SARAH COOKE Associated Press Writer
HELENA (AP) Gov. Brian Schweitzer vetoed three more spending bills Thursday, and reiterated his intent to keep doing so until lawmakers pass a state budget. The 2007 Legislature adjourned April 27 without passing a state spending plan or any tax relief measures. Although Schweitzer is expected to call lawmakers back into special session sometime before July 1, he said he won’t do so unless they have an agreement first. “I do not want the people of Montana to pay some $50,000 a day for (lawmakers) to shout at each other,” he said. The three latest bills to be nixed by Schweitzer would have cost the state more than $17.4 million over the next two years. The governor said he can’t sign large spending bills without knowing how much money the state is spending and how much is left over. “They’re asking me to float a check,” Schweitzer said of lawmakers. “They’re asking me to bounce a check, and I can’t do that. They sent me bills knowing that we don’t have the money in the bank.” The measures, two sponsored by Democrats and one by a Republican, would have increased funding to the state oil, gas and coal natural resource account; distributed money from that account to counties for bridge and road maintenance; and funneled revenue from bed and rental car taxes into state tourism. “Some of these (bills) are good ideas and they will not be law in this biennium,” Schweitzer said. The governor has vetoed two other spending bills in recent days, as well as a measure by Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, that would have changed the way the governor’s budget is prepared. Sinrud engineered a successful effort by House Republicans to split the tradiBy House Republicans to split the traditional single budget bill into six bills, then into eight. Schweitzer and House Democrats protested the move, and the Democrat-controlled Senate later consolidated the eight bills into four. In his veto message, Schweitzer called Sinrud’s bill “insulting” and said it “presumes the executive budget I submitted to the Legislature was in some technical manner insufficient.” “Ironically, (the bill) was sponsored by the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who led that committee into dismantling the executive budget into six pieces,” the governor wrote. “Ironically, too, the Legislature adjourned because the House Republican majority refused to even place those (Senate-amended) pieces on second reading for consideration by the full body.” Tensions over the breakdown in budget negotiations were still running high nearly a week after the regular session ended. Schweitzer again criticized House Republicans for playing games with the budget in the session’s final days, and said he’s been speaking with GOP lawmakers in the past week who are “frustrated with their party’s leadership.” He said Republicans want an unsustainable amount of tax relief, echoing the concerns of Democratic lawmakers. They said the GOP couldn’t show where they would cut the budget to make the tax cuts a reality. House Speaker Scott Sales, Rbozeman, challenged that assertion, saying the GOP’s original eight budget bills cut enough spending from the governor’s proposal to pay for the tax cuts and then some. He also scoffed at Schweitzer’s attempts to “go around GOP leaders” by calling House Republicans. “That was his plan all along was to fracture our caucus and get votes,” Sales said. “It didn’t work in 90 days and now he’s trying to do it again.” Sales and other legislative leaders are scheduled to meet Monday at Montana State- Billings. Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena, organized the meeting as a way to re-establish a good working relationship in advance of a special session, but Sales and others want to start working on a deal and say the governor should be involved. Schweitzer has not been invited to the meeting. “I’m hoping there’s going to be some discussions that are more concrete and tangible than just saying Hi,’” Sales said. Cooney said he knows a meeting with Schweitzer is needed, but suggested that could occur in the days following Monday’s sitdown. “I think one of the biggest failures we had (in the 2007 Legislature) is our inability to have meaningful communications with each other or develop any sort of trust or dealing with each other in good faith,” he said. “If we don’t have that, I’m not sure we can ever really succeed.”
