Revenue, spending figures explained
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HB 2, the budget bill, passed out of the House last Friday on a party line vote. Democrats in the House proposed nearly a billion dollars in amendments. Every amendment was an attempt to return the budget to the governor’s proposal.
Like every other governor before him, Bullock wants only his proposed budget and is threatening a veto. What part of “proposed” is hard to understand? The legislature has a right to be heard.
I should tell you right now that the power of the legislature, your voice in state government, is getting weaker. We only meet for 90 days every two years. Only four other states have biennial sessions. With term limits few legislators have the institutional knowledge that the agencies and the lobbyists have. The executive branch and the judiciary have become more powerful, especially in dictating how we spend money. That used to be our job. Personally, I am too old for a career in politics.
The House Republicans held the spending to about a 5.7 percent increase over the previous biennium. Remember that HB 2 only reduces the increase. Current spending is almost never reduced. The governor proposed an increase of 7.3 percent over the last biennium.
The difference is less than 2 percent. Pretty close. And many of us think that a 5.7 percent increase is too much. Montana’s economy did not increase 5.7 percent. Did yours?
The two-year total spending is about $10 billion. Much of our revenue (45 percent) comes from the feds. That money is earmarked mostly for transportation and health and human services. There is also some state money (15 percent) that is reserved for specific purposes, like Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
That leaves the general fund. The legislature approves all spending, but the general fund is where we have the most discretion. Fifty-one percent of the general fund comes from individual income tax, 12 percent from property tax and 7 percent from corporate tax. The rest is vehicle, oil and gas, etc.
General fund money goes primarily for education (52 percent), health and human services (26 percent), and corrections (10 percent). Senator Keenan calls it “pupils, patients and prisoners.”
In all of this the taxpayer’s voice gets left behind. Income tax is our top funding source and the highest 20 percent of those taxpayers pay 70 percent of the tax. It looks like the governor will veto any attempt to return the surplus to the taxpayers. I hope not.
Whenever you read tax ratings among states, remember that no sales tax raises our score. One interesting measure is net migration, the number of citizens that move in or out. California and New York have each lost 1.5 million people from 2002 to 2011. Texas and Florida have each gained a million. Remember that that translates to four more congressional seats for Texas. Montana has gained 44,000 in the same time period.
It is no surprise that Texas and Florida have no income tax. Some of our neighbors also have none; South Dakota, Wyoming, Washington and Nevada. North Dakota’s top tax bracket pays 4 percent. Ours pays 6.9 percent.
On another topic, Lake County is one of the four Montana counties with the highest teen pregnancy rates. The average in Montana is 32 births to teen mothers out of every 1,000 births. Lake County’s statistic is 47.7 out of 1,000.
The Department of Health and Human Services proposes to work with County Health Departments, Planned Parenthood and Best Beginnings Early Childhood Coalition to provide a curriculum for middle schools. I would like to see the lesson plans for this Montana Pregnancy Prevention Program (MAPPP) because, although I am in favor of sex ed, some of the Planned Parenthood materials are pretty explicit.
Leave me a message at (406) 444-4800 because my cell phone, 253-8766, is usually off. Email sen.janna.taylor@mt.gov. I am working for you.
