A bill before the Special Session of the Montana Legislature last week had locals paying attention.
Senate Bill 12, sponsored by Kalispell Republican Sen. Keith Regier, would have cut $7.2 million from the professional services budget for the Montana Developmental Center over the next two years.
Approved in the Senate, the bill was defeated in the House and was dead at the end of the session.
The Special Session was called by Gov. Steve Bullock to respond to a budget shortfall created by lower than expected tax collections and more than $70 million in costs to deal with wildfires over the summer.
About two weeks before the Special Session, Rep. Matt Regier, also a Kalispell Republican, had written a letter to the Flathead Beacon newspaper critical of proposals by Bullock, a Democrat, to deal with budget shortfalls. The letter said, in part, “Another questionable Gov. Bullock expenditure is the Montana Developmental Center at Boulder. There is $12.6 million in an exclusive fund for a 12-bed mental hospital that is not taking any new patients. That’s right, $12 million for 12 beds, and the state is phasing out the facility.”
That funding had been approved by the 2017 Legislature in the spring after a two-year effort by the MDC Transition Planning and Advisory Council. The council, appointed by the governor after the Legislature decided in 2015 to close the MDC, came to the conclusion that a facility was needed to serve clients with needs beyond the capabiity of existing community placements.
In promoting his bill to cut the MDC funding, Sen. Keith Regier maintained the funding was excessive and should be funneled instead to pay fire suppression costs.
SB 12 passed the Senate Finance and Claims Committee 10 to 8 and passed the entire Senate on second and third readings. Democrat Edie McClafferty, whose Senate district includes the MDC area, opposed. So, too, did Helena Democrat Mary Caferro, the chief sponsor of the 2015 bill to close the MDC.
In the House, the proposal went down with 45 voting in favor, 55 against, including Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell and Republican Kirk Wagoner, both of whom served the MDC transition council.
