The Democratic governor also plugged his proposed ethics ballot measure to prevent state elected officials and their staffs from becoming lobbyists for two years after leaving office.
His hourlong speech to his Cabinet and staff in the ornate governor's reception room was largely a recap of the priorities Schweitzer has pushed since taking office in January 2005 and, for the most part, advocated in his 2004 campaign.
Schweitzer also said he would sponsor a school readiness summit in June so the state can build a better, statewide early childhood education system. Although one solution might be full-day kindergarten, Schweitzer said he wasn't ready yet to make a financial commitment.
He and first lady Nancy Schweitzer, who both have science backgrounds, will launch an initiative to help spark K-12 students' interest in science and math. It will begin with signs along highways pointing out the geological history of areas of the state, he said.
Summing up his speech, Schweitzer said, “The greatest concern we have across Montana is strengthening families.”
Reaction to the speech was mixed.
“It was very short on specifics and not much as far as content goes,” said House Republican Leader Roy Brown of Billings. “A lot of it seems to be Republican issues. We've been promoting job growth in Montana for a long time.”
Jack Copps, spokesman for the Montana Quality Education Coalition, which organized the successful lawsuit challenging the state's school funding, said Schweitzer's comments were mostly “more of the same.”
“We appreciate any initiative that (Schweitzer) puts forward, but what's really important is that schools recover from a decade of underfunding,” Copps said. “We really need to drive some money to schools to restore programs.”
Here were the highlights of the governor's speech, by topic:
Economy and jobs: Schweitzer said 1,700 jobs were created or retained in 2005 through state government assistance. He's shooting for 1,000 this year.
Energy: Schweitzer said he would keep pushing for development of a coal-to-liquid fuels plant in the state. He said he will show off Montana's assets to executives or travel to speak to corporate boards.
“If you don't ask, you're not going to get a date,” Schweitzer said.
Education: Schweitzer noted he had increased ongoing revenue to state K-12 schools by nearly $125 million between the regular and special legislative sessions.
“We're not done yet,” he said.
Brown pooh-poohed as “mostly nothing” Schweitzer's new education initiatives that call for road signs, a conference and the promotion of science.
“If a Republican governor had proposed that, I think there would have been a huge uproar,” he said.
Affordable, accessible health care: Schweitzer said he is committed to getting 2,000 more Montana children covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, which now covers 12,000 kids. He said he would continue to work on the Insure Montana program, passed in 2005, to provide health insurance to small businesses through pooling and tax credits.
Governor touts health insurance subsidy programs
By MIKE DENNISON of the Missoulian State Bureau
HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer offered few new ideas Wednesday in reviewing his plans for 2006.
But under questioning by reporters, he shed a bit more light on his thoughts regarding universal health care, full-day kindergarten, utility prices and other subjects.
Here's a closer look at what the governor said on selected topics:
Universal health care: Schweitzer touted two programs in progress that could help 4,000 to 7,000 people receive government-subsidized health insurance in the coming months, and noted that as many as one-fifth of Montanans - 180,000 people - are without it.
But when asked whether the state should pursue health coverage for all, Schweitzer said no.
“Universal health care, if and when it comes, will have to be nationwide,” he said.
The governor said if Montana created a health plan for all of its residents, people would flock here for coverage and the state would be bankrupted.
A couple of states have debated universal health care plans in recent years, but none has yet to adopt anything.
Schweitzer said it's better for Montana to advance health care coverage in incremental steps.
Full-day kindergarten: Under questioning about additional funding support for schools, the governor said he might consider full-day kindergarten.
Most education experts agree that full-day kindergarten has been shown to improve learning skills for children, he said.
Schweitzer pitched a “school readiness summit” that he's hosting in June and said he and first lady Nancy Schweitzer will promote math and science in schools.
He said the state “will have to invest” some money in school programs and perhaps also “reorder priorities,” but he gave no specifics on the money.
Jack Copps, spokesman for the Montana Quality Education Coalition, the coalition of groups that sued the state over school funding, said full-day kindergarten is a good idea, but that the state must do much more to help “at-risk” children.
“It doesn't address the at-risk students in the system, and that is desperately needed,” Copps said, noting that the high school dropout rate in Montana's larger cities is often 20 percent.
Coal-to-fuels development: Schweitzer, who has relentlessly promoted the idea of a synfuels plant in Montana, said he has met with executives from General Electric Co. and Southern Co. (a giant utility and energy firm in Atlanta), and that they've told him they will have a “proposition” in five months.
However, he said that proposition may be no proposition at all, and that neither company has committed to attempting anything in Montana regarding a plant using coal to manufacture synfuels.
He said he wants industry and government to look to some sort of “public-private partnership” to jump-start use of the technology.
NorthWestern Corp. and utility rates: When asked whether his energy plans would or should lead to lower power or gas prices for Montanans, Schweitzer held forth on his views regarding the future of NorthWestern Corp., the state's largest electric and gas utility.
Until the company is on solid financial footing, it probably won't be able to put together the most affordable energy portfolio for its customers, he said.
NorthWestern emerged from bankruptcy in late 2004 and owns no power plants. It must buy electricity and natural gas on the wholesale market to resell to its customers in Montana.
It has been the target of at least two buyout bids in recent months, and is in the midst of evaluating those and other offers.
As governor, Schweitzer said he'll do all he can to ensure that whoever owns NorthWestern is “someone with broader shoulders and more staying power.”
“I don't want to trade one weakling for another,” he said.
Buy-the-dams initiative: Schweitzer said he sees no reason to back this proposed measure, which would enable the state to condemn and buy hydroelectric dams owned now by PPL Montana.
Voters defeated the same proposal by more than a 2-to-1 margin in 2002, he noted, when PPL and other energy firms outspent initiative supporters 60-to-1.
Supporters of the idea have said they may try again this year.
If the ballot measure goes before voters again, the same result would occur, Schweitzer predicted, with big money winning the day.
He said the efforts to improve Montana's energy situation would be better spent elsewhere.
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