Lange told reporters of his plan the day before the Montana House begins debating a half-dozen Republican-written budget bills, starting what figure to be several politically contentious days at the Legislature.
And in another new twist to the increasingly bitter budget fight, House GOP leaders decided Tuesday to create two additional bills, bringing to eight the number of separate spending bills outlining the state's 2008-09 budget.
The reason for the two new bills, Lange said, is a fear that the title of House Bill 804 wasn't written tightly enough. GOP leaders feared Senate Democrats would take advantage of that possible loophole to stuff the separate budget bills into a single measure.
The two new bills will be heard in committee on Friday and sent to the House floor for debate on Saturday, GOP leaders said.
Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Democratic legislative leaders have demanded that Republicans scrap the multi-budget bill approach and return to the traditional, single budget bill the state has used for the past 30 years.
The priority for House Republicans, however, is to get their now-eight bills through the narrowly split House and before the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Republicans hold a 50-49 majority in the House. Democrats appear poised to vote as a bloc against the measures, meaning all 50 Republicans and Rep. Rick Jore, the Constitution Party member from Ronan, will have to vote for the bills to advance them to the Senate.
Jore has said he believes it's unconstitutional for the state to take any federal money for human service and education programs.
Lange said Tuesday he'll propose deleting the full $2 billion in federal money for health and human services to woo the vote of Jore.
The $2 billion represents two-thirds of the entire budget for the Department of Public Health and Human Services over the next two years. The federal funds make up large percentages of the funding for programs that serve tens of thousands of Montanans, including food stamps, energy assistance, Medicaid, mental health and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Lange also said there will be one amendment to restore $14 million to the human services budget, to attempt to persuade Democrats to support it.
“We'll give Democrats one shot on that bill,” Lange said.
If the Democrats won't give Republicans their votes on the human services budget, Lange said he is prepared to make the big cut.
“We'll knock it down exactly where we need to be to get it where (Jore) wants,” said Lange, R-Billings.
Lange admitted he doesn't favor cutting the federal money from health and human services. He described his motion as “procedural only” to win Jore's vote, and said he has asked some senators from both parties to restore the deleted $2 billion.
“It would be devastating to the people of Montana,” said Schweitzer's budget director, David Ewer. “We'd lose our Medicaid program, and we'd lose our CHIP program.”
Ewer said he's glad that Social Security payments don't go through the state of Montana “because I guess those would be in jeopardy as well.” He called on Lange to “stop these ridiculous maneuvers and work from his convictions.”
House Democratic Minority Leader John Parker of Great Falls was unaware of Lange's planned $2 billion cut.
“I don't take anything for granted here,” Parker said. “We'll watch and wait.”
He criticized Republicans for creating two more budget bills, saying he found out about it after it happened.
“With the razor-thin margins in the Legislature, nothing will happen without cooperation,” Parker said. “We're being dealt new surprises every day.”
House Democrats “are strongly concerned about the fragmented budget bills because they raise a serious risk to future litigation,” Parker said. Democrats have argued that the Montana Constitution forbids general appropriations bills from having statutory changes in them - as the GOP six-pack of bills had.
Jore, meanwhile, was noncommittal about how he will vote, but certain about one thing: “These bills will have to be significantly reduced on an overall basis for me to even consider voting for them.”
He said he won't vote for the bills unless their combined overall increase is less than 5 percent for the next two years.
As amended by the House Appropriations Committee last week, the six GOP budget bills proposed $360.9 million in general fund spending increases - or 13.8 percent - over the next two years, according to a summary by the Legislative Fiscal Division.
For the all-funds budget, which includes federal funds, the six bills propose a $717.3 million, or 10.4 percent, increase over the next two years.
Republicans plan to break HB804 into three bills, with one covering the legislative budget, one budgeting for the judiciary, and the third spending money on the governor's office and several departments.
Highlights of state budget proposals
HELENA - Here are some the highlights of the budgets in bills that the Montana House will debate starting Wednesday and continuing through Saturday.
The information is based on reports from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Division and Gov. Brian Schweitzer's Office of Budget and Program Planning that compare where the current budgets by agency are with what Schweitzer proposed, what bipartisan House-Senate subcommittees recommended and what the House Appropriations Committee decided.
