Key panel approves stimulus measure

By MIKE DENNISON

Capping more than a week of marathon committee sessions and one-on-one negotiations among its members, a key legislative panel Tuesday approved the bill outlining how to spend Montana’s $870 million share of federal economic “stimulus” money.

The final product, headed for the House floor on Thursday, rearranged $75 million of discretionary spending in the bill, directing it at everything from schools to city building projects to investment in state historical sites.

”We wanted to stay true to the principles of the (federal bill),” said Rep. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “We wanted to put money on the ground to create jobs. That was pervasive to every discussion.”

The panel approved House Bill 645 on an 18-2 vote Tuesday afternoon, after attaching more than two dozen amendments that rearranged some spending.

It left unchanged about $800 million in spending proposed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, much of which had to correspond with federal regulations on the money, such as $220 million for highway projects and millions more for education, human services, water and sewer projects, and energy conservation.

The changes approved by the committee included an additional $23 million for locally selected city, county and tribal building projects; $15 million more for public schools; $13 million for higher education, including some to hold down tuition at state colleges and community colleges; $13 million for mental health, aging and other human-service programs; and $3 million to preserve and enhance “cultural” sites, such as Travelers’ Rest at Lolo, where the state wants to acquire land and artifacts at a site where Lewis and Clark camped on their expedition.

The panel freed up the money by canceling or rearranging proposals in the original bill. For example, it rejected Schweitzer’s proposal to use $43 million of stimulus money to bolster the state Teachers Retirement System.

“This was truly a team effort, and I would like to thank all of (the committee members) for what you did to make this happen,” Sesso said moments before the panel voted on the bill.

Sesso and the bipartisan committee’s Republican vice chairman, Rep. Walt McNutt of Sidney, said they held many small meetings and one-on-one sessions Tuesday morning among members, hashing out the final details of the bill.

Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings, said she insisted that the bill include more money for human services, and that she met with panel leaders in a tiny room in the Capitol - a room she said she didn’t even know existed until the meeting.

“They wanted to work something out with me so I wouldn’t be a thorn in people’s sides,” she said.

She successfully argued for more money for homeless shelters and a program that helps mentally ill children, she said.

The mammoth bill also has a few line-itemed projects near or within districts represented by people on the committee.

For example, within a larger program for school construction projects, $3 million is earmarked to rebuild the Huntley Project school, which burned down last year; $500,000 is set aside for school projects in Browning; $626,000 for a school project at Conrad; and $1.24 million for a project at Blue Creek School south of Billings.

Committee member Rep. Bill Glaser is from Huntley; Rep. Llew Jones is from Conrad, and his district includes parts of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation; and the Blue Creek School is in Glaser’s district and near the edge of Morgan’s district.

Sesso said each member had different priorities for the bill, and that the negotiations tried to strike a balance among what members wanted, how much money was available and what was best for the state and the economy.

“Everybody understood they had to give a little to get a little,” he said. “They had to understand other people’s priorities.”

“We wanted to target projects that could go forward quickly,” McNutt added in a later interview. “We had a lot of dialogue.”

While HB645 appears poised to pass the House this week, it still has a long ways to go through the Legislature.

The Republican-controlled Senate is just beginning work on the other major spending bill before the Legislature, the $8.1 billion House Bill 2, and is expected to look for ways to reduce its spending.

HB645 must be coordinated with that bill, as well as a collection of other spending measures.