Gov. Brian Schweitzer has come out of hiding. He’s putting pressure on Montana lawmakers to begin crafting a state budget as only he can – by comparing himself to an off-road vehicle: “I was in 2-wheel drive, and now I have put it in 4-wheel drive. I am going to use the strength of the 4-wheel drive I have in the governor’s office to move things forward.” But to what end?
Legislators are clearly tentative to make any spending decisions until the Obama administration pushes a massive stimulus plan through Congress. Montana, like every other state, is poised to receive billions in federal dollars, which lawmakers say could influence how some state programs get funded. So what’s the big hurry?
Maybe Schweitzer is having a flashback to the last session, when lawmakers skirted their primary responsibility by failing to agree on budget within 90 days. Then, the governor successfully prodded moderate Republicans in a secret meeting to sign off on his spending requests at a special session.
Schweitzer, premature and seemingly out of nowhere, has decided he must save the budget again. To get his point across, he compared lawmakers to cattle.
“When I hear we are going to stall the process, and I hear things that are an irrational basis for why we are stalling, it seems to me we need to get this thing moving along again,” Schweitzer said. “Maybe I’m just giving it a little whistle – get things moving.”
Legislators, even in the governor’s own party, have responded to the posturing with a collective shrug.
Democratic House Speaker Bob Bergren, who leads the evenly split chamber, said he and his colleagues are taking a “calm, cool and in control” approach to the budget. He added that the governor’s approach was “unfortunate.”
“I want to do it (the budget) once, I want to do it right,” Bergren told the Associated Press. “I think we are fine. I just think we don’t need to get into too big a hurry.”
It’s unclear what Schweitzer hopes to accomplish by publicly calling out lawmakers this early in the session. In these rough economic times, legislators won’t dare risk failing to pass a budget on time – again – and be forced to call a taxpayer-funded extension to the session, would they? Not likely.
Maybe Schweitzer is spending some of the political capital he earned by routing Republican opponent Roy Brown in the last election. But, again, to what end? State lawmakers are in the unenviable position of assessing what, if anything, federal stimulus dollars will do for the state’s coffers. And their cautious approach is the right one.
At the same time, there are dozens of spending decisions unlikely to be affected by the economic stimulus before lawmakers, and the prospect of federal dollars should not be allowed to delay the difficult work of setting budgets for prisons, schools and other state agencies. If a few more dollars become available in April for some pressing need, adding some money back into a lean budget will be the easy part.
It’s admirable that Schweitzer is assuming a higher profile. We do need leaders, but also ones that at least provide a perception that steady hands are at the wheel. Instead, with the hasty criticism, Helena appears divided on how to approach its finances.
If it was late March and lawmakers still hadn’t made progress on the budget, then the governor’s urgency would be justified. But for legislators to be patient with the state’s dwindling coffers is prudent. The first federal rescue plan aimed at shoring up banks has been panned for, among other things, being passed too quickly with little oversight.
Schweitzer is the most influential politician in the state and it’s encouraging that we may begin hearing more from him. I just hope he uses his newfound voice for something other than alienating lawmakers.