Holding down spending will not be easy

Janna Taylor, House District 11

It's very cold in Helena and I wish I were there on the West Shore. Lots of jokes about when somewhere "freezes over." Many of you know that I got my request and I serve on the House Appropriations Committee. There are only two new representatives there, one Republican and one Democrat.

I promised the voters of House District 11 that I would watch the money and hold down spending.

The House Appropriations Committee is just where that is done.

This committee builds House Bill 2, what one of the fiscal analysts calls "the barbarian." It is the spending bill.

The House of Representatives is evenly split — 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.

For this reason the Appropriations Committee is also equally split. Holding down spending will not be easy.

Regardless of your party affiliation, we need to be concerned that Democrat legislators have sponsored over 25 bills to increase taxes on Montana families and businesses so far this session.

Any budget surplus that we had has gone away.

I was just speaking to Legislative Chief Fiscal Analyst, Clayton Schenck. What our new governor is doing is backfilling the 2005 budget about $40 million dollars. That way the new biennium budget does not exceed the percent allowed by statute.

Each budget can only increase the previous one by the amount of growth in Montana's personal income.

In my sub-committee we are trying to hold down the spending and earmarking any new spending with a one-time-only requirement. We have finished with the Montana Department of Transportation's budget, and have moved on to the Department of Administration.

A few of the agencies that the Department of Administration oversees are: the lottery, bank and financial audits, personnel, tort and risk management, state insurance, and the state technology program.

Most state workers are very dedicated and well informed. Still, everyone would like a raise and an increase for their program. I am fortunate to sit between Senator Mike Cooney, our former Secretary of State, and Senator Rick Laible from Victor. Senator Cooney is familiar with many state agencies and Senator Laible served on this committee last session.

Many times Senator Laible has brought up budget items that were one time expenses from the previous year and held state employees accountable. For this reason, I brought home a set of the last session's budget request books to compare current requests with those of the last biennium requests.

I have two bill presentations to prepare, so I'm off to study now. One bill is by request of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. It simply cleans up some ambiguous language in the current statutes. The other bill would allow victims of domestic violence to have their mail routed through the Secretary of State's office in order to keep their domiciles confidential.

Also this week, the House Judiciary Committee will hear a bill to legalize civil unions in Montana. HB 259 is sponsored by Representative Christine Kaufman from Helena and it would also recognize civil unions from other states.

I thought our last election would have put this issue to rest.

I would like to hear from you. Leave me a message at 406-444-4800, email jannataylor@montana.com or write Representative Janna Taylor, Capitol Station, P.O. Box 200400, Helena, MT 59620.