Budget 'give and take' is necessary

Legislating is a game of where things start and where things end. That's how it is with bills working through the Montana Legislature, including Gov. Brian Schweitzer's budget plans. Round and round they go, and where they stop nobody knows.

A few weeks back, we said the governor made a strong defense of his spending plans, but we also wondered out loud how those plans might be changed by the intentions of others. He may want it to look like a work horse, but it may come out looking like a cow, we warned.

Sure enough, House Republicans have different designs for the budget, which they expressed last week in a vote to kill the governor's plan. And for the first time in 30 years, the GOP representatives decided to scrap the entire approach of bundling all spending into a single bill called House Bill 2 and instead plan to break it up into as many as eight separate bills.

Most folks don't really care about the procedural machinations of the Legislature. But in this case, the outcome could be interesting.

What's at play here, of course, is politics. Rather than caving in to the governor's wishes and his pretty-much guaranteed support in the Democrat-controlled Senate, the House GOP decided to apply what slim leverage they may have.

An Associated Press analysis of the Republican budget plan contains these two major items: A $100 million cut in spending from the governor's plans for various agency budgets, and a boost in tax relief from the governor's proposed $150 million to as much as $400 million.

By breaking up the spending bill, Republicans are hoping to win as much support as they can for some of their own proposals that will now be judged in a smaller context. That's because the GOP has only a slim 51-49 advantage in the House, and it is unlikely they would be able to keep their ranks unbroken when debating the enormous House Bill 2.

With bills that cover fewer programs, the Republicans think they are more likely to maintain unanimity of approach, and thus have more input into the final budget.

The fact of the matter is that the legislative process already gives the Republicans a weak hand in negotiating with Gov. Schweitzer and his legislative allies. That's because spending bills must originate in the House, and can then be amended in the Democratically controlled Senate, which has final say except for minor adjustments that are typically made in conference committee.

Democrats have been snarling over the GOP's new multi-bill approach. But what do they expect? Should Republicans just roll over and allow the rubber-stamping to begin?

In a Legislature so closely divided - by single votes in both chambers - there should be some give-and-take, some yin and yang symmetry, rather than a governor's budget that gets approved exactly as it was introduced.