The Montana House of Representatives spent two full days on the House Floor debating HB 2 (the general fund budget).  

There were 70-plus amendments that tried to add $847 million dollars to our two year general fund budget. All of the amendments were defeated. These amendments could have added an additional 10 percent or more to the budget. Many of the amendments were duplicates and were just presented to promote a particular cause. These were mostly the same amendments that were defeated in the appropriations committee.  The Governor proposed a general fund budget with a 7.1% increase over Montana’s last budget. Our appropriations committee spent 6 weeks on this budget in hearings listening to many citizens and government agencies. After those hearings the Appropriations Committee presented HB 2 to the full House of Representatives with a proposed increase of 5.7% over Montana’s 2013 general fund budget. When you start to add on amendments generally something has to be reduced in another area of the budget if we are going to keep our balanced budget requirement as required by the Montana Constitution. 

I voted against all proposed amendments. I felt that our Appropriations Committee did a very good job.  This is only the beginning of the process. Now that we passed HB 2 it is on its way to the Senate where the Senate Finance and Claims committee will review and probably listen to most of the same amendments presented to the House.  Then near the end of April it will be back to the House with some changes and both chambers will form a conference committee to work out any disagreements. Then off to the Governor for his signature or veto. The Governor can veto the entire budget or line item veto certain expenditures but cannot add to the budget.

If you have any input about specific bills, please don't hesitate to contact me by email at greghertz11@gmail.com or call or text me at 406-253-9505. You can also leave messages for individual legislators or committees by calling 406-444-4800. For more information on Montana’s 64th legislative session, visit the Legislature’s website at www.leg.mt.gov

—Representative Greg Hertz, Polson