Governor Bullock lacks real leadership on infrastructure funding
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Last week, Governor Bullock made a campaign stop in Billings to announce his proposal to spend $200 million to address what he called the “immediate needs of Montana’s communities.” Republicans in the House of Representatives agree that we ought to be making significant investments in the needs of our communities, but many of us disagree with the Governor about how to define needs.
Bullock has spent much of the past year blaming Republicans for the failure of SB 416, the last infrastructure bill of the 2015 legislative session. I was one of the Republicans who ultimately voted against SB 416 and for good reason. Bullock claims that since the bill passed the Senate 47-3, it should have easily sailed through the House, though the House and Senate versions of the bill differed significantly. When the bill hit the House floor, Republicans offered an amendment to ensure the Legislature made smarter, more thoughtful investments in statewide needs, not pet projects. Rather than debating the merits of SB 416 in an open, transparent process, Governor Bullock’s allies finalized the bill behind closed doors with the agreement that when it came to the House floor no amendments would be allowed. More than one-third of SB 416 was made up of two projects, a new museum in Helena and renovations at Romney Hall on the MSU campus, projects many Legislators did not consider “immediate needs.” In fact, a recent study on infrastructure needs in Montana rated our schools as needing the most investment followed by water and sewer projects.
The amendment offered by House Republicans replaced the Governor’s two pet projects with more than 50 investments in statewide schools with failing roofs, heating systems and deferred maintenance issues along with more than 75 water and sewer projects across Montana.
The investments identified in our amendment were not hand-picked; these projects had already been identified by the Bullock Administration as needed infrastructure. Rather than showing a willingness to publicly debate the value of building a new museum versus the value of making statewide investments in our schools, Bullock’s political allies tried to cram SB 416 through the House. If the Governor and his political allies would have removed either the museum or the Romney Hall renovations and instead agreed to invest in our schools or water and sewer systems, the House could have gotten the votes needed to pass the infrastructure bill. Instead, the Bullock allies spent the last five days of the legislative session trying to buy another vote.
A school in my district was one of the more than 50 schools left hanging by the Bullock Administration. I was offered funding for just the school in my district if I would change my vote on SB 416. I would never bargain away my vote. Good legislation requires support through debate and widespread consensus, not horse-trading.
Unfortunately, these tactics were used on many bills during the 2015 legislative session. Bullock now uses his own version of the events to try and blame House Republicans and garner support in his 2016 reelection bid. I guess he thought he’d win either way — get his pet projects funded or score a political issue for the 2016 election — all while ignoring Montana’s most pressing infrastructure needs. Between his veto of infrastructure funding in 2013 and his inability to build consensus in 2015, Governor Bullock has shown a gross lack of leadership on infrastructure funding. Instead, he’s opted to use the issue to benefit his reelection bid while Montana’s real infrastructure needs continue to build.
