GOP sounds alarm over spending cap

Keeping the state budget in line with a statutory spending limit is a task that probably won't happen in the Montana House of Representatives, say Republican legislators.

But it will happen before the legislative session is finished, said House Democratic Leader Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula.

Some Republicans think Democrats have engineered a fiscal "train wreck," with current spending plans for $122 million more than allowed by a 1981 law that limits how much spending can grow. They also point to bills that have yet to be considered in the House Appropriations committee that contain an additional $87 million in potential spending.

But Wanzenried insists that state spending will eventually be cut back to comply with the spending cap.

"I'm confident that cuts are going to be made and they're going to be made in areas where we can find consensus," Wanzenried said. "Before we leave here, we will not exceed the expenditure limitation."

Rep. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, is not so confident that will happene.

Jackson sits on the House Appropriations Committee, where Republicans and Democrats were deadlocked 10-10 this week on approving the Legislature's major spending bill, House Bill 2.

Jackson said Republicans submitted 15 amendments aimed at reducing spending in the bill, but all were stalled with 10 Democrats opposing them. Some of the amendments were proposed by Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration and some trimmed spending by small amounts, but they were still rejected, Jackson said.

"It's very obvious that we're not going to be able to take any money out of it," Jackson said of Republicans' efforts to trim House Bill 2 in committee. "It's not our job to balance the budget, as Republicans, but I guess out of force of habit, we were trying to do that."

With control of the governor's office and a 27-23 majority in the Senate, Democrats "are in the driver's seat," Jackson said.

Wanzenried took the wheel on Tuesday, using a "silver bullet" to bring House Bill 2 out of committee and to the House floor for a debate that's expected to begin next week.

Because every House committee is evenly divided, Democrats and Republicans agreed to have a limited number of "silver bullets" to use to bring bills stalled on tie votes out of committee for consideration by the full House.

Wanzenried said House Bill 2 is bound to be changed in the floor debate.

But as 20 people on the Appropriations Committee couldn't whittle down spending in the bill, Jackson doubts it can be done by 100 House members.

"They can either send a balanced budget to the Senate, or they will resist all of our efforts to balance the budget and they will send a bloated, unbalanced, irresponsible budget to the Senate where there is a majority of Democrats," Jackson said.

Wanzenried did not specify where in the legislative process the budget would be balanced, but he said it will be balanced under the spending cap.

Most likely to be cut will be about $70 million that should be set aside for capital expenditures, mostly involving deferred maintenance for state government facilities across Montana.

The solution will not involve new or increased taxes, he said.

"The governor does not have a single tax increase in his (budget) package," he said. "We're going to live within our means."

Senate Minority Leader Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, contends that the developing budget is a "train wreck" because of the approach that's being taken.

Rather than showing fiscal restraint at the committee level with targeted limits, Keenan said Democratic committee chairmen have been taking testimony and approving funding for various needs and programs. At some point before a March 29 deadline for transmitting appropriations bills, spending that some constituencies are counting on will have to be cut back.

Keenan noted that total appropriations, as currently planned, amount to an increase of just over 13 percent in state spending. And if more appropriations bills are approved in the House, that percentage will increase well beyond the cap that limits spending growth to 8.53 percent over the next biennium, he said.

"My question remains, isn't 8.53 percent adequate growth for the budget, given the fact that it's based on average growth in personal income in households over the last three years in Montana?" he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com