Aunt Mildred's Estate
Krayton Kerns
4.25.07
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to settle the estate of your deceased aunt when she dies a pauper? All the relatives speak admiringly of the dearly departed as they dutifully divide up faded furniture, ceramic figurines and velvet paintings of dogs playing poker. Yep, everyone is charitable when there is nothing to be uncharitable about. The family is harmonious until some cousin opens a cookie tin and finds $1.3 billion dollars. Suddenly the fight begins.
Coincidentally, and for the purpose of making my point, the $1.3 billion in Aunt Mildred’s cookie tin just happens to be the exact amount of projected excess tax revenues we legislators are dividing amongst the state agencies and taxpayers. (Actually, it’s not a coincidence, it’s my story and I get to tell it how I want.)
This session began with the Governor submitting a budget (HB2), a massive spending increase of 26% over the previous biennium which was a 22% increase over the one before that. The House tabled the Governor’s budget bill and created eight of their own which held spending increases to a more manageable level of 8.8%. The Senate Democrats studied the 8 House appropriation bills, killed some, combined others and then approved spending levels $27 million higher than the Governor had requested. (The game of legislative-budget-poker is easy since you bet with other folk’s money.)
Over the last two weeks of the session a select number of these Senate-amended bills were delivered back to the House for our agreement. Some were tabled and some were held as bargaining chips. We republicans were holding firm on our commitment to provide permanent property tax relief during the budget negotiations.
Late evening April 26th the 89th day of the session, the Governor and the democrat leadership gave their final offer. Other than possibly increasing the homeowner rebate check to $600, their position remained the same…take it or leave it. With budget negotiations at an impasse, the House republicans decided to resurrect HB2 and amend its spending down to a more reasonable level. This bill could be used to define the budget without trying to fix the massively amended HB833 which had been returned from the Senate.
On the morning of the 27th it looked possible to complete a budget the final 24 hours of the session. With a press filled House Appropriation committee room the amending session began on HB2. Progress was made but, then it happened. Two floors above the committee room, the Senate democrats successfully moved “sine die” and adjourned the 60th meeting of the legislature. The media exploded out the door and sprinted to the third floor to catch the biggest story of the session: With no budget the Senate democrats had just taken the ball and run home.
I sat at my desk on the House floor and wondered what would happen now. On the bright side I knew I could go home that evening but, on the dark side, now I had to return to Helena for a special session. We had been so close to being done.
At 1:00 pm Friday the House floor session became more a formality to finish scheduled business than it was an opportunity to accomplish anything of significance. Also, it became the final theatrical opportunity for public posturing so there were great orations provided by minority party members as to why the early Senate adjournment was actually the fault of the House republicans. The performances were impressive and the media loved it.
Suddenly the mood changed. With his voice cracking and the curtain closing on both the session and his legislative career, the Dean of the House, Representative Glaser of Huntley, emotionally moved “sine die.” We adjourned at 2:47 pm on Friday April 27th, 2007.
