Smith Unhappy With HB 2 Decisions

The Montana House took up House Bill 2, the main funding bill, on Monday, March 22, and Rep. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, was unhappy with decisions made during the session.

Cuts for suicide prevention, prisons and mental health were some of the areas that Smith was most disappointed bout.

“Every time, we try to amend it, it gets killed 66-33. The 33 are Democrats,” Smith said. “The whole HB 2 upsets me.”

Smith said the reason given why cuts were made to suicide prevention programs included, “we don’t have that problem here,” He’s also concerned about less funding for mental health, but he thinks some COVID relief funding might be headed into that area.

“They want to save money,” Smith said.