HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Wednesday that he plans to cut $6 million from the state budget by canceling some planned building projects, the latest move as he shaves the edges of state spending.
Projects canceled with Wednesday’s move include expanded food services at the state prison, a public assistance building in Wolf Point, planning for some statewide building projects and repairs at the state Capitol.
“These are places we have been hunting and pecking in state government to see where we could save money,” Schweitzer said.
The governor said the goal, as in other cuts, is to look for things that can be ditched without affecting the delivery of government services.
Schweitzer said cuts so far total more than $30 million and include relatively small items like axing the printed edition of the state government directory and larger items like banking $2 million earmarked for wildfire equipment and projects.
The projected budget surplus for mid-2011 was recently estimated at fewer than $17 million. Schweitzer has separately asked executive branch directors for proposals to cut their budgets up to 5 percent — a potentially far larger cut than the smaller ones announced so far.
Other building projects canceled Wednesday include a youth transition center in Great Falls and an auto tech center at Montana State University-Northern.
Even though Schweitzer is cutting the projects out of the budget period that ends in the middle of 2011, the governor said he does not plan to include them in his proposed spending plan for the following biennium.
The governor also said Wednesday that he is looking at all ideas, including a four-day work week at some government agencies.
All of it signals an intent to keep a balanced budget without raising taxes, he said.
“The object is to continue to deliver the same services but to do it with less money,” Schweitzer said. “I don’t want to raise taxes. I want more dollars in the pockets of Montanans.”