Senate coalition stamps approval on Montana’s $16.6 billion budget

Taking barely three hours on the Senate floor, the framework to appropriate more than $16.6 billion for Montanan’s biennial budget received a stamp of approval from legislators in the upper chamber on Thursday. 

That isn’t to say House Bill 2 passed smoothly. 

Democrats, and a coalition of nine moderate Republicans — who have worked to carry many of Gov. Greg Gianforte’s proposals through the legislature, to the consternation of their GOP peers — held together on almost every vote taken to amend the budget, including passing the final package 27-23. 

But more conservative members of the Republican caucus, which on paper is the majority party in the Senate, decried the budget as bloated and accused lawmakers of prioritizing politics over good policy. 

“We have a general fund budget that has grown by 17%. I feel sorry for those of you who will be coming back in future years,” said Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, wearing a jacket and tie emblazoned with hundred dollar bills. “There are now 27 of you who have decided to push this budget through, and it’s a big number. So now you’re going to have to make some tough choices on the floor.”

Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, chairman of the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, called the budget the “biggest one we’ve seen in recent memory,” excluding the last two biennia that were bolstered by federal COVID funding. 

The total appropriation in House Bill 2, which includes operations for the state government but excludes statutory appropriations, like hunting license fees going to game programs, is $16.6 billion for the next two years. The budget bill also excludes individual appropriation bills. 

Of that, Health and Human Services comprises 44% — or $7.3 billion — for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. Education accounts for $3.5 billion; transportation and natural resources makes up $2.9 billion; general government expenditures $1.6 billion and the judicial branch, law enforcement and justice accounts for $1.2 billion. 

“In the end it’s not perfect. It’s not exactly what we would probably draw up,” Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, told the Daily Montanan after the vote. “But as I said on the floor, we felt like it was a good compromise. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got some important things that we think will allow us to provide what we think are the services that Montanans want.”

While the budget took the House an entire day to go through each section, debating amendments to add or subtract funds from various departments and programs, the Senate kept discussion to less than three hours. 

Twenty-two amendments were proposed, a majority by the chamber’s most fiscally conservative members, but only four passed — three brought by Democrats and one by Fort Benton Republican Sen. Josh Kassmier, who has emerged as a leader among the moderate Republicans. 

One amendment that passed, brought by Sen. Ellie Boldman, cut $35 million of spending authority from the state hospital to contract with traveling nurses. 

The Department of Public Health and Human Services spent $71 million for traveling healthcare staff at the state hospital during the current biennium, according to Boldman, a Missoula Democrat. However, the department has recently begun hiring state employees — a nurse a week — according to Boldman, saving a large portion of their budget. 

“This amendment reduces contract labor, supports the state continuing to do what we asked them to do, and hire state nurses at the hospital,” Boldman said. 

But Glimm pushed back, telling his colleagues that passing the amendment would leave patients in the state hospital without nurses. 

“The reason we haven’t hired state employee nurses is because we can’t get them. That’s why we hire traveling nurses at a much higher rate,” Glimm said. “… if you guys want to have not any nurses working there, I mean, a third of the staff, and you want them all to work triple over time and be worn out and burned out, and feel underappreciated, because we can’t supplement them?”

Another amendment  by Sen. Shane Morigeau, another Missoula Democrat, added $1.7 million back into the budget for the existing pretrial diversion program through the state Supreme Court. An amendment by Sen. Janet Ellis, D-Helena, slightly reduced appropriations for community college assistance programs.  

A majority of proposed amendments that were dismissed by the body aimed to shrink the budget — making cuts to Department of Labor programs, decreasing provider rates, after-school program funding, and reducing numerous budgeted positions across various departments.

Republican Senate President Matt Regier proposed an amendment to eliminate two of seven newly budgeted game warden positions at the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. 

“As an avid hunter and outdoorsmen, I know hunters are very ethical. I’d rather have our money going into decreasing my license, my tags, not out policing more,” Regier said. 

Flowers, who worked for FWP for much of his career, said the department’s enforcement division had been flat for a long time while the state’s population had only seen growth. 

