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February 26, 2007
Montana turning bluer
Democratic Edge in Partisanship in 2006 Evident at National, State Levels
Posted by admin at 02:10 PM
February 21, 2007
Train wreck a 'comin...
From the Missoulian:
But the governor's budget director Tuesday blasted the changes being made by GOP leaders, saying it appears they're ignoring spending recommendations that bipartisan budget panels worked on for the past several weeks.
"Where's the citizen input?" asked David Ewer. "Where is the 35 days that the people of Montana came to testify on the state budget bill?
Even their own Committee Chairman are balking at their radical steps.
Rep. Edith Clark, R-Sweetgrass, who will sponsor the human-service spending bill, said Tuesday she'll be asking legislators to reinstate spending for mental health, methamphetamine treatment and other programs recommended by the budget panel she chaired.
The Lawmakers may be, in fact, breaking the law:
Ewer said Tuesday he thinks Republicans could be violating state law by scrapping the one, big budget bill and rolling out new versions midway through the session.
Posted by admin at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2007
Editorial and letter supporting Rep Franke Wilmer's energy bill hb216
Here's a portion of a letter from Don Killian in Sunday's Feb 11th. Bozeman Chronicle: Apparently some Republicans decided that this bill does not merit debate. I believe this is one of the single most cost-effective ways of improving our security, comfort levels and conserving scarce and precious natural resources. I sincerely hope we can have a show of statesmanship from both sides of the aisle in Helena. Good bills need to be debated and something as obvious as insulation and solar panels should allowed to move to the House floor for debate.
Here's what the Bozeman Chronicle had to say:
But killing the other party's proposals without discussion is an abuse of that power.
The people of Montana elected the legislators, all 150 of them. And if either Republicans or Democrats use their majority to essentially disenfranchise the constituents of the opposing party by denying their bills a hearing, they do the people of this state a grave disservice.
Posted by admin at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
Gop bill will not decrease tuition
You may have heard that the House of Representatives won't pass a tuition decrease. That's not true. House Bill 194 is not a "tuition cut bill." A bundle of other house bills (HB2, HB5, HB13, HB131, and HB65) must be passed first in order to make tuition relief a reality. To make good on a campaign promise to cut college tuition for Montana's students and their families, the Republican party would have to do much more than offer half of what the Board of Regents say it would cost just to freeze tuition.
That's why Democrats, including those of us representing the Gallatin Valley, voted to send HB194 back to committee. By not first passing a bundle of bills that would enable the regents to freeze tuition, House Bill 194 by itself could ultimately lead to an increase in tuition. The bathtub won't overflow until it is first filled up.
Let's remember why student tuition now accounts for about two-thirds of the Montana University System revenue. In 1992 state appropriations were 74 percent and student tuition 26 percent of MUS funding. Today that relationship is almost reversed, with tuition accounting for 62 percent and state appropriations 38 percent in FY 2007. The trend toward decreasing the proportion of state support resulted in passing along the costs to students and their families in the form of increased tuition.
To be fair, past legislatures were probably hoping that decreasing their share of the funding would lead to a reduction in the cost of higher education. But simply cutting the state share of funding is not a method of auditing, holding accountable, or cutting the costs of the Montana University System. It's like saying that eliminating your budget for groceries will mean you no longer have to eat. You will still eat. You may eat at your neighbor's house, or find a relative willing to feed an extra mouth. You might even steal food if you have to. But you will not stop eating. You just shift responsibility to someone else.
And that's what happened to student tuition. Some costs are fixed (buildings, maintenance, utilities, energy) and some are variable "classroom" costs like faculty, staff, desks and so on. Fixed costs don't change unless the number of students or the price of energy dramatically increases. Some maintenance costs can be deferred in lean times, but they must ultimately be paid or the infrastructure - buildings and equipment - will no longer be adequate to serve the students. Variable costs are tied to enrollment. Increasing costs in the university system result from growing enrollment and increases in some fixed costs. When the state's share of funding declined - from 74 percent to 28 percent in the past 15 years - the Regents had to pass on increasing cost to students in the form of increasing tuition.
The legislature and the governor are committed to doing something to stop this trend. This is why the governor spent months in discussions with the Regents in order to come to an agreement over what costs would have to be met in order for them to hold tuition at its current level. That amount is approximately $50 million. It includes a two-year pay plan covering all personnel - faculty, staff, and classified employees - for the eight campuses in the university system at a cost of $22 million. It includes a "present law" (or present cost) adjustment - what it takes to continue existing levels of service to the expected number of students for the next two years - $22.6 million. And it includes the required payouts for employees expected to retire in the next two years, at a cost of $2.3 million.
So what we need to freeze tuition at current levels is a total of $49.9 million. HB194 only meets half of these costs. Without a guarantee that the several bills containing appropriations for all of these costs, the $26.8 million in House Bill194 would be used to cover some of these costs, and the balance would most likely have to come from increased tuition.
We, along with the rest of our party, voted to send this bill back to committee because the bundle of bills covering the costs the Regents say must be covered first would have to pass in both he Appropriations Committee and the full house. Since HB194 will not reduce tuition otherwise, our concerned is that it might even be substituted for the funding the governor and the regents agreed to work on with the legislature, and lead to increases rather than a freeze or decrease in tuition.
Representatives Franke Wilmer JP Pomnichowski, Brady Wiseman and Mike Phillips
all Bozeman Democrats
Posted by admin at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)