Ten percent budget cuts to Montana state government are a ridiculous solution to a manufactured problem. But somehow, Montana’s budget crisis is nobody’s fault. According to recent news reports, perhaps the current budget disaster is attributable to overly optimistic miscalculations on the part of the legislative fiscal division. Or maybe it’s inaccurate national economic data. Perhaps the wealthy are waiting to pay taxes on certain kinds of income until they see what national tax policy is going to look like.
I call bull.
The problem is simple: the Republican majority in the 2017 state legislature refused to acknowledge that Montana’s revenue forecasts were down, and thus ignored a legitimate need to increase taxes and fees to cover necessary services. But, they also didn’t want to take political responsibility for cutting those services. So, by adopting a revenue and economic growth forecast that was at best pie-in-the-sky, and tossing the budgetary hot potato to the executive branch, we now have a crisis.
Sadly, those who suffer will not be the beneficiaries of the popular but illusory “fat in the budget,” it will be Montana’s most poor and vulnerable. The republicans get their long-awaited opportunity to shrink government to their ideal level of being able to be drowned in a bathtub, but at the same time point their fingers at Governor Steve Bullock and the Democratic executive branch for having to do the dirty work of implementing budget cuts that will directly hurt many Montanans.