HELENA — The Montana House came in at 9 a.m. Wednesday for a full day of debate – but there was only one bill on the agenda.
“Glad to be here, and hope everyone is ready for a riveting day of budget talks,” Rep. Jerry Schillinger, R-Circle, joked.
Wednesday was a major milestone, as the House took up House Bill 2 – the biggest bill of the session. It’s the main state budget bill, which lays out more than $16 billion in spending over the next two years.
(Watch the video to hear the debate on House Bill 2.)
Almost eight hours after the debate began, the House gave HB 2 initial approval on a 60-39 vote. It passed with support from both parties, with 36 Republicans and 24 Democrats voting in favor and 21 Republicans and 18 Democrats in opposition.
“This budget, like all budgets, will be too large for some – I hear from them,” said Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, who chaired the House Appropriations Committee that shaped HB 2. “It'll be too small for others – I hear from them. But I think it actually represents a pretty decent negotiated spot.”
Because of its size, HB 2 goes through a different process than any other bill. It’s divided into five sections. Health and human services takes up the largest share – around 44% -- followed by education, natural resources and transportation, general government, and law and justice. One Appropriations subcommittee focuses on each of those sections.
On Wednesday, the House went through the bill section by section, with subcommittee chairs explaining the notable changes. On each section, lawmakers debated possible amendments.
Jones urged lawmakers not to amend the bill on the House floor.
“We are dealing with a bill the size of a book, we're dealing with subcommittee work that was days upon days, and I believe that making these changes on the floor makes this unstable,” he said.
But Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, who brought a number of amendments Wednesday, told House members they should be having these discussions in front of the full chamber.
“You will be voting on each of these amendments, and you will be voting on this budget, and it will be your imprimatur saying that this is an appropriate budget,” he said. “So you're not a potted plant here. You have to exercise your own judgment as to whether this makes sense or not.”
In the end, the House did approve several amendments on Wednesday. They voted to remove $25 million for a contingency fund managed by the governor’s budget office and intended to address recruitment and retention of state employees. State agencies would have had to make a request to the budget director if they needed additional funding to recruit or retain an employee and didn’t have the financial capacity to fund it themselves.
The House also added an additional $1 million to fund seven new Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks positions to support hunter education, and another $400,000 to pay for two new railroad inspectors under the Montana Public Service Commission.
Some of the biggest debates were in the justice budget. Democrats unsuccessfully proposed amendments to increase funding for the Office of the State Public Defender, to restore funding for the state’s pretrial diversion program and to remove $24 million that’s appropriated to pay for holding several hundred Montana inmates at private prisons in Arizona and Mississippi.
Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, said the Legislature should be putting more resources into things like diversion programs and treatment instead of paying to send inmates out of state.
“Last session, we just passed some funding for a much smaller number of beds in Arizona, and we were told that this was a necessary but temporary stopgap measure,” Howell said. “And here we are two years later, with three times the number of beds and twice as many states, even further away, with no end in sight.”
But opponents of the amendment said there still wasn’t another realistic option to deal with Montana’s overcrowded corrections facilities in the short term.
“We are now in a crisis, and there is no place to put these people,” said Rep. Fiona Nave, R-Columbus. “And if we decide that we are not going to fund this, I have to ask, where are you going to stack them? Because you can either put bunk beds in the places that we've got now, or you can put them on the street, which I really don't think is a good idea.”
On the health and human services budget, Mercer and other Republicans attempted several amendments to reduce spending. They included a proposal to cut a 14% increase in reimbursement rates for vocational rehabilitation providers serving people with disabilities, as well as an amendment that would have reduced the budget for Medicaid expansion on the assumption that the state will get a federal waiver and begin implementing community engagement requirements.
Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. She told reporters Wednesday evening that she was pleased with some of the amendments that were added on the floor and with the defeat of the amendments to cut the health and human services budget. Still, she voted against HB 2 on the floor.
“The reason I voted no was the budget started out at a point that doesn't meet the needs of Montanans,” she said.
Caferro said she also remained concerned about the impacts that proposed tax cuts and future federal actions could have on the state budget overall.
There is still a long way to go before the budget is finalized. HB 2 will need to pass a final vote in the House before going over to the Senate. If the Senate makes changes, they’ll return it to the House, and the bill might need to go to a conference committee to iron out any differences.
After Wednesday, there are 26 legislative days left for lawmakers to get their work on the budget done.
