Warburton predicts state cannot fund everything, has to set priorities

A local legislator said tensions seem to be rising, as is the nature of legislative sessions, and that in the final three weeks of this session it may have to decide what to fund and what to cut.

"I think we are going to start realizing pretty soon … that there is a finite amount of money, and we are going to have to make decisions," Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, said from Helena during Tuesday's video conference in Havre. "Do we really increase education funding or do we give … the state employees who haven't had a raise for five years raises, or do we (make state retirement programs) actuarily sound, and do we build these new university system buildings or do we go into more debt?

"It's going to be an interesting final three weeks, and we have some prioritizing to do, and I'm sitting here predicting that it's not going to be possible to get all of it done, but it remains to be seen," she added.

Warburton was the only local legislator able to attend the weekly video conference sponsored in the Robins School Administration Building by the Havre Public Schools and Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.

She said tensions are rising, which she said seems to be normal by this part of a session.

"You all probably saw what happened in the Senate last (Friday) when the minority didn't like two bills … and they tried to hijack those bills and kill them without a vote, which I think was very egregious," Warburton said.

Democrats say they were trying to make a legal motion to call all Senators to the chamber to vote, and that Senate President Jeff Essman, R-Billings, violated procedure by failing to recognize senators wishing to make a motion.

Warburton said she thinks those bills — referendums sending to the voters decisions on changing election procedures including ending same-day voter registration — will pass the House now that the Democratic opposition in the Senate was overcome.

"I think they are good bills," she said.

She said a state bonding bill to pay for construction of state buildings, including a new center to house the automotive technology and diesel technology programs at Montana State University-Northern, has been shifted into another bill, House Bill 5, that will allow the state to pay cash instead of selling bonds to pay for the construction.

Warburton said the reason the bonding bill was defeated in the 2011 Legislature was due to opposition to increasing the state debt.

As the state has a high ending fund balance, this would build the buildings without increasing debt, she said.

"I think that's a good way to do it," Warburton said.

She said she is not sure where the proposal advocated by Gov. Steve Bullock to increase Medicaid eligibility is at.

"Its definitely been a lot of pressure to pass it, but then those of us that are on the conservative side are certainly resisting it," she said.

Warburton added that the bill was extensively amended in the Senate, "trying to come in with a Montana solution that isn't just a rubber stamp of Obamacare.

She said she can't predict whether the bill would die in the House.

"Nothing is ever dead until we get to the very end," Warburton said.

Legislative video conference to continue

The sole lawmaker able to make a legislative videoconference in Havre Tuesday said she wants to continue the connection from Helena at least through next week.

"I kind of think it would be good to keep having these, if it's convenient for people," Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Chinook, said from Helena.

The video conferences with local lawmakers in Helena are sponsored each Tuesday at noon by the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce and Havre Public Schools in the Robins School Administration Building.

Warburton and Chamber Executive Director Debbie Vandeberg agreed that at the conference next Tuesday they would decide whether to continue after that.