The GOP budget plan, unveiled in a midday ceremony, raises state spending about 7 percent per year over the next two years, House leaders said. They said it stands as a reasonable alternative to an estimated 22 percent spending increase in the governor's proposal.
''There are no cuts,'' Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, said of the GOP offering. ''Every budget (area) gets an increase in spending.''
''These matters are not a game. They are the fundamental business of the people,'' said House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls.
The GOP unveiled its six budget bills less than a week after an unprecedented move to kill the governor's budget proposal. Lawmakers normally refashion the executive offering, rather than write a new one.
''Today is a day of historical significance,'' House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, said.
Shortly before the GOP's budget press conference, a House committee endorsed a $400 million Republican plan to cut property taxes and replace local taxes for schools with state money - over Democratic objections that the state does not have the resources to sustain the proposals.
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