It appears that the largest budget in state history will be written by a small cabal of politicians, not the 150 legislators Montanans elected to represent their specific interests. It's a sorry prospect.
Republicans nominally control the House of Representatives while Democrats have a slight majority in the Senate. The governor is a Democrat. Unable to pass all of their own budget proposals, much less control the outcome, House Republicans have opted to play the role of spoiler. House Republicans have voted largely as a bloc, inspiring their Democratic colleagues to do likewise. In the upper chamber, senators haven't exactly achieved bipartisanship but they have managed to cooperate and compromise beyond strict, party-line voting and are producing budget bills at least resembling the budget the governor proposed. Ultimately, both houses of the Legislature must approve the budget, and GOP leaders in the House are credibly vowing to reject budget bills as passed by the Senate.
Ultimately, this approach probably yields greatest decision-making power to the governor. He has the choice of signing the resulting budget, vetoing it or effectively changing portions of it. If he chooses, Gov. Brian Schweitzer can keep legislators in Helena until they agree to a budget he's willing to sign; divided as they are, there's almost no chance the Legislature could override a gubernatorial veto.
Putting a handful of legislators in charge of wheeling and dealing their way to a budget compromise reduces the ownership any of the 144 other legislators have in the tax-and-spending package, largely neutralizing the power legislators otherwise wield as the people's representatives. This is the established process for resolving some of our thornier political differences, but it's hardly ideal. Throwing the budget into conference committee effectively relegates the vast majority of legislators to quasi-spectators and certainly undermines the public's ability to influence the outcome.
Past Legislatures have argued greatly about budgets. But, reflecting the Montanans who ultimately work out their differences as neighbors, past Legislatures generally have managed to find middle ground on taxing and spending even in the most challenging of circumstances - almost always when more spending meant raising taxes and cutting taxes meant clamping down on spending.
How ironic that this year, when an unprecedented $1 billion surplus has virtually everyone agreeing there's money for tax relief AND increased spending with even more money left over for the future, complete impasse looms over the budget.
|
 |
 |
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)