By identical 11-8 votes, the Republicans passed out their six state budget bills - the “six pack” as everyone now calls them - instead of a single spending bill, which Montana had used since 1977.
Although these Republican bills still include some overall spending increases, as a whole they call for spending several hundred million dollars less than what Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer wants.
You can imagine the GOP ads next year: “Republicans wanted to give you back millions of dollars more in tax relief, but not Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the Democrats. They wanted to spend it instead on even more government bureaucrats.”
Democrats' ads can counter: “We gave you tax relief, but we refused to send it to giant out-of-state corporations as Republicans wanted. And we properly funded your schools, froze college tuition and spent enough on prisons to keep dangerous criminals behind bars.”
These House Appropriations Committee votes came after plenty of Democratic indignation, Republican pride and unity, and considerable public confusion mixed with some bizarre political theater. For a reprise, watch the House floor debates starting Wednesday on the six measures, House bills 804 to 809.
House Republicans are convinced their strategy to break the traditional single budget bill into six separate ones - with less money - sent a resonating message to voters.
They also believe it better positions them for later budget negotiations with the Montana Senate and Schweitzer. That's debatable. As one longtime political veteran said, “There are three centers of influence on the budget - the House, the Senate and the governor's office. Democrats hold two of them.”
What's more, no matter which party controls each chamber, the Senate always has the upper hand because it gets the budget after the House.
The Democratic Senate likely will restore most of the money cut by House Republicans and hold firm against cutting it in conference committee.
Schweitzer has the final say. As budget director David Ewer made clear last week, the governor finds the Republican spending levels unacceptable.
“I think the (Schweitzer) administration wants their way, no matter how it's done,” said House Appropriations chairman John Sinrud, R-Bozeman. “They want the whole nine yards. They don't want any compromise.”
Although House Democrats found the GOP budget maneuver revolting, it emboldened and united them against it in a way that made their caucus stronger than it's been in years, veteran legislators said.
Committee Republicans tested the Democrats' resolve by offering amendments to pump millions of dollars back into the budgets for projects in the Democrats' hometowns. Democrats didn't bite.
Democrats grilled Republicans and finally got Sinrud to admit he alone wrote most of the GOP budget bills. They objected repeatedly to the Republican process and accused them of throwing out the comments of more than 1,000 Montanans who spoke before budget subcommittees in January and early February.
“There is a tremendous sense if we participate in a hijacked process that we get our hands tainted, too,” Rep. Eve Franklin, D-Great Falls, said. She said the process is critical in shaping the final product - the state budget.
Schweitzer's decision to basically not acknowledge the six Republican bills and to have his budget director and department directors criticize them as inadequate left the governor and his team feeling good, even though the bills passed.
Speaking to a House Democratic caucus Friday, Schweitzer said he wanted to identify some people “that I think are rock stars” and asked each of the nine Democrats on the Appropriations Committee to stand up. Each drew prolonged applause from the other Democrats. Schweitzer praised them for standing on principle for the issues important for the families and communities of Montana and standing up to “the Legislature of one,” referring to Sinrud.
The six bills' fate before the full House this week is uncertain.
Will all 50 House Republicans support them? Probably, but it's no slam dunk. Are all 49 Democrats certain to oppose them? Count on it.
That leaves Rep. Rick Jore, the Legislature's lone Constitution Party member, playing the critical role. Jore has said he finds even the proposed GOP spending levels “insulting” to Montanans. If he joins Democrats in voting no, the bills will die on a 50-50 vote. Republicans have said they will trim their budget bills as much as necessary to win Jore's votes.
Amid all the political fury over what process and how many budget bills there should be, one witness had to remind the panel about what really counts.
“It doesn't matter to me whether we have one bill or six bills,” said Linda Stoll, a lobbyist for local agencies that help the elderly. “What is important is what's in the bills.”
The House will decide on those very budget numbers this week.
Charles S. Johnson is chief of the Missoulian State Bureau in Helena. He can be reached at (800) 525-4920 or (406) 443-4920. His e-mail address is chuck.johnson@lee.net.
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