More than budget battle disturbing to Wanzenreid
Wanzenreid said Friday he has seen a serious drop-off in public participation at the Legislature.
While some of that may be technologically driven - people are watching video of the Legislature in action rather than driving to Helena to sit in the gallery and using e-mail for contact more than the telephone - Wanzenreid is concerned that some of it could be growing apathy or cynicism toward government.
Wanzenreid thinks the situation is “very dangerous” and opens the Legislature up for criticism that’s “well founded.”
He says the Legislature needs to find a way to convince the public that members do listen and take citizen input very seriously.
Wanzenreid understands how busy people are and how tough it is to drive to Helena to testify or observe. But he misses the interaction that phone calls bring.
“An e-mail is okay,” he said, “but it only goes as far as the keystrokes … the sender wants to put in. And I think it’s important that they tell us … exactly how they feel but maybe set aside a moment for us to call them back.”
Wanzenreid said one of the biggest mistake citizens can make is to assume that all of the legislators know and understand everything they’re dealing with.
“Send us that information,” he pleaded.
Wanzenreid was pleased with the turnout for initial testimony on House Bill 2, the governor’s budget proposal, saying about 1,100 people showed up. But he’s concerned all that testimony is simply being thrown out through the introduction of six separate budget bills by a number of Republicans.
“That reinforces a lot of cynicism on the part of the public,” he said, “and I feel we have a responsibility not only to do our job and do it well, but to do it in a way that the public understands and feels it can participate in.”
As for the atmosphere at the 2007 session Wanzenreid sees it as being “collegial” in the Senate where he believes they’ve been doing a good job of considering legislation and forwarding items to the House.
But he senses the House is “rife with partisanship,” adding that the situation “doesn’t serve the public well.”
Wanzenreid thinks some Republicans are following through on their threat to “kick the governor in his teeth with his budget,” and as a result have created a lot of uncertainty not only in the Legislature but among the general public.
What he’s hoping is that, by two weeks into the second half of the session, Republicans will lose the “hijinx” and “gimmicks” and focus on the work that needs to be done. If that happens, Wanzenreid thinks the Legislature’s grade could improve from a C- to a B.
Wanzenreid believes it’s a relatively small number of House Republicans stirring the pot and that many Republicans in Helena are concerned about the direction things have gone relating to consideration of the budget.
But they are treading on thin ice because their leadership has some leverage on them as well.
“It’s extraordinarily difficult to get things done under the best of circumstances,” Wanzenreid explained, “and really what I think is being created here is the worst of circumstances.”
He referred to the situation as a system that isn’t broken being tinkered with in a way that doesn’t serve the public at all, and the public - after all - is the employer of the legislators.
Wanzenreid plans to encourage House Republicans - in a positive way - to dump the six-bill budget idea and return to deliberations on the governor’s proposed budget, something that was developed over about a one-year period.
He suggests that - if they think they can do better - they should do it with a single bill of their own.
“If they can’t do that I think it’s irresponsible for us to proceed with six bills,” he said.
While there may be other issues of importance out there - the death penalty and mandatory seat belt use for example - Wanzenreid thinks the budget will dominate the second half of the session. Both houses will send “junk bills” to the other that will be killed, but the focus will inevitably come back to the budget.
Highlights of the first half for Wanzenreid included approving all-day kindergarten and improving the Children’s Health Insurance Plan so more low-income families have access to health care.
While Wanzenreid said he probably wouldn’t be able to serve if the Legislature met annually he does believe it would be a good move to have that happen, with one year devoted strictly to the budget and the other devoted to both statutes and the budget.
He also thinks it would give Legislators a chance to better understand the issues.
Click here to listen to Bill Schwanke's complete interview with Dave Wanzenreid.
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