2 weeks Ago By CARLY GRAF [email protected]
Montana Senate Democrats, with the help of their nine Republican allies, advanced a multi-million-dollar bundle of education bills Tuesday, only days after the GOP-majority body gave an early nod to a hefty spending package with a price tag about 17% above the last two-year budget. Sen. Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County, speaks during a floor session of the Montana Senate on Feb.
20 in the state Capitol. “We as Republicans did better with a Democrat governor than we are this time,” said Sen. Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County, on the floor last week.
“Evidently, yesterday, we didn’t spend enough money.” In what’s become a familiar result for the Senate Republicans that now often find themselves on the outside looking in, the upper chamber’s bipartisan voting bloc — which often includes nine of the 32 Republicans voting with all 18 Democrats — sent proposals to the governor’s desk against the wishes of GOP party leadership. These four bills put money into public schools, though they vary in size and scope.
Montana Senate coalition rebuffs GOP majority's efforts to size down $16.6 billion budget House Bill 515 , sponsored by Republican Rep. Linda Reksten from Polson, would allow more money to flow from the state to school districts for maintenance and infrastructure repairs.
Using an investment strategy that puts existing state dollars into an account that accrues more interest, money earned over time could go straight to districts to take care of long-overdue facility fixes and must-have improvements. Rep. Linda Reksten, R-Polson, follows along as House Bill 2 is debated by the Montana House of Representatives on April 2 in the state Capitol.
Supporters billed it as a better option than passing the costs to residents through voter-approved property tax levies or letting vital improvements go unaddressed. HB 515 builds off efforts from the past two legislative sessions from Reksten, who previously served as the Polson Public Schools superintendent, to give schools more flexibility to address dire infrastructure needs like outdated water boilers or roofs in need of repair. Sen.
Sue Vinton, R-Billings, voiced concerns that HB 515 would be redundant because of past legislation and would not require schools to report how they used the money, but she was unable to change the outcome. The biggest-ticket item came from Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula, whose House Bill 168 would cost the state between roughly $3.
7 million and $4 million each year. HB 168 would route state dollars to school districts based on the number of 3- and 4-year-olds with disabilities enrolled in their preschool programs. It would allow school districts to provide these younger students with preschool special education services with the confidence they’d receive funding to cover the costs.
Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula, watches a fellow legislator speak during an all day floor session on April 2 in the state Capitol. Sen.
Sara Novak, a Democrat from Anaconda and special education teacher, said getting kids with disabilities the right support at a young age is critical to their development. Special education students in need of some help are “all over in your communities,” she said. Senators disagreed about whether districts should be able to do this without additional funding from the state.
“Don’t fall for the siren call that they need the money,” said Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell. “Vote no.
Save the Montana taxpayer.” Two additional proposals with notably smaller price tags were also greenlit. One bill would appropriate $600,000 annually to make it easier for schools to offer free lunch to all students eligible for discounts.
Sen. Sue Vinton, R-Billings, watches a fellow senator speak during a floor session on Jan. 27 in the state Capitol.
Another from Rep. Thedis Crowe, a Browning Democrat whose district spans the Flathead and Blackfeet reservations, would spend half-a-million-dollars over the next two years to revive the “Grow Your Own” grant program to incentivize rural and Native students to become teachers. Montana education budget includes small, but mighty investments in tribal colleges Across the board, the proposals were backed by Democrats, the entire group of moderate Republicans dubbed “The Nine” and two additional GOP senators.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers told the Montana State News Bureau the package was an example of finding shared values with colleagues across the aisle. The Belgrade senator also pushed back on the critique that these proposals, even with their costs to the state, were somehow to blame for the current budget picture. The Montana Senate deabtes ammendments to the state's biennial budget during a floor session in the Montana Senate on April 17 in the state Capitol.
“To point at four education bills and say, ‘They’re being irresponsible,’ is not being honest about who is spending money in this body,” Flowers said. Each of the bills only made it to the floor for a full vote because of a procedural move — something called a "blast motion" — that allows a legislator to revive bills previously tabled in committee if they can get a majority of their peers to sign off. Senate advances $114M bill to boost starting teacher pay; other school funding efforts lag Frustration was evident last week as the working majority steamrolled the previous votes of the Senate Education Committee.
With every 27-23 vote that fell in favor of overruling the committee’s actions and blasting each of the four bills to the floor, a handful of disgruntled senators chuckled to each other. Others muttered feigned surprise under their breath. Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray was particularly miffed at the repeated use of the procedural maneuver to foist bills that had been shot down in committee onto the floor, where they’re likely to face a more favorable fate with the bipartisan alliance of Democrats plus “The Nine.
” “We don’t have a process anymore,” McGillvray said last week, noting his opinion that blast motions undermine the work of the committee. “Let’s do something right.” Senate advances $114M bill to boost starting teacher pay; other school funding efforts lag By contrast, the STARS Act , which puts $114 million over the next two years toward boosting starting teacher pay in Montana, faced a far easier path through the Legislature.
It passed the Senate on Tuesday 43-7, earning support from even fiscal hardliners like McGillvray, and also now heads to the governor's desk. Carly Graf is the State Bureau health care reporter for Lee Montana. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
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