Earlier this month, Gov. Brian Schweitzer used his line item veto power to cancel several programs in House Bill 645, the Montana stimulus bill. The programs eliminated by the stroke of his pen were important to many people. One helped out first-time home buyers, one provided funds to purchase much-needed equipment for our Experiment Stations, another protected our children from the ravages of methamphetamine, and so it goes.
The governor also vetoed language that would have put the funds freed up by his actions on the aforementioned programs to good use in our cities, counties, schools, and reservations for shovel-ready infrastructure projects. This money now will remain in the state treasury sitting there to be used by the governor in his next budget. That was certainly not the Legislature’s intention, nor do we believe it was the intention of President Obama. We tried to ensure that all those millions of dollars could be out on the ground providing jobs for local people and building projects that are much needed in local communities. In crafting the budget, the Legislature set aside an extraordinarily large state savings account. Apparently, it is more important to have even more money in a Helena savings account than it is to have in our communities working for average Montanans.
Had we in the Legislature ruled the day, the six counties in southcentral Montana would have received in the next few weeks an extra $1.7 to $1.8 million dollars to put their citizens back to work. That’s real money that would have been invested in the infrastructure of our cities, schools and counties. That’s money that would have saved the local taxpayers from an increasing tax burden. In this economy, with its wholesale layoffs and high unemployment, that’s money and jobs that some of our working families desperately needed. We think we had it right when we passed the bill. We bet our cash-strapped local officials and jobless constituents think so too. We’re sorry the governor chose to ignore the needs that seem so obvious to us.
The governor’s budget priorities in the waning days of the recent session were to garner more funds for the Department of Revenue, the Department of Environmental Quality and the governor’s office. That’s it: more tax collectors, more environmental regulators and more money for his staff. If the original projects designated by the Legislature were not worthy of the governor’s support surely this money would have been put to better use by our local governments and schools than to keep it in the bank to fund more bureaucrats for the above state agencies. All during the debate and construction of HB 645 the executive branch told the Legislature that the money in HB 645 was stimulus money, that it would have be used in the same way federal stimulus money was to be used, that it would have to be accounted for by the same federal standards, and it could not be used as savings. It appears that now the Legislature is no longer in a position to contradict the wishes of the governor the rules have changed. We don’t think it’s been a change for the better.
Bob Story is the Montana state Senate president and John Esp and Dan McGee are Republican state senators.