The Montana Legislature’s sole constitutional duty is to pass a balanced budget. Montanans take pride in our state’s tradition of fiscal responsibility, but that tradition is not at all reflected in the budget bill hijacked and advanced by Democrats this session. As we write this, Montana’s proposed budget is way in the red, with the shortfall projected at around $1 billion by 2029.
Democrats and their allies inflated our budget with reckless spending, repeatedly breaking normal legislative procedure to do so. Then, the same Democrat-led coalition rejected numerous amendments brought by conservative Republicans to rein in the spending and save taxpayer money.
How Democrats – on paper, a small minority in the legislature – were able to hijack the budget in the first place is a longer conversation than we have space for in this column.
Senate Democrats took credit for the unbalanced budget in a press release. We say to them: credit for the irresponsible spending is all yours! The budget is not indicative of the conservative, Republican majority that Montanans voted for in November. It is undoubtedly the spawn of Democrats and their political allies. The Democrat press release even said that the supersized budget “did not go far enough” for their liking.
We sincerely hope that Governor Greg Gianforte uses his veto power to trim the fat off the budget and bring some fiscal sanity back to our state’s finances. Democrats’ frivolous spending should be first on the veto chopping block.
Montana has been able to fund essential programs with a balanced budget numerous times before, and we can do it again. The budget as currently proposed will sacrifice Montana’s financial future for some short-term political talking points.
As the legislative session comes to a close, we ask Governor Gianforte to stand with the conservative Republicans who voted against this irresponsible spending and restore balance to the Democrat-hijacked budget. Democrats were unwilling to work with Republican leaders on a compromise, so now the Governor must be uncompromising in his effort to return some semblance of fiscal sanity to Montana’s budget.
By:Matt Regier (Kalispell) is the President of the Montana Senate. Ken Bogner (Miles City) is the Senate President Pro Tempore. Tom McGillvray (Billings) is the Senate Majority Leader. Carl Glimm (Kila) chairs the Senate Finance & Claims Committee.
