Demos protest GOP cuts in children's health plan

By MOLLY PRIDDY
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

HELENA – Democratic lawmakers went on the offensive Monday, blasting Senate Republicans who recommended cuts last week in proposed funding for the voter-approved expansion of state-funded children’s health care.

“This is a travesty,” said Sen. David Wanzenried, D-Missoula. “I’m outraged about this.”

In a press conference held on the rotunda steps, 25 members of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, led by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, lambasted the GOP decisions to cut government services during a recession.

“These are irresponsible and cowardly actions,” Kaufmann said. “Will we choose pavement over peoples’ lives?”

The decision to cut the expansion for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan came late Friday night as the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee recommended cutting $120 million out of the state budget bill, House Bill 2.

Of that savings, $50 million would come from scaling back the Healthy Montana Kids Plan, according to Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena.

Lewis said expanding any program during a recession is dangerous for state finances, even if the federal government promises to match the state’s dollars, as it does in the children’s health insurance program.

“You still have to have the match,” Lewis said during the budget hearing. “You can go broke at a clearance sale.”

The health care expansion has been a contentious issue this session. After being approved by more than 70 percent of voters in November, the Legislature needed to grant funding authority before the program could expand to cover an estimated 30,000 uninsured Montana children.

However, Republicans in both the House and Senate have said the state can’t afford to expand that program during this economic crisis. They also said voters in November didn’t know the expansion’s true costs.

Democrats disagreed.

“Republicans said we didn’t know what we were voting for,” Kaufmann said. “Yeah, right.”

Wanzenried said that because state-funded health insurance is one of benefits of being a legislator, maybe those perks should be reduced as well.

“Half of the people in the Legislature who oppose funding it should give (up their insurance), don’t you think?” Wanzenried said.

But Senate Finance and Claims Chairman Keith Bales, R-Otter, said the budget decisions were not cuts but actually reduced increases.

“We think that it is important that the state not spend more than they’re taking in during the biennium,” Bales said. “In this time when we are faced with problems on funding, we thought it would be prudent to phase (Healthy Montana Kids) in.”

Bales also said he believes the reductions do reflect the views of the voters today. He said Montanans were more optimistic about the economy in November than they are in today’s recession. He also said he was confident the reduced expansion will still help children in need.

“If a person gets laid off or has trouble, their children will automatically qualify for CHIP,” Bales said. “The people that do need health insurance for their children will get health insurance for their children.”

As approved by voters, the expansion would have offered health coverage for children whose parents earned 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $50,000 for a family of four. Bales said that providing state-funded health insurance for families making $50,000 is not a priority.

The Senate amendments in HB 2 still expand the Children’s Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid, but only for those who earn 200 percent of poverty level.

In addition to recommending cuts in CHIP, Bales’ committee also voted to reduce state spending by 2 percent across the board for state agencies and use more one-time stimulus money to fund education.

Senate Republicans look to trim House budget

HELENA –The House had barely approved its $8.1 billion version of the state budget yesterday when key Senate Republican leaders began talking about ways to cut it.

“(The budget) is not structurally balanced,” said Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter and chairman of the powerful Senate Finance and Claims Committee. “It was my hope it would’ve come out of there more balanced.”

Bales, whose committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the budget next week, said the House budget doesn’t account for about $41 million in project revenue shortfalls. The money will have to be cut from somewhere, he added.

“It will come from multiple places,” Bales said. “There is not one place that we can easily reach out and grab that money.”

Bales said Senate Republicans don’t have specific plans for budget cuts but he has a few ideas of his own. He said the committee will consider trimming the base funding for education, human services, corrections and general government. That would help the next Legislature build a balanced budget if revenues don’t improve.

“I certainly do not want to build government in the face of a recession,” he said.

Bales said he expects cuts across the board, but that it is premature to talk about specific cuts when he hasn’t vetted his ideas yet.

However, his vice chairman, Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, said he wants to consider cutting $35 million in funding for the Healthy Montana Kids Plan, a voter-approved plan to offer health insurance to some 30,000 uninsured children.

Republicans tried but failed to cut that money earlier in the House. Lewis said he would like to remove it again because implementing any large new program right now is a bad decision.

“I’m not done looking at it,” Lewis said. “I’ll be bringing it up again.”

Lewis also said he would like to spread some of the stimulus money for infrastructure projects to rural areas. “I think there’s a concentration in the highly populated areas,” Lewis said.

Both Lewis and Bales said the Legislature needs to get the stimulus money out to Montanans quickly to create jobs and help right the economy.

However, Lewis also conceded that any budget decisions the GOP-controlled Senate makes will have to be made without alienating the Democratic administration.

“We’ve always got to be thinking of how we can package this so the governor will sign it,” Lewis said.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy

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