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Bullock Pushes Build Montana Act in Kalispell

Republicans have proposed their own version of the infrastructure plan that splits it into seven different bills

By Justin Franz
Beacon file photo

Gov. Steve Bullock said that a Republican plan to divide the Build Montana Act into smaller pieces would mean many projects, including some in the Flathead Valley, would go undone.

Bullock was in Kalispell Tuesday morning meeting with local school superintendents to promote House Bill 5, a nearly $400 million infrastructure bill that is working its way through the Legislature. The governor maintains the legislation would create thousands of jobs while repairing the state’s crumbling infrastructure, especially schools.

But Republicans have said the bill is too big and full of frivolous spending. House Republicans have split up the Build Montana Act into seven separate bills and have rejected most of the governor’s proposed bonding.

“These funding bills will receive individual, fair hearings, giving Montana’s most critical infrastructure projects the best chance at being funded,” said Eureka Rep. Mike Cuffe.

According to Bullock, about $32 million in the bill would go toward education projects, $19 million of which would be paid for in bonds and $12 million in cash. Dillon Republican Rep. Jeff Welborn introduced the bill earlier this year.

Bullock challenged Republicans to find projects within the Build Montana Act that were frivolous. He also said if opponents have issues with some projects within the bill then they should remove those specific projects instead of breaking up the entire legislation.

“Some members of the Legislature have said there is pork in this bill, but I don’t think removing asbestos from schools is a pork project,” Bullock said.

Last year local governments across the state submitted grant applications for priority projects and every one that met a certain criteria was approved. In the Kalispell area that includes adding classrooms and removing asbestos at Fair-Mont-Egan School and replacing aging steam heating boilers at all of Kalispell’s elementary schools.

West Valley Elementary School has applied for money to outfit its kitchen so it can provide students with breakfast and lunches on site. Superintendent Cal Ketchumn said a staff member drives 32 miles every day to bring prepared lunches from Evergreen Elementary School to West Valley and then returns all of the trays at the end of the day.

“Academics can’t happen without nutrition,” he said. “If the students are eating better then they’ll do better in school.”

The projects outlined at the roundtable discussion were only a few of the hundreds of upgrades Montana’s schools need, according to the Montana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineering. In late 2014, the group gave Montana’s infrastructure a C-minus in its state report card. Schools received the lowest grade with a D-minus, in part because 68 percent of the state’s education facilities were built before 1970 and 66 percent of them showed signs of damage and wear. The report found that the state would need to spend more than $900 million to repair all of its schools.

In January, one of the authors of the 2014 report card, Melissa Matassa-Stone, said the Build Montana Act set a foundation for the state to address its infrastructure needs but it was far short of what is needed to repair everything.

On Feb. 10, Bullock said it would be impossible for the state to address all of its infrastructure needs. He said that in the coming years, if the state was still in a fiscally sound position, then it should consider more infrastructure improvements.

“When we have record low interest rates and we have the fiscal ability (to get these projects done) then we should do that,” Bullock said. “These are meaningful investments that will help us today and into the future.”