Montana budget bill leaves out working Montanans

It was a couple of weeks ago that the main state budget bill — House Bill 2 — passed the House of Representatives. I voted against it, and I want to be clear about why.

HB 2, as it stands now, falls far short of meeting the scale of crises facing northern Montana and most Montanans, for that matter. We came into this session with a $2 billion surplus. We have the funds to pass a budget that will have a meaningful and noticeable difference in the lives of the people in our state. Budgets are about priorities, and, unfortunately, HB 2 makes it clear that the priorities of working Montanans were left out of this important legislation.

When I think of what needs in northern Montana should be addressed by our state budget, I think of a lot of things, but certainly housing, child care, nursing homes and our kids are at the top of the list. If you look at what the House passed, it was simply inadequate in these areas.

Addressing the housing shortage seems like it should be a top priority for everyone. Unfortunately, this budget doesn’t do anything about housing. While many of us fought to fund public-private partnerships to build housing Montanans can afford, it didn’t make the cut.

Businesses throughout Montana need workers, but families can’t find child care. Did you know Hill County has 1,600 kids younger than 5 and only 440 licensed daycare slots? That seems like a problem we should address in Helena, yet it’s not in the budget. When an amendment to House Bill 2 was offered to expand child care scholarship eligibility, lower out-of-pocket copays, and stabilize provider reimbursements for the Best Beginnings Scholarship Program, it was met with swift opposition. Which was unfortunate, because the last thing that should ever be partisan is child care.

We’ve already lost many Montana nursing homes, including the Hi-Line Retirement Center in Malta. We should be doing everything we can to help keep what nursing homes we have left, but this budget doesn’t do enough to ensure our aging friends and family can stay close to home. We tried to provide funding to stem the closures of nursing homes and community health care providers, but the effort was killed. Behavioral health care, long-term care, and other providers will continue to close if community providers are underfunded at the current rates.

There was also an amendment to make school meals free for hungry kids. It was only $300,000 out of a $2 billion surplus. That could have helped so many families in our communities, but that was killed, too.

I believe the budget that ultimately passed the House ended up playing politics with the lives and livelihoods of Montanans, and I could not go along with it. I voted to expand the development of housing that people can afford, feed hungry students and families, cut red tape in health insurance and expand access to school-based mental health care.

I cannot and will not support a bill that gives our community pennies worth of funding while the wealthy get huge tax cuts.

However, the work is not done, and I won’t stop fighting. My commitment to you and northern Montana is to keep pushing for common-sense solutions and responsible funding for the challenges we face with every vote I take. Always feel free to reach out to me with your priorities and let me know how I can continue to best represent our community in the Montana House of Representatives. My legislative email address is [email protected], and the capitol switchboard can be reached by phoning 406-444-4800.

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Rep. Paul Tuss, D-Havre, serves Havre and northern Montana in the Montana House of Representatives from House District 28.