House budget bill main concern in Helena
HD 11
By the time you read this, we will have just finished hearing House Bill 2, the budget bill. The stimulus spending is now in HB 645. Last Thursday there were huge lines in all the Appropriations sub-committees asking for money.
Our Senator, John Brueggeman, is on the Long-Range Planning sub-committee and he will be hearing many of the stimulus requests. We've had many from our area.
As I've reported before, most of the now $830 million stimulus for Montana is already ear-marked but there will be about $280 million to decide. That is not nearly enough for all the requests.
Either the Governor or the Legislature can tell the Federal government that we have a plan and this must be done by April 3. The majority of the legislators and the Governor seem to want the money.
Personally, I'm worried about the debt we leave our children. We all need to be proud that Montana's constitution requires that the state budget balances with the revenue. It's a different story in Washington.
And think about this; California gets more stimulus money per person than Montana does, and we all pay the same federal taxes. Not one Montana bank got the TARP bailout money, but we all paid for it.
Before I get into the budget, I need to report that the revenue side is still decreasing. The Speaker of the House has agreed to return the revenue estimate, House Resolution 2, to the Taxation Committee to remove another $41 million.
The planned budget had an ending fund balance of about $285 million, so now the reserve is down to about $244 million. Every month the estimate for the next two years goes down. Still, that bit of cushion is nice. Let's hope it lasts.
The total spending for the next two years is $8.1 billion. Of that, $4.8 billion is federal dollars, mostly for health and human services, roads and state special revenue. State special revenue includes things like hunting fees and gas tax that are already decided.
That leaves $3.3 billion for the legislature to divvy up in what we call "general fund." It's interesting to note that the budget for education is 51.9 percent of the general fund, human services is 24.4 percent, and corrections makes up 10.6 percent.
So almost 87 percent of the state's general fund budget is spent in just three areas.
When we add in the federal dollars, health and human services gets the largest share of the pie. The food stamp program, CHIPS and medicaid receive more federal money than state money.
Here's what I see as one of our problems: Somewhere between $50 and $100 million is in the stimulus bill for Health and Human Services. Will we be able to pay for that in the future?
The general fund spending in HB 2 increases 2.3 percent per year — a far cry from the 40 percent growth in spending we saw last session.
If we pass the budget, it will go to the Senate. I expect that the Senate may find even more ways to reduce the growth of government spending.
No one likes the reappraisal mitigation plan that came out of the Taxation sub-committee. I have yet to hear exactly how Lake County is affected. I'll continue to keep you informed.
Several of us have other ideas for property taxes. Why not a freeze? We could just add in any new construction.
I'd like to thank everyone for the e-mails and the calls. I have received thousands this year. I try to answer all the messages from House District 11 and even some from neighboring areas.
I never forget that I work for you. Leave me a message at 406-444-4800, write Representative Janna Taylor, Capitol Building, PO Box 200400, Helena, MT 59620-0400 or email me at jannataylor@montana.com.