“These workers are an important piece of the department’s effort to not only enforce the rules that are out there, but also they act as a liaison with sportsmen and women every day, They act as a liaison … so trying to maintain good relationships between landowners, outfitters, sportsmen, really falls on these warden positions,” Flowers said.

Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said he had a number of bad experiences being “harassed” by game wardens, raising his voice as he shared personal anecdotes. 

“We may need seven more game wardens, but the message from me today is don’t harass me. I’m tired of it,” McGillvray said, recommending game wardens receive more sensitivity training in the future. 

The debate over the game warden amendment failed 23-27, the same margin as roughly half the failed amendments. 

One more lopsided amendment, which failed in a 21-29 vote with just three Republicans joining Democrats, would have changed the funding authority for the current contract with CoreCivic to house 600 inmates in out-of-state facilities to be one-time-only, as opposed to ongoing funding. 

Frustrations with the way the floor debates kept going were evident throughout the morning. 

During discussion on the final funding package, Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, often referred to as the Dean of the Montana Senate, said the body had become more flawed over his lengthy tenure, devolving into short-term thinkers focused on sound bites for the next press conference. 

“Sadly, this is what Montana politics has morphed into. I’ve been in the majority and I’ve been in the minority, and I can tell you that most of those years, all things being equal, good policy initiatives were supported no matter who was in charge or who brought the idea forward,” Esp said. “In about three months, well, maybe even three days, nobody can remember what we talked about here on this board today, nothing.”

Glimm agreed with the sentiments, saying the bill’s outcome was predetermined by the Senate’s working majority coalition. 

“I would like nothing better than to have a good, honest debate and really dig in and see what the priorities of each step along the way were, because that’s how it’s supposed to work. But the reason it went so fast in Senate Finance and Claims and here on the floor too, is because the cake is baked,” Glimm said. “… that happened on day one.”

In the middle of the budget debate, Gov. Greg Gianforte held a press conference where he briefly spoke about the work being done in the Senate and the need to enact a balanced budget that limits spending.

“Our budget that we proposed — the path to security and prosperity — does that. It kept spending growth under the rate of inflation without growing the size of government. But as our budget has made it through the legislative process, it’s grown,” Gianforte said. “While I respect the role of the legislature, I reiterate we must pass a responsible budget in line with Montana’s priorities.”

Gianforte said that while the Constitution requires the state to have a balanced budget, he would “use the tools we have,” to ensure it doesn’t grow the government too much. 

Montana’s governor has the power to line-item veto items in an appropriations bill — he can sign the entire budget into law, but strike out specific parts he disagrees with. 

But Glimm, the Senate Finance chairman, said the budget was already too big when the governor proposed it, and the Legislature was skirting its authority by not reigning in that spending — setting up a conflict with the governor’s office. He said he’s voted for every budget bill in his six previous sessions in the Legislature, “but I can’t do it this time.”

“We’re passing everything under the sun, and I imagine that the governor is going to veto his way to a balanced budget,” Glimm said. “He’s going to veto that, and then he’s going to say, ‘Look at the crummy job that the legislature did. They passed all this stuff, and they sent it to me and I had to be the fiscally responsible one.’” 

Regier, a self-described “appropriations nerd,” told his Senate colleagues that he had grave concerns over the budget and the future of the state’s finances. The Legislative Fiscal Division initially had projected the state would have an ending fund surplus of $522 million.

“Look at where we’re out now, on the graph. Right there, the big headline, negative $500 million. We have spent it all over twice.” Regier said. “And just as it’s been said here before, we’re not done here making decisions.”

With tax policy decisions still coming up, Regier said he hoped the Senate would be able to prioritize offering relief for Montanans, rather than focusing on spending. 

Regier referenced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who visited the state earlier in the session and said he’d directed the Florida legislature that they couldn’t spend a dollar more than the previous session. 

“That would be amazing for my constituents that are paying for all of this,” Regier said. “… In 2026, the lines cross and we go into the red. That’s not sustainable.”

“And with that, happy voting.”

The budget passed 27-23, and will be sent back to the House to approve the Senate amendments.