Montana senators endorse two-year state budget compromise

ALISON NOON

Associated Press

HELENA - Montana senators endorsed a two-year state budget proposal Thursday, but chamber leaders are not optimistic that the state House will pass the plan.

Members of the Republican-controlled Senate voted 33-17 to approve a budget that is $23.5 million more than the roughly $10 billion biennial total that passed out of the House last month.

Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, voted against the bill while Sen. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, voted for it.

Senators adopted multiple technical amendments, but House Bill 2 remained largely unchanged Thursday from the version that the Senate Finance and Claims Committee passed on April 1. It included $24 million in supplemental funding to backfill the current state budget that was killed in a rare move by the House.

Jones said the budget and supplemental funding in House Bill 2, along with other bills that spend state funds, currently comprise a total increase in state spending of a little more than 5 percent compared to the 2014-2015 total. Jones said his goal was to keep the increase at or below 6.2 percent.

"We need to be very, very conscious that the money we are spending is the money that is someone's lifeblood - it's the taxpayers' dollars," Jones said, later adding, "We need to focus on medication, education, corrections, all those areas, and we need to do so in a fiscally prudent and conservative manner, and I would argue that, so far as Montana stands, we have found a way to do so."

A few bills that remain in play at the Legislature come with large appropriations that, if passed, could affect the spending balance. Those bills include a water negotiation between the state and federal governments and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, a pay plan to increase wages and decrease health insurance costs for state employees, and one or more proposals to fund infrastructure projects around the state.

With two of those proposals, Jones said, the spending increase could remain below 6 percent.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock offered no veto threat, like he did for the House budget proposal, but said in a Thursday statement that the budget could do more for infrastructure and to make pre-kindergarten more attainable. Bullock's $37 million Early Edge pre-K proposal was included in neither chamber's budget proposals.

"I urge the Legislature to continue working on a responsible budget that funds core essential services and makes investments into our future while ensuring we have a sufficient rainy day fund," Bullock said.

Sen. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, said he could not vote for the proposed budget based on principle. He said the size and scope of Montana's government has far outgrown the private sector that supports it.

"All of the government, when I was a boy, pretty much fit into one building, including the Supreme Court," Sales said. "And now government fills the valley of Helena or at least a good portion of the city proper."

Jones said he has similar concerns but that the proposal would not outgrow the underlying economy.

Senators expect the House to reject the Senate version of the budget. If so, the budget would proceed to a special joint committee for further negotiations.

"Our work is not done, and I hope that nobody contends that our work is done," Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso said. "There are some significant holes in this budget that need to be fixed as we now move into what we anticipate will be a conference with our colleagues in the House."

If the House fails to pass the Senate amendments, the House and Senate will each appoint two Republicans and one Democrat to the special committee.

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Associated Press Reporter Lisa Baumann contributed to this report.