State Budget closing in on final days

HELENA - Monday was the final day for general bills to transmit back to the chamber they originated in, so any policy bills that weren’t returned to the House or the Senate, depending on where they started are now dead. Moving forward, most of the work on the House side will be reviewing appropriation/revenue bills from the Senate and processing House bills that come back with amendments from the Senate.

Most of the big policy bills are still working their way through the process. As we come down to the end of the session, we will have one more revenue update to help guide us as we try to fit the policy bills into the budget and we will have to make some tough choices.

The State Budget is still awaiting final approval in the Senate, it should be passed out and back in the House in the next few days. When the State Budget comes back from the Senate, the House will have to decide whether or not we can accept the amendments from the Senate.

If we can accept the changes to the budget made by the Senate, we will approve them and the budget will be on its way to the Governor for his signature. The Governor can potentially make some amendments of his own, and if he does, they would have to be confirmed by both chambers. If he does amend the budget however, it gives both the House and the Senate the opportunity to make further amendments, so it carries some risks.

If the House cannot accept the changes made by the Senate, the House will vote down the amendments and the State Budget will go to a conference committee. A conference committee is a small committee appointed by the leadership in the House and the Senate, three members from each chamber, six members total. This places the budget in the hands of a very small group of people and allows them to make any changes they want.

This is a pretty big risk to take considering you never know who leadership will appoint to the conference committee and you never know what the conference committee will actually do, so if it is at all possible to do so, the House will try to accept the changes made by the Senate.

Our most recent revenue update has us within striking distance of our estimate from last session. That’s the normal 2017 session, not the special session called by the Governor. Revenue is currently less than one percent off of that estimate, which for a $10.3 billion estimate, is pretty darn good and is a very different place than we were told that we would be when the special session was called.

Thank you to all the folks who have made the trip to Helena to meet with me over the session. Thank you for all of the emails, texts and phone calls. One of the reasons I love representing the people in this district is because of how involved everyone is and having the constant contact and input from constituents throughout the district makes a huge difference for me here in Helena.