Legislature remains deadlocked over budget bills

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Simmering frustration and parliamentary jousting marked yet another day in which Montana lawmakers failed to find a compromise over a budget to guide the state through the next two years.

As the 90-day session draws to a close, the House today voted to dissolve a special committee attempting to patch together a bill that specifies funding for children’s health insurance and education, key points of contention between Democrats and Republicans.

House Bill 676 is the partner bill to the state budget bill, House Bill 2. It provides implementation language needed for appropriating state funds. This bill also contains the amendments from the GOP-controlled Senate cutting House proposals to fully fund the voter-approved Healthy Montana Kids Plan and to finance K-12 schools.

“All the bad things that the Senate did to us are in there,” said House Speaker Bob Bergren, D-Havre.

Bergren said his decision to dissolve the conference committee on HB 676 does not kill the bill itself, because another committee could be appointed. But it was meant as a warning to Senate Republicans, he said.

“Let’s negotiate and go home,” Bergren said. “They’ve wasted four days on me.”

But Senate Republicans said the House’s actions did nothing to quicken the pace of budget negotiations, which have been at a stalemate for days.

“I think that does pose some very serious problems with being able to go on ahead and complete the process,” said Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter and chairman of the Senate's budget committee.

“I think that progress was being made, but I think that the sheer fact that the House has, in essence, taken away one of the tools that we need to solve this problem is unfortunate at this time.”

Funding for children’s health care and K-12 schools have been the major points of contention this session. Republicans say the state does not have enough money to fully implement a voter-approved expansion of a program providing health coverage to some 30,000 uninsured Montana children. Nor does it have enough state money to fund schools at the level Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Democrats want, they say.

Democrats disagree, saying Republicans are ignoring the will of the voters on children's health care and will also lead K-12 schools over a fiscal cliff if it lowers state funding.

At a Thursday morning budget meeting, House Appropriations Chairman Jon Sesso, D-Butte, did not elaborate on the House’s actions, but instead pushed for full funding in both schools and children’s health insurance. He said there is money available, even if it means not meeting the governor’s goal of keeping $250 million in reserve at the end of session.

“There’s no fix in it unless we come to agreement on these two major issues,” Sesso said.

However, Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, said he was “disappointed” in the House’s decision on HB 676, and added that it would not help lawmakers finish their task of creating a state budget by the 90th legislative day.

There will be significant funding changes if HB 676 does not pass. A 2 percent cut across all state agencies put in place by Senate Republicans earlier in the session would be removed. So would the decreases to the base funding for K-12 school districts.

When the GOP lawmakers decided to lower state K-12 funding and backfill the difference with federal stimulus money, they put language into HB 676 to make this move permanent. This would mean the reduction in state funding would be permanent when federal dollars disappear in two years. Without HB 676, the reduction would only apply to this biennium.

HB 676 also allows the state to use money from a special revenue fund to pay for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan. Bergren said this language could be put in the stimulus bill.

The bill also allows Montanans covered by Children’s Health Insurance Plan to use CHIP money for contraception.

As of Thursday afternoon, conference committees took no further action on the nearly $8 billion budget bill or companion legislation to spend nearly $800 million in federal stimulus dollars.

The 2007 Legislature was the first in Montana’s history to finish a 90-day session without fulfilling its principal constitutional duty to create a state budget.