“We're not holding the line on spending,” said Senate Minority Leader Corey Stapleton, R-Billings, during debate on the session's largest spending bill. “I don't know how we can get to any sort of compromise (on tax relief) in the next 13 days unless we take drastic measures.”
By the day's end, senators had added a few million dollars more to House Bill 820, which already was at least $16 million more than proposed by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer for state spending the next two years.
David Ewer, the governor's budget director, also reiterated Thursday that the governor does not want to exceed $1.8 billion in state spending for 2009, which is the second year of the two-year budget period covered by HB820 and other spending bills.
“We're not joking about this; we're absolutely serious,” he said. “We strongly encourage the Legislature to show some fiscal discipline.”
Yet the Senate's top Democrat, President Mike Cooney of Helena, said it's a little early to be pushing the panic button. The Senate hasn't finished its work on several other spending bills, and much of the money added Thursday is for programs that are in separate bills that may get killed in the coming days.
The Senate also took an unusual action late Thursday that may create a backup plan for tax relief.
The Senate voted to suspend its rules to accept a late House bill that includes property tax-related rebates: House Bill 833, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Stahl, R-Saco.
When asked why the Senate would accept the bill at this late hour, Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, the chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, replied: “The bill has a broad title that we could use if we need to, to provide some tax relief.”
But for most of the day, the Senate was voting on whether to add spending to HB820, the session's primary budget bill.
Among other things, senators voted to add $500,000 for agricultural experiment stations, $1.2 million to expand the Children's Health Insurance Plan and $400,000 to pay for uninsured teenage girls to get a vaccine that can prevents cervical cancer.
Some of the attempts to spend more money were shot down, and some moves to reduce spending in the budget succeeded, including one by Cooney to reduce an increase in state funding for community colleges by $1.4 million.
At one point during the debate, a frustrated Stapleton stood up to complain, saying it appeared Democrats were insincere in their promises to support some tax relief.
“I thought we were going to hold the line,” he said. “I thought there was an agreement that we would resist these amendments. I have seen nothing. It's deeply disappointing. We're way, way over and there is no end in sight.”
That prompted a response from Sen. Kim Gillan, D-Billings, who said it's every senator's right to attempt to amend the budget bill on behalf of their constituents, and that other senators can choose to vote for or against those motions.
“This is the place where every one of us has our chance to put our fingerprints on the budget, and I'm not going to give that up,” she said.
Cooney also pointed out that some of the motions to increase spending came from Republicans: “Perhaps we all have to plead a little guilty.”
The long day ended with an emotional, drawn-out debate on whether to remove $1 million that had been added a day earlier, to buy a piece of property near Culbertson in northeastern Montana for use as a state park.
Sen. Larry Jent, D-Bozeman, said state park officials could negotiate on their own for the property and don't need a special amount of money set aside.
Sen. Sam Kitzenberg, D-Glasgow, who successfully put the money into the budget bill on Wednesday, argued strenuously against the removal, but to no avail. Jent's motion to strike the money passed 30-20.
|
 |
 |
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)