Key panel dives into budget plans Republicans is 'unacceptable'

HELENA — A key budget panel began work Thursday on the 2015 Legislature’s major spending bill, which Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s budget director called “unacceptable” in its current form.

Dan Villa told the House Appropriations Committee that the budget drafted by legislative Republicans arbitrarily cuts proposed spending for prisons, children’s health and other programs that the state must fund under state and federal laws.

“We hope that we can work with you so that the things that we can’t control will be adequately funded,” he said. “There is much work to be done, because in the governor’s eyes the budget, as it stands, is unacceptable.”

Villa’s comments on House Bill 2 marked the opening salvos of the second half of the 2015 Legislature, when lawmakers and the governor must agree on a state budget for the next two years.

Republicans, who control the committee, have crafted a bill that is $160 million lower than requested by Gov. Bullock, who is proposing a $4.13 billion, two-year state budget.

Bullock’s proposed budget increases state general-fund spending by nearly 13 percent over the next two years; the budget as adjusted by Republicans would increase spending by about 8.5 percent.

The House Appropriations Committee began two days of hearings on HB2 on Thursday, but won’t start voting on the bill until Monday at the earliest.

Villa briefly addressed the panel and also spoke with reporters beforehand, outlining some of the major discrepancies between the GOP-drafted budget and the governor’s plan.

He said some of the largest reductions are in Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays medical bills for the poor, a children’s health insurance program and the state correctional system.

“We don’t control how many bad guys get punished for their crimes,” Villa told reporters. “We don’t control how many people get sick. So arbitrary targets as to what agencies should get funded at will not work in areas where we do not control the targets.”

Republicans on the panel made little or no comment in response to Villa on Thursday.

Some Democrats on the panel have said they expect the GOP-controlled Appropriations Committee to make few changes in HB2 before approving it next week and moving it to the full House for action.

When asked how the Bullock administration hoped to achieve changes in the bill, Villa indicated the administration may have a better chance amending it on the floor of the House.

Most of Thursday’s hearing consisted of Democratic committee members and state agency officials questioning the cuts made by GOP-controlled budget panels in January and February.

For example, Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl said reducing his two-year budget request by $200,000, or 15 percent, would severely handicap the office’s ability to investigate and pursue campaign-practice violations and publicly display campaign-finance records.

A legislative budget panel has cut funding for a full-time attorney in the office and another position. Motl said losing the attorney would require the office to hire outside, contracted counsel to pursue many cases.

“I think [the in-house attorney] has proven to be very successful and it makes no sense to return to a far more expensive and less effective contract service,” he said.

Rep. Ryan Osmundson, R-Buffalo, who chaired the panel that made the reduction, said he felt Motl’s office had done “a pretty good job” of cleaning up a backlog of cases, and he’s not sure the office still needs the full-time attorney, which had