Montana House backs bipartisan budget plan

HELENA — Even the architects of a surprising bipartisan House budget deal didn't expect the unprecedented unanimous vote from the chamber on Tuesday.

"I had no idea in my wildest imagination," Republican Rep. Duane Ankney of Colstrip said after a 100-0 vote on a roughly $9 billion spending plan.

"Wow," said Democratic Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh of Helena.

The chamber broke into applause Tuesday morning after endorsing the budget in a little over an hour — a process has taken days in the past. There was no debate or dissent — although each side promised to take lingering issues to allies in the Senate that will get the budget next.

House Republicans and Democrats decided to drop their differences — and dozens of proposed amendments — in order to avoid the usual lengthy and contentious floor fight on the two-year spending plan.

Ankney said that he began discussing the bipartisan agreement with Democrats on Monday as each side was preparing more proposed floor amendments.

Democrats were promising to bring amendments that would force Republicans to again vote against money for education, jobs and health programs.

Republicans were promising to use their 61-39 majority in the chamber to cut more programs favored by Democrats — and to ensure their proposed budget was well below what was requested by Gov. Steve Bullock.

Ankney, a retired miner from Colstrip, said he met with some Democrats on Monday afternoon to talk about the possibility of dropping the proposed changes and agreeing to both endorse the budget as it came out of the House Appropriations Committee last week.

The deal was taken to both full caucuses Tuesday morning, Ankney said. But there was no leadership command that everyone vote for it. Ankney said everyone understood that partisan floor amendments would make the budget worse, not better.

"Why open the blood bath that serves nobody?" he said in an interview. "We didn't get all the cuts we wanted, they didn't get all the programs they wanted. But it's a fair budget."

The governor's office has criticized the budget for spending about $90 million — or 1 percent — more than the original Bullock proposal. Republicans told fiscal conservatives in their ranks — nervous about the spending — that the comparison is not fair because the Legislature's budget had to account for 2013 changes in Medicaid and other issues identified after Bullock's proposal was completed.

Conservative Republican Rep. Krayton Kerns said he agreed to endorse the budget after being assured it only modestly increases in spending, less than 2 percent, compared to the previous budget.

"This is only step one," Kerns said. "Now it goes over to the Senate."

Democrats will also take their concerns to the Senate — and to their ally in the governor's office — after a one more formal House vote scheduled for Wednesday. A top concern for the minority party is the way the budget axes federal family planning money. The last-minute move was made in subcommittee by Republicans at odds with Planned Parenthood, a recipient of the money.

But Democrats agreed to drop that concern, and many others, at this stage.

"I am not willing to look past the great things we did, the great things we did in a bipartisan fashion," said Rep. Pat Noonan of Butte. "I think we all made compromises. I think we made compromises together, and put together a good budget."

House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter said "there was really a recognition on both sides of the aisle this was a pretty good budget."

Republican House Speaker Mark Blasdel lauded the "smooth, acrimony-free" budget votes.

"This is exactly the kind of session we've been striving for from the beginning: More work and less politics," he said in a statement. "Neither side wants to waste the people's time with speeches and bickering."