Legislature ends, lawmakers find compromise on budget
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On the last day of the 64th Montana Legislature, leaders in both houses lauded compromises made on the budget and other major pieces of legislation, even though the final measure died in the House after a five-day political standoff.
“Montanans should be proud,” Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock said at a press conference after adjournment. “I am pleased with what we got done.”
Bullock listed off the his priority bills that passed — the Flathead Water Compact, Medicaid expansion and campaign finance reform. Those bills were all carried by Republican senators and passed both houses with the support of Democrats and groups of moderate Republicans.
Sen. Eric Moore, R-Miles City, who didn’t support any of those measures, said they showed who controlled the session.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that Republicans were in the majority, but conservatives were not,” Moore said.
House Speaker Austin Knudsen, R-Culbertson, said that sort of breakdown within the Republican Party has become common, with some Republicans finding they have significant power by joining with Democrats to pass bills.
“It’s something we’ve dealt with every session since I’ve been here,” Knudsen said.
The split was evident when, just before the end, a conservative wing of the House Republicans killed an infrastructure deal negotiated by the governor’s office and House and Senate leaders, ending the last battle of the 64th Montana Legislature.
Senate Bill 416, sponsored by Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, failed its final vote in the House for the fourth time Monday, and a revival effort Tuesday didn’t get the support it needed.
The bill would have spent $150 million on infrastructure projects around the state, including university buildings, a museum and a veterans center. Also included was more than $12 million directly for eastern Montana, where infrastructure has been hit hard by the Bakken oil boom.
But, because the bill borrowed money through bonding — about $100 million — it needed 67 votes in the House, which proved a high mountain to climb. Knudsen, who was involved in the negotiations, said he and others knew that going in.
“We always knew it was a large number,” Knudsen said.
Many who voted against the bill are completely against the state borrowing money, and others opposed how the projects in the bill were prioritized. Two of the top projects in the bill were a renovation of Montana State University’s Romney Hall and a new building for the Montana Historical Society. Knudsen said those projects were “anchors on 416’s neck.”
Negotiations on the bill took place behind closed doors in the final weeks of the session. The final deal hit the House floor for the first time April 23, clearing an initial vote 70-30, a level of support the bill would never see again. It needed to pass a final vote before heading to the Senate for approval. In four tries on separate days, the bill came close, but never cleared the 67-vote hurdle.
“I’m disappointed that a small extreme faction in the House … blocked this proposal,” Bullock said.
Some House members tried to amend the bill to reduce the level of borrowing and add in projects they felt were more important.
Rep. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, pushed to get more funding for schools, noting an elementary school in his district recently had a boiler go out. He said funding some projects meant not funding others, and that he thinks projects for local schools are more important than those prioritized in Senate Bill 416.
“I’m not willing to make that trade off,” Hertz said.
But supporters of the bill weren’t going to make any changes, and an amendment to cut the bonding and prioritize local school projects failed.
Despite Senate Bill 416 going down, the Legislature did pass a group of bills that spends nearly $100 million in projects across the state, including city water system updates, Fish, Wildlife and Parks habitat programs and some university maintenance.
