Halftime in Helena

Senators Lynda Moss of Billings and Mike Cooney of Helena cast votes as the session's first half wound down. (Photo by Alison Smith)

Senate Democrats fume at failure to fund CHIP expansion;
Republicans pleased with efforts to scale back regulations

HELENA – Senator in both parties said Thursday they were pleased with the bipartisanship of the legislative session's first half, but Democrats were upset with Republican actions to block children’s health-care funding.

“This has been a session marked with highs and lows,” said Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula.

Williams said that while the session should be remembered for a positive relationship between the parties, Democrats are “very, very disappointed and angry” at Republicans' refusal to appropriate start-up funds to expand the popular Children’s Health Insurance Plan.

The expansion, approved by voter inititivative in November, would cover thousands of additional Montana children whose parents can't afford health insurace.

“After 70 percent of Montanans voted to (expand) the CHIP program, I was disappointed that the Republicans, in a partisan way on their subcommittee, decided not to fund it,” Williams said. “I think it was irresponsible.”

Republican leaders said the party-line vote to block CHIP funding was merely a rational approach to limit spending in difficult economic times.

“You have to understand we have some financial realities to deal with as well,” said Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo.

Peterson said the money to expand CHIP would have to be taken from other health care programs and the current budget cannot support a new program right now.

“This isn’t permanent,” Peterson said. “It doesn’t mean we won’t look at it in the future.”

Both parties said balancing the budget will be the biggest issue in the next half of the session and that spending millions in one-time federal stimulus dollars should be kept separate from state's regular budget. Party leaders also agreed that the budget process should not be sped up just to accommodate stimulus funds, as Gov. Brian Schweitzer recently requested.

“Things are not just going to happen overnight,” Peterson said, adding that the budget process is especially complex this year with stimulus considerations.

Williams agreed. “Legislators always want to be governors and governors always want to be legislators,” she said. “The governor will get his budget when we’re done with it.”

GOP leaders said they were happy with the progress of natural-resource development bills that passed through the Senate. They said streamlining the permitting and appeals process for projects will create much needed jobs in Montana and help the state take quick advantage of federal money for infrastucture projects.

“To do that we have to get permitting done and we can’t have that money tied up in the extended permitting and appeals process,” said Senate President Robert Story, R-Park City. “I think that’s something everyone in Montana should be concerned about.”

Democrats said the rush to streamline regulations and the permitting process is merely an excuse to unravel the state's landmark environmental laws.

Sen. Mike Cooney, D-Helena, said existing environmental regulations would not slow down “shovel-ready” projects tagged to receive federal stimulus money.

Beyond a backlog in environmental reviews of gravel pits, which would provide materials for projects such as road and bridge building, Cooney said there isn’t a single bottleneck caused by state regulations.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy