2007 Legislature might have set bad precedent
By Rick Jore
HD 12
Since a deal had already been cut between representatives of the Governor’s office and a small group of Republicans at the infamous “log cabin meeting,” (adding a whole new perspective to the term “Log Cabin Republicans”— do a Google search if you need to) the special session was simply an act of “officially” implementing the agreement.
They say the “moderates” and “reasonable” people needed to get together to agree on a budget.
They told us they were “realists.”
I don’t see anything “moderate,” “reasonable,” or “realistic” about 23 percent budget increases with virtually no ongoing income or property tax reductions with a $1.3 billion surplus. The Governor, the Democrats, and the agencies got everything they wanted, and then some.
State funding for full-time kindergarten was killed twice during the regular session, in two separate bills. The education bill from the special session provides for state funding and $10 million in start up costs for full-time kindergarten.
I am still looking for whatever these “moderates” say they bargained for in this “compromise.”
I offered several amendments on the House floor to reduce spending. The most votes on any of my amendments was 39. The deal had been struck.
I wanted to introduce a tax reduction bill. It had to fit within the sideboards of the Governor’s call.
I introduced a bill (HB 8) to phase out the property tax on business equipment to fulfill the “deal” that was made in 1999 with SB 200. This “deal” doesn’t count.
After the bill passed the House, the Senate didn’t even hold a hearing on it. The “deal” had been struck.
Alas, the “deal” that was struck doesn’t work both ways. The “deal” included at least a reduction in the business equipment tax by increasing the exemption.
The Senate killed that bill (HB 10) after it passed the House.
The “deal” included reducing the Senate-passed budget during the regular session by a certain amount. It passed the House at that reduced level (still over 22 percent increase from the current budget) with the “moderate realists” joining all Democrats to pass it.
The Senate added another $6.4 million. The House Republican “moderate, reasonable, realist” compromisers decided that was OK. They passed it with the additional money.
Every House Democrat voted with them.
When the budget bill (HB 2) came back with the Senate amendments my words on the floor of the House were: “These amendments are an exclamation point on a bill that proclaims we are entrenched in the welfare state and an affirmation that we have no desire to change course.”
I said that “the servant has become the master.” I also pointed out to the House that over $300 million of our state budget is attributable to federal deficit spending. These are dollars that do not exist and are an addition to our national debt, but we spend them anyway. I guess liberal socialists just love that inflation tax.
In the end, the increase alone in our State budget amounts to over $1,000 for every person in Montana biennially, or $500 annually. State spending is now approximately $24,000 per household in Montana biennially, $12,000 annually.
The Billings Gazette ran an Op-ed piece on April 20, 2007 by Brian Riedl, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Riedl broke down the federal budget on a per household basis.
In 2007, according to Riedl, Washington will spend $24,106 per household in the United States, $2,114 of which will be deficit spending.
Cut the $12,000 per Montana household for our State budget in half since about that much of our State budget is federal dollars. Add the $6,000 to the $24,106. The cost per Montana household to fund our State and federal budgets is over $30,000 per year! You read that right: $30,000 per household, if each household paid the same.
Perhaps many of you saw the Missoulian article on 4/09/07 entitled “U.S. Financial Watchdog Sees Crisis.” I noticed that the publisher of the Leader quoted from it recently. Comptroller General David Walker says the United States has a “fiscal cancer.” “This is a moral issue,” he says. “It’s not a numbers issue. What’s going on is immoral. We are adding to the burdens of future generations at record rates.”
Walker points out that “the nation’s gross debt is $8.5 trillion and growing” but that we actually have what he calls “fiscal exposures” (future promised payments) of $50.5 trillion, which is up from $20.4 trillion in 2000. That’s $170,000 per person in the country, or $400,000 for every full-time worker!
It must be because I am not “moderate,” “reasonable,” or “a realist” that I cannot understand the justification for this kind of spending. These “moderate realists” keep referring to me and others as “extremists” and “constitutionalists,” who believe in “no government,” “no taxes” and “no mercy.” (The dictionary definition of “constitutionalist” is anyone who is under oath to the Constitution. That would be all elected officials.) The Constitution establishes government and the authority to tax so a “constitutionalist” cannot be an anarchist, as insinuated. I guess the notion of mercy on our unborn posterity and current families of taxpayers by keeping government within constitutional boundaries doesn’t count.
Folks, we are paying a heck of a price for the false notion that government can give us cradle to grave security.
This notion is what allows politicians to buy their votes with the public treasury. And the monetary cost is small compared to the loss of freedom.
Rick Jore
HD 12
Ronan, MT
644-2542
544-2389 cell