Gov. Brian Schweitzer and fellow Democrats touted the two-year,
$7.85 billion budget as a badly needed boost for education, health care and other human services, while still managing to return a hefty chunk of the state's $1 billion surplus to taxpayers.
The tax-and-budget package includes a $400-per-homeowner rebate this year, a $15 million-per-year cut in unemployment insurance taxes paid by businesses, and $20 million to $25 million in property tax reductions in about half the state's school districts.
Yet in keeping with their testy track record this year, lawmakers couldn't leave town without some parting blasts of political rancor.
Many Republicans teed off on the budget, calling it an excessive expansion of government that failed to give Montanans any meaningful tax reductions.
“We have squandered a record surplus,” said Rep. Scott Mendenhall, R-Clancy. “We have grown government by record numbers. We have absolutely caved in and given this executive branch - that is, by all accounts, a bully - everything he wants.”
The special session came to a close five working days after it began Thursday, called to Helena by Schweitzer in the wake of an abortive regular session that ended April 27 without the passage of a state budget, tax cuts or school funding.
The House, where Republicans hold a 50-49 majority, approved the major budget bill on a 57-37 vote Tuesday morning, with 11 Republicans joining the 46 Democrats who were present to provide the final margin.
A half-hour later, after the House had adjourned, House Republicans held an unusual caucus meeting where they voted to oust Rep. Michael Lange of Billings as their majority leader.
Those who favored his ouster said they'd lost faith in Lange, who drew national attention for a televised profanity-laced tirade against Schweitzer on April 25.
Some said the move also came from Lange's participation in private meetings 10 days ago, when a dozen House Republicans met with Schweitzer administration officials and crafted tax-and-budget proposals that became the framework for the bills approved by the special session.
Partisan feuding also led to the demise Tuesday of a bill that would have cut property taxes for businesses by about
$15 million a year.
The House adjourned at 9:46 a.m. Tuesday, while the Senate Taxation Committee was still considering that bill and another tax-rebate bill. The early adjournment forced the Democrat-controlled Senate to accept the bills without changes or kill them.
The Senate committee responded by killing the business tax-cut bill. Democrats said they had wanted to amend it to include language cracking down on out-of-state businesses and individuals who don't pay Montana taxes they owe.
That language had been stripped out of the bill by the Republican-controlled House.
Despite some hard feelings on this final day of the session, many lawmakers had good things to say about the budget, which they called a decent compromise that spends money and grants tax relief where it's most needed.
“This is a sensible, sustainable budget,” said Senate Majority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula. “I hope everyone, when we're done, will think hard about the good parts of this budget, and go home feeling good about it when they talk to their constituents.”
Rep. Eve Franklin, D-Great Falls, noted that the budget provides money that will help all corners of Montana, including public schools, asbestosis sufferers in Libby, the mentally ill, students in the university system and parents of disabled children.
“This is a budget that serves every one of our constituents, that serves many, many needs that they cannot do without,” she said.
Republicans who voted for the budget said they weren't wild about it, but that it was something that they could live with - and that it was time for the Legislature to finish its business and go home.
“We have to make choices to stay or go,” said Rep. Edith Clark, R-Sweetgrass, who sponsored the major budget bill. “The time for debate is over. It's time to vote.”
Republicans who opposed it said they were most disappointed that the Legislature failed to provide any widespread, long-term cuts in property taxes.
“All we wanted was permanent property tax relief,” said Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings. “And this is what we get. I'm sorry, I just can't call it a compromise.”
Lawmakers also agreed to a sweeping energy bill that slashes property taxes for new pipelines, power plants, power lines and other projects involved in the production of “clean” energy, such as wind power, solar power and low-emission coal.
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