“Sine Die”: Montana Legislature Adjourns on 90th Day

By Daniel Testa, 4-27-07

UPDATE: Just before noon on the session’s 90th day, the Senate voted, 26 to 24, to adjourn Montana’s 60th Legislative session with the remaining state budget bills stalled in the House.

In a news conference Democrats expressed resignation with inability of either party to reach any semblance of compromise on tax cuts and state funding levels.

“The Senate’s role, historically and now, is to know when to call it a day,” said Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena. “We’ve punched our clock.”

At an impasse with House Republican leadership, Senate Democrats tried to work out a final compromise Thursday night and Friday morning with Senate Republicans, said Senate Majority Leader Carol Williams, D-Missoula, but the proposal Republicans brought forth was unacceptable.

“It was a structurally imbalance proposition,” added Cooney.

Republicans are angry and Democrats are resigned.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said House Republicans still have 24 hours to pass the budget bills left in the House.

“The House has all they need to deliver for Montana,” Schweitzer said.

House Majority Leader Mike Lange, R-Billings, said Democrats have walked away from any compromise that might have taken place today.

“They walked out on the people of Montana today without finishing the work,” Lange said.

Lange said Republican leadership will discuss their next move.

Democrats are holding a news conference at 12:30 p.m.

On the second-to-last day of one of the most bitterly partisan sessions in recent history, a House Republican has taken steps to amend Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s original budget proposal, indicating the GOP could try to revive the bill in a last-ditch effort to force Democrats’ hand on tax cuts.

Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena, discovered late Thursday night that Rep. Bill Glaser, R-Huntley, requested an amendment stripping funding for full-time Kindergarten out of currently-tabled House Bill 2 (PDF).

“Then it dawned on me,” Cooney said, “that the only reason they could do that is to take House Bill 2 off the table in Appropriations.”

Schweitzer’s budget proposal has been dead in the House Appropriations Committee since Republicans tabled it Feb. 14, and then introduced a plan to fund the state through multiple budget bills.

Those budget bills are now stalled in the House, with Democrats and Republicans locked in a stalemate over tax cuts. House Speaker Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, says he will not advance the bills until Schweitzer signs off on permanent property tax cuts.

Cooney said Republicans may use the last day to vote HB2 off the table, pass it through the House with their one-vote majority and then adjourn – forcing the Democrat-controlled Senate to either hold a special session or leave the state with no budget.

“There is no good faith here, there is no trust,” Cooney said. “I think it’s shameful and it’s demeaning to the people of Montana.”

There are a host of problems with reviving HB2. Many state programs are funded by the multiple budget bills. If the Legislature ends and the multiple budget bills die, so too do many of the programs funded through those bills.

“Is it possible to pass House Bill 2? I don’t know,” Cooney said. “If (Republicans) move forward in this way, they will wear this – this will be their problem.”

House Republican leaders were noncommittal about their plans for HB2.

“We haven’t made any decisions but we’re not ruling anything out,” Sales said.

Majority Leader Mike Lange, R-Billings, hinted that a decision to resurrect HB2 would hinge on the outcome of a Friday morning committee dealing with House Bill 678, the Republicans’ primary vehicle to lower local property taxes through a boost to school funding.

Thursday’s meetings on HB678 went nowhere, with every substantive amendment shot down along party lines.

Republicans plan to bring more amendments boosting direct state aid for education Friday morning, Lange said, predicting the vote on those amendments would be “the defining moment in the Legislature.”

If the vote failed, Lange added, “We’re going to let the chips fall where they may.”

Lange went on to rail against Democrats for ballooning the budget on “the backs of taxpayers,” and drawing a lawsuit by failing to adequately fund schools.

“When education (groups) sue the state next week, and they will,” Lange said, “then the people of Montana will see firsthand the result of Democratic leadership.”

“There’s not a single Democrat or the governor that is fiscally responsible,” Lange added. “We will not, as House Republicans, in any way, shape or form, support an unsustainable budget.”

A Legislative day is a full 24 hours, so lawmakers are likely to begin formal deliberations on the 90th day Friday afternoon, giving them until the following afternoon to wrap things up.

It’s unclear what the next 24 hours will bring, but it’s unlikely to be pretty.