Legislative Report: Proposed budget comes to $40,000 per family of four

Rick Jore, Representative HD12

The budget will be back in the House this week and hopefully Senate amendments will be rejected. With the session winding down, negotiations over the budget between the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, will be the big news in the last two weeks.

I sat in the Senate on Friday of last week to listen to debate on the budget. The D’s and some R’s were justifying what I see as an absolutely bloated budget, as amended by the Senate. My friend, Sen. Joe Balyeat from Belgrade, gave the following speech. It conveys my sentiments precisely. I asked him to allow me to send it as a report to my constituents.

The following comments by Senator Joe Balyeat were made April 13 during Senate floor debate on HB 820, the budget proposed by Montana Senate Democrats:

I asked the Legislative Fiscal Division for updated numbers on total state government spending, including all general, statutory, and miscellaneous appropriations. Added all up, the LFD’s best ballpark is $9.1 billion dollars in total state spending. That’s a 9 with 9 zeroes. Let’s put it in terms average folks can understand.

Montana’s population is 910,000. $9.1 billion is $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in the state. $20,000 for every couple, $40,000 for every family of 4; per biennium. Montana’s average wages are only about $29,000 annually; yet we’re spending $20,000 annually per family of four.

Here’s another way to understand $9.1 billion. You’ve heard the saying “Another day, another dollar? Well, during this session, I’ve been saying, “Another day, another $100 million.” Because that’s what we’re spending here. $100,000,000 each and every single day for the 90 day session — even counting Saturdays when we’re only here to cast a couple votes and have the bad tie contest.

There are a few things in this budget I like. I have concern for mental health care. But I can’t vote for this without questioning my own mental acuity. How can we possibly saddle Montana’s private sector with a $9,100,000,000 load on its back; how can we expect Montana’s private sector to haul that kind of load and keep chugging along paying for all this government? A $40,000 load on every family of four in this state. And that even includes families not in the private sector. That even includes those working for government in various capacities. If you calculated the load based on only those in the private sector, the burden would be even far higher than $40,000 per family of four.

I’m speaking to both political parties. Somewhere along the line we’ve lost control of this process. It’s completely out of control — another day, another $100,000,000. We debated legislators’ constituency accounts the other morning. We quibbled over measly $50 contributions from constituents, worried that $50 might influence our votes here. But in a mad race to see which party can buy a majority vote in the next election, we’re spending $100,000,000 every day here. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the fact that “the purpose of government is to be a protector of rights, not a provider of things.”

Now Montana government is a “provider of things” to the tune of $9.1 billion. I’m telling both parties this isn’t worth it. In our mad rush to see who can dole out the dollars fastest, we’ve destroyed the Montana that once was — the Montana I grew up in, a state noted for its self-reliance, rugged individualism, independence, and neighbor helping neighbor.

Even Hubert Humphrey, a founder of the Great Society’s social programs, realized the folly of this cradle-to-grave government. He said, “The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of friends.” He’d roll over in his grave if he saw what we’ve done to Montana.

Some say it’s worth it, we’re doing a lot of good and re-distributing the wealth. But academic economic research doesn’t back that up. I’ve previously urged members to read the Law & Economics research study — Federal, State, and Local Governments: Evaluating Their Separate Roles in US Growth.

This comprehensive national study compiled three decades of data all the way down to the county level across the entire US. The study’s conclusion: “We find that the size of federal, state, and local government all negatively correlate with economic growth.” They also found that the increased size of government did nothing to narrow the spread of income inequality.

Yet we pretend that it’s all working, because we want to keep buying people’s votes with their own money. We’re doling out the cash to the tune of $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in Montana, and in the process we’ve shackled an entire generation of Montanans to the yoke of government — neither those forced to pay for this bureaucracy nor those recipients of all these programs are free.

We’ve created a $9 billion monster and the $6 billion worth of programs are just as bad as the $3 billion worth of regulatory bureaucracy. We’re all shackled to government — the farm programs, the health programs, the welfare programs, the economic development programs a $10,000 chain for every man, woman, and child; a $20,000 chain for every couple, a $40,000 chain for every family of four.

I received an email from a constituent earlier in the session, which I’ve been saving for this occasion. It’s a wildcard, a get out of jail free card, if you will. All it says is “Vote Against.” It doesn’t say which bill, or give any reasons; just “Vote Against.” I can’t vote for this monstrous budget, so I think I’ll follow my constituent’s advice and vote ‘no.’

(Sen. Joe Balyeat, R-Belgrade, is a CPA and the former chairman of Montanans for Better Government.)