Montana remains financially resilient amidst COVID-19

I wanted to write to you today to give an update on our state budget and how we are using our Coronavirus Relief Fund to provide much needed aid to support our local businesses and communities.

Despite the many unprecedented challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Montana has remained financially resilient, providing us with the resources we need to face this year’s fire season as we continue to respond to the spread of the coronavirus in Montana.

Thanks to their responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, state agencies under my leadership finished the fiscal year under budget, allowing for an estimated $46.7 million transfer from the general fund to the fire fund. This puts the fire fund at its statutory maximum of $101.5 million, or 4% of fiscal year 2021 appropriations, for the first time in history, enough to cover nearly five average years of state wildfire suppression costs.

Additionally, the Budget Stabilization Reserve remains at its statutory maximum, which is $114.2 million or 4.5% of fiscal year appropriations. This represents the second year in a row that the Budget Stabilization Reserve has been funded to its statutory cap and it is available to sustain the budget should revenue collections or expenditures vary from projections.

The balances of the general fund, the fire fund, and the Budget Stabilization Reserve total $620 million as the 2021 fiscal year begins. While we all know a lot can change before the year is out, these are optimistic signs that we can continue to navigate these challenging times without needing to make painful cuts to the essential services Montanans rely on.

Separate from the state’s budget, we received funding from the federal government to help spearhead our economic recovery. To date, we have allocated nearly 80% of the CARES Act dollars, with over $270 million of that awarded, to help Montanans, small businesses, schools, nonprofits, farmers and ranchers, and local governments and more toward economic recovery. We continue to get dollars out the door to support the small businesses and workers across the state as we work to safely reopen.

In addition, we recently doubled the funds available through our Business Stabilization Program, allowing us to distribute more money directly to the nearly 8,000 small Montana businesses who are already participating in the program and increasing the amount available to new applicants.

For additional information on current grant funding, eligibility requirements or to apply, visit https://commerce.mt.gov/Coronavirus-Relief. A transparency dashboard is available to provide information on which businesses CARES Act funding is going to, in every community of the state, at: https://commerce.mt.gov/Montana-Coronavirus-Relief/Awarded-Grants.

Thank you for everything you have done over the last five months to keep your families and communities safe. I continue to be amazed by the determination and resiliency of the people of this state.

— Gov. Steve Bullock is a two-term governor of Montana. The Democrat is seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate in the 2020 election.