Overall, the House Appropriations Committee's budget recommendations are still proposed increases in spending, but less than those in the budget suggested by Schweitzer and modified by the subcommittees. By bill, they are:
House Bill 804: This covers general government and transportation budgets. House Republicans plan to split this bill into three separate parts. One would cover the legislative branch, one for the judicial branch and one for the governor's office and the departments of Administration, Revenue and Transportation.
Department of Revenue: The Revenue Department's revised budget is $21.3 million less than what Schweitzer sought. Proposals to add 72 full-time employees in fiscal 2008 and 86.5 employees in fiscal 2009 were rejected. These additional employees were sought to provide more aggressive tax compliance audits and collections, more lawyers, and geographical information system analysis to finish property tax reappraisals of agricultural and forest lands. The committee also didn't fund a requested $6.5 million proposal for Montanans to file their taxes electronically for free. The agency also didn't get all the money it requested for support of the department's computer system.
Department of Transportation: The House Appropriations Committee cut to $1 million the $3 million request that the joint appropriations subcommittee had approved to fund litigation before or against the U.S. Surface Transportation Board over monopoly freight rates in Montana.
Judiciary: This branch saw its personal services budget cut by $1 million.
Office of Public Defender: The House Appropriations Committee cut the program, created by the 2005 Legislature, by $7.4 million, which managers said may result in closing offices, laying off staff and providing fewer public services.
House Bill 805: This covers natural resources and commerce.
Department of Commerce: The department's budget is $8.6 million less than what its subcommittee recommended and $11.6 million less than what Schweitzer requested. A job training program for new workers was cut in half to $2 million and one for tribal economic development was also cut to $2 million, one-fourth of its original amount.
n Department of Environmental Quality: The bill calls for spending $20.6 million less than what Schweitzer proposed, including trimming requested personnel costs by $2.2 million. The Appropriations Committee eliminated the $1.5 million an “orphan share” used to reimburse remedial action costs for contaminated sites.
House Bill 806: This covers public safety and corrections.
Department of Justice: The committee cut $3 million that had been requested to be spent on a water lawsuit against Wyoming.
Department of Corrections: The agency's budget is nearly $30 million lower than Schweitzer requested, primarily because the bill assumes a 4 percent prison population growth rate, while the department had predicted a 7.5 percent growth rate. The governor's budget office said the Appropriations Committee's reductions of Schweitzer's requested increases could leave the Corrections Department short 673 secure and community placement beds for prisoners. A request for more probation and parole officers to meet rising caseloads was cut nearly in half. The governor's budget office said the state corrections system would have to be capped to allow the department “to operate with funding levels in HB808 or a supplemental appropriation would be needed, and more likely before the next session, thus requiring a special (legislative) session.” Under the current funding level, the office said, the “public, staff and inmate safety would be at great risk.”
House Bill 807: Higher Education.
Montana university system: The College Affordability Plan by Schweitzer and the Board of Regents to freeze tuition for Montana resident students for the next two years remains intact. The subcommittee cut the credit transferability and student data system by a third to $1 million. The panel added $3 million for the Great Falls College of Technology construction trades building, although another panel also added the same amount of money.
House Bill 808: Public Health and Human Services.
The Department of Public Health and Human Services: Its budget is $20 million less than what Schweitzer requested because of a $41.2 million decrease that included Medicaid and foster care caseload adjustments worth $9.6 million and exclusion of the governor's proposed Secure Treatment Examination Program for mentally ill people incarcerated at the state prison and state hospital for $4.1 million. In addition, there were reductions of $6.1 million in the money sought for mental health and chemical dependency programs. These reductions, the Legislative Fiscal Division said, were offset by $17.2 million to expand mental health services, increase the pay for direct-care workers and adjust for provider rate increases.
House Bill 809: K-12 and other education.
Office of Public Instruction and K-12 schools: The budget bill is $103 million less than what OPI had requested and doesn't include funding for all-day kindergarten ($25.1 million) or increases in quality educator payments ($18.7 million). The Indian Education for All, Indian Achievement Gap and Indian history projects faced $1.8 million in reduced funding. Also unfunded were curriculum specialists for $1.8 million.
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