Montana budget bill leaves out working Montanans

It was a couple of weeks ago that the main state budget bill — House Bill 2 — passed the House of Representatives. I voted against it, and I want to be clear about why.

HB 2, as it stands now, falls far short of meeting the scale of crises facing northern Montana and most Montanans, for that matter. We came into this session with a $2 billion surplus. We have the funds to pass a budget that will have a meaningful and noticeable difference in the lives of the people in our state. Budgets are about priorities, and, unfortunately, HB 2 makes it clear that the priorities of working Montanans were...