Crunch time in the legislature

Since my return from the transmittal break, the Business and Labor Committee, of which I am vice chairman, has been cleaning up a few House bills and starting to hear Senate bills. It appears at this time that we will need to take action on only about 40 bills.

The declining revenue estimates continue to be a critical issue and forever in our minds when dealing with new program proposals that require substantial general fund monies. It’s not that some of these bills aren’t worthy, but now is not the time to consider additional revenue expenditures.

Once you accept a new program, it will become part of your expanding budget base for years to come, and who knows how long this economic crisis will last.

A number of Democratic legislators have criticized Republican legislators for opposing the voter-expansion of the CHIP program (Children Health Insurance Plan). Given the recent economic meltdown, I believe voters understand that it’s not responsible to begin a brand new, expensive program at this time.

We are hard pressed to fund the current programs our citizens have depended on for years. We currently fund more that 17,000 low-income children in our CHIP program, and we will continue to fully support that program.

Our Constitution requires that we balance our budget. When the voters passed I-155 to fund this new program, our economic picture was much different, and the governor was talking about large increases in revenue.

That has changed dramatically. State revenues have dropped by $251 million, and we expect revenues to continue to decline. Nearly $160 million has been cut from the governor’s budget, leaving it still $95 million structurally unbalanced. We still need to find $95 million more in current programs to slash before we can balance the budget.

Where do we find an additional $35 million to fund the expanded CHIP program? Do we take it from funding our nursing homes? From schools? From programs for the disabled?

The reality is that we have hundreds of millions less for the budget, and funding an extremely expensive program would require significant cuts in existing programs. The new program would provide free health insurance for children of families who earn 250 percent of the poverty level. A family of four could earn $55,000 to $60,000 a year and still qualify for free insurance.

These are tough times that call for tough decisions.

Rep. Bill Beck, R-Whitefish, represents House District 6, rural Whitefish.