Practically seething with anger, budget director David Ewer told the House Appropriations Committee that the administration opposes all six Republican budget bills and implored members to return to Schweitzer’s traditional single budget measure.
Republicans, who control the House by a 50-49 margin over Democrats, with one Constitution Party member, tabled Schweitzer’s bill last month and emphatically rejected Democrats’ plea last week to revive it.
The first bill of the six up for hearing was HB805 by Rep. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek, and covered the departments of Natural Resources and Conservation, Environmental Quality, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Agriculture, Livestock and Commerce.
“We oppose it on its content, its legality and its process,” Ewer said.
The legal question arises because the six Republican budget bills may include substantive law, which Ewer said is prohibited from being put into budget measures that must pass.
Ewer said the contrast between the Schweitzer budget bill and the GOP spending bills “could not be sharper and could not be clearer.”
“The governor’s budget, HB2, cleans up the mess we inherited and puts Montana in the right direction,” Ewer said.
Defending the process, Ripley said: “This is a political process that gets ugly at times. I’ve tried to take the politics out of this. The confrontation is not going to benefit anybody or any side or (anybody’s) re-election.”
Tension filled the air as Ewer, followed one-by-one by the director of each of the departments covered by HB805, stood up against the bill. Most warned of the dire consequences for Montanans of passing the measure.
Environmental Quality director Richard Opper warned that the revised budget would delay the time it takes for his agency to approve environmental permits for energy and residential projects.
“This bill is bad for business in Montana,” he said, calling the bill “a giant step backward.”
Mary Sexton, Natural Resources and Conservation director, said she likely would have to cut 10 to 12 water adjudication staff members if the budget passes, slowing down the process to quantify the water rights claimed by Montana individuals, farmers and ranchers and businesses.
“That would hurt all Montanans,” she said.
Commerce director Tony Preite pleaded with the committee to restore the job-training money cut by Republican leaders. Schweitzer proposed the agency get
$8 million for the program over the next two years, an amount halved by the GOP plan.
“This cut will have devastating results,” he said.
Dick King, president of Missoula Area Economic Development Corp., told how the job-training money played a critical role in Missoula landing DirecTV, which created 840 “quality jobs” with good benefits.
Republican legislators grilled Schweitzer administration directors over their dire predictions.
“It sounds as if the state is going to crash if we don’t fund this budget and the executive’s request,” Rep. Jack Wells, R-Bozeman, told Sexton. “Overall, this budget is a dramatic increase over your last fiscal year.”
Sexton replied that the budget numbers were inflated by one-time spending, such as budgeting $5 million for firefighting and for the purchase of a helicopter. Firefighting costs traditionally have been paid for by supplemental budgets after the fires occurred.
“Other programs are going to have to suffer substantially,” she said.
Ripley pooh-poohed the directors’ gloom-and-doom talk, although he said he would seek to add more money to the Commerce Department budget.
“The important thing to remember is the sky is not falling,” Ripley said. “Every single agency receives an increase in FTE (full-time equivalent employees) and dollars.”
He acknowledged there is “a profound difference in philosophy” between Republicans and Schweitzer over the budget proposals.
“Hopefully, we’ll set politics aside and the game-playing of today will end and is not beginning,” Ripley said.
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