Giving Democrats' agenda a chance

Legislative Republicans are sweeping Montana with their "taxpayers tour," pointing out all that went wrong in the recently concluded legislative session.

Their main message is that Democrats, who now dominate in Helena, went hog wild with spending. We share their concern in this regard, considering that no matter what statistics you look at - overall spending, general fund spending, departmental spending - they all went up on a pretty steep curve.

We share their concern that feeding state government was not a priority going into this session, but that's basically what happened.

The ship of state is now being driven by a Democratic governor and a mostly Democratic Legislature, and they are confident the moves they've made will benefit the state of Montana. Despite our concerns, their agenda deserves a chance, and hopefully it will produce dividends.

Some elements of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's agenda are bound to succeed, while others will probably fail.

It won't take long for voters to figure out if the governor's policies are helping or hurting our economy and the general welfare of Montana citizens.

It may take longer to figure out if the spending levels that have been established are sustainable - particularly when the state is next confronted with an economic downturn.

Republican lawmakers already have strong opinions regarding the Democratic agenda and the governor himself. They are not shy in sharing their view that Schweitzer is sort of a carnival-barking snake-oil salesman with "an ego the size of Texas," as one put it.

They question the sincerity of his leadership. But so far we believe Schweitzer has proven to be an aggressive and effective leader, getting nearly all of his agenda through the Legislature. Whether his policies will be effective remains to be seen.

If Republicans seem bitter, there's an underlying reason that stretches back two years to the process that redrew Montana legislative districts. Democrats had an upper hand in that process, and what resulted was many districts that were gerrymandered to group Democratic voters, thus providing Democratic candidates with an advantage. This again is a point where Republicans have our sympathy, as we have editorialized often about the inequities of the redistricting process.

Like constantly having a burr in their pants, Republicans are acutely aware that their legislative candidates received 18,000 more votes in contested races than Democrats did in last year's elections, yet Democrats ended up with a 27-23 majority in the Senate and a split House.

Republicans are not entirely bitter and dissatisfied, however, because there were plenty of bipartisan successes, and we should all take pride in those.

There were bills that should be effective in addressing the state's methamphetamine problem. The state's block management program that provides the public with hunting access was enhanced. Problems with the state's public defender system were addressed. An open container law was passed. A program was established to make health insurance more available for small business owners and their employees.

The list of accomplishments with support from both parties goes on and on.

But so will the tax-and-spend battles between Democrats and Republicans. That, indeed, is the way it should be and gives the voters a clear choice when they pick their leaders.