“This is outrageous, but it's what we've come to expect from Governor Schweitzer's administration - spend first and think about the consequences later,” said Brown, a senator from Billings, in a news release. “What Montanans should be worried about is that this is the tip of the iceberg. This doesn't include currently authorized programs or the base, and it doesn't include any pay raise for state employees or any long-range building.”
Brown's news release erroneously said all the
In fact, new spending requests from the independent judicial branch and other state elected officials not under Schweitzer's control made up $235 million or 57 percent of the $413 million total spending requests, Lee Newspapers State Bureau reported Tuesday. The largest request came from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch for new K-12 school funding.
When Brown was informed of the error in the news release, he said in an interview, “But it's still an increase.”
“He's still saying he doesn't have money for schools, but his department people are saying they need all these new people and money,” Brown said of Schweitzer.
Brown said state government under Schweitzer “is getting bigger and spending is growing bigger, and that's on top of the huge spending increases the last four years.” If revenues don't keep up with the budget increases, Brown predicted there will be calls for tax increases.
In response, Harper Lawson, Schweitzer's campaign manager, questioned Brown's calculations and understanding of the budget process.
“Roy Brown is making up facts and figure faster than the snow is melting in the high country,” Lawson said. “And his latest attack is no different. Clearly, Mr. Brown is not that good with numbers.”
Lawson accused Brown of “attacking a budget that does not exist.”
“He's attacking a wish list, half of which the governor's office has no control over whatsoever,” Lawson said.
David Ewer, Schweitzer's budget director, said Monday that these wish lists represent only the first step in the long budget process that concludes when the 2009 Legislature passes a budget and the governor signs it into law. These wish lists are certain to be trimmed back as Schweitzer sets his budget priorities and submits his proposed budget Nov. 15.
“When it comes to an analysis of how state government is being fiscally managed, who are you going to believe?” Lawson asked. “Someone like Roy Brown who is desperately running for governor, or all three major bond rating services that rate all the corporations and governments in the world - bond rating services that have all raised Montana's official bond ratings for the first time in 26 years because of the state's good fiscal management and strong economic growth.”
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