Medicaid expansion through I-185 is a bad deal for Montanans and presents serious issues for future legislative sessions and state budget discussions. In 2015 when Medicaid expansion was passed, there were months of heated debate between both sides. It was eventually passed but only after both sides agreed to include a “sunset clause” that provided a statutory appropriation through 2019 and would require the 2019 legislative session to re-approve the program. This was done so that the legislature could take a serious look at the program’s implementation in Montana, its effects on the budget and to make any necessary changes.
A statutory appropriation provides funding to a program every year without requiring legislative re-approval as part of the normal budgeting process. Usually, when the legislature passes a statutory appropriation for the first time it includes a sunset clause, which causes the program to come back up for re-approval after a term of years so that the legislature has some oversight and state spending remains accountable to the tax paying voters who fund it.
I-185 removes the sunset clause from Medicaid expansion, causing the funding for the program to no longer require legislative oversight and re-approval. Montana’s constitution says only the legislature, made up of voices elected by the people of Montana, may appropriate Montanans’ tax dollars.
I-185 attempts to get around this by claiming that it is not appropriating money but just removing the sunset clause, removing the need for legislative review and approval. This not only obligates the state to hundreds of millions of dollars in appropriations over the next ten years without legislative oversight, it creates a tool that can be used to remove any sunset clause from any statutory appropriation on any program. This will prevent any real oversight of these government programs by the people’s elected representatives, rendering the programs unaccountable to voters and taxpayers across Montana.
I-185 also creates another huge sales tax increase on tobacco products in Montana. In the 2017 legislative session, Montana Democrats brought 18 separate tax increase bills to the legislature, the majority of those being sales tax increases. With a Republican majority we were able to defeat all the Democrats’ sales tax increases, but the plan was clear. Instead of seeking to raise your taxes in an upfront and honest way, Democrats are trying to raise Montana’s taxes by targeting dozens of smaller, usually lower income groups of Montanans. They hope that they can raise the same amount of taxes as one large tax increase would provide through dozens of smaller increases to avoid the electoral consequences while still achieving the same outcome, a massive tax increase on the people of Montana. I-185 is just the beginning of the tax increases to come.
I think that we can all agree that the tax dollars being spent by government should remain accountable to the tax paying voters that provide the funding for these programs. Let the 2019 Legislature review and discuss the program and go through the regular process as was agreed to in 2015. I will be voting against I-185 and I hope you will too.
Mike Hopkins
Representative for HD92 and member of the House Appropriations Committee Missoula, Mont.
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