How the session was undone

It will be easy for many Montanans to blame the implosion of the legislative session on the oh-so fiery, right-wing House Republican leadership. It will be easy for many to assume that Democrats in the Capitol surely had a difficult time working with those Republicans, and therefore, the Dems are blameless.

But we're not giving the Democrats a pass on the session ending without a budget. It was Senate Democrats who voted to leave Helena a full 24 hours before the session was scheduled to end. The last 24 hours of past legislative sessions have proven to be highly productive in resolving differences.

When the Senate left, House Republicans were left holding a bag of Senate-version budget bills, and no more opportunities to negotiate. Democrats claim those bills should have been discussed days, if not weeks before. But they were held as leverage by Republicans so that they had some bargaining power to achieve their single-most important priority: reductions in property tax rates.

Democratic leaders contended that they had been trying to negotiate, but their final offer did not include any statutory property-tax relief. Instead, it boosted a one-time rebate for Montana households from $400 to $600, without lowering tax rates themselves. And the offer demanded other provisions that the GOP could not swallow, such as a new tax on real-estate investment trusts, at a time when the state is staring at a $1.3 billion surplus.

Republicans made a final appeal for $140 million in tax-rate reductions over the next two years, down considerably from their initial efforts to secure $300 million in so-called "permanent" property-tax relief.

Democratic leaders said they adjourned because they were concerned about Republicans resurrecting the governor's budget in the form of House Bill 2 on the last day of the session. Maybe they had good reason to be concerned, even though it was Democrats themselves who had demanded the return of House Bill 2 weeks before. Maybe they were fearing chicanery of some sort, even though Republicans insisted the bill would only be revived as a contingency in the event that the existing budget package did not pass. Now we'll never know how those final 24 hours might have played out.

There is no question that House Majority Leader Mike Lange, R-Billings, hurt his party's cause with his profanity-laced tirade against the governor earlier in the week. It perpetuated the perception that the House GOP leadership is unhinged and unreasonable, and must be difficult for Democrats to work with.

Democrats repeatedly refer to the House Republican leadership as the source of all woes this session. But in doing so they fail to recognize and respect that half of the lawmakers in the Capitol are Republicans who are in solidarity when it comes to their property-tax relief priority. That solidarity has been repeatedly demonstrated through statements and votes since the start of the session.

True enough, Democrats have advanced commendable and considerable tax relief proposals of their own. But the final property-tax relief package should reflect, at least to some degree, the wishes of the other half of the Legislature.