State Lawmakers Begin Budget Bargaining
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives began debating the state’s two-year budget on Monday, March 22.
Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, is the chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the sponsor of House Bill 2, the main budget bill.
“The only job that a Legislature actually has to do is pass a budget,” Jones said during the bill’s first debate in the full House. “In our history we only failed to do so once and had to come back in a special session to work upon this budget. I don’t want to be that Legislature.”
HB 2 is broken into five sections titled by letters A-E.
For instance, Section D deals with corrections and public safety. Rep. Emma Kerr-Carpenter, D-Billings, is the vice-chair of the panel that first sets that part of the budget. She said the section is a backstop.
“When we cut programs in section B, particularly mental health programs, we will see those folks in this budget,” Kerr-Carpenter said.
Section B is the largest section and provides funding for the Department of Health and Human Services. Section A is general government expenses, E is education and C is natural resources and transportation.
The House advanced the bill Monday on a 67-33 vote. It will face one more vote there before it moves to the Senate for further debate.
