We’ve been reporting a lot on the budget cuts Governor Steve Bullock’s administration has been making as a result of a more than $200 million state budget shortfall. The cuts are the result of bills passed in the regular and special legislative sessions in 2017.
Since then political leaders on both sides of the aisle have been distancing themselves from some of the impacts of those decisions.
During the legislative sessions, Governor Bullock and Democrats proposed raising taxes to continue funding state agencies. The Republican legislative majority rejected that idea, insisting instead that the governor make a deal with the state’s only private prison to bring more money, and said and the government should live within its means.
Today, we’re hearing from Representative Nancy Ballance, the Hamilton Republican and legislative finance leader to get her take on how the state budgeting process looks in hindsight. She spoke to MTPR’s Capitol Reporter Corin Cates-Carney.