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:
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.
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.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)