

The final plan, as negotiated behind closed doors in the final days of the Legislature, increases spending by about 6 percent over the last biennium.

Six months after a pipeline break spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into Montana's Yellowstone River, state officials must publish pipeline information online, including counties where pipelines cross rivers and the closest shut-off valves to rivers.

Montana, the state with the highest rate of suicide, will begin urging public school employees to complete two hours of suicide awareness training every five years.

An updated human trafficking law allows victims to bring civil action against a trafficker, provides immunity for child victims and makes victims' past sexual behavior inadmissible in court.