{"id":20257,"date":"2017-11-16T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T14:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20257"},"modified":"2017-11-16T15:16:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T22:16:42","slug":"bullock-gop-agree-on-budget-fix-special-session-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/11\/bullock-gop-agree-on-budget-fix-special-session-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullock, GOP agree on budget fix, special session over"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Adjourn\"<\/a>

Stan Parker<\/p>

The special session of the Montana Legislature, meeting in the Capitol, adjourned early Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note<\/strong>: This story has been superseded by a later, expanded story, which you can read by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

HELENA \u2014 The Montana House and Senate adjourned the special legislative session early Thursday after Republican leaders and Gov. Steve Bullock agreed on a plan to fill the state budget and revenue gap with $231 million in cuts, transfers and other funds.<\/p>\n

The total includes $32 million that CoreCivic has offered the state in exchange for renewing its 10-year contract with the company to operate the 664-bed private prison in Shelby.<\/p>\n

Bullock called the special session to come up with $227 million to make up for a budget and revenue shortfall. \u00a0He proposed coming up with one-third by budget cuts, one-third by fund transfers and one-third by tax increases.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the Republicans, who control both the House and Senate pieced together:<\/p>\n

\u2666 $75 million in Bullock\u2019s budget cuts.<\/p>\n

\u2666 $94 million in budget transfers, legislative cuts, delays and other savings.<\/p>\n

\u2666 $30 million from a temporary, new fee charged to the workers\u2019 compensation State Fund, which has the Board of Investments invest the money. \u00a0That bill, originally rejected in the House, was revived and passed before adjournment.<\/p>\n

\u2666 $32 million to renew the private prison contract.<\/p>\n

After the session adjourned, Bullock issued this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight we reached a reasonable and responsible compromise to balance our budget and pay for Montana\u2019s record fire season. While I\u2019m disappointed we were not able to reach a full agreement, I would be remiss not to acknowledge all the progress made to minimize the impacts of severe budget cuts on the most vulnerable among us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve ensured most seniors will still be able to access the prescription drugs they need. We\u2019ve assured most young kids with autism will continue to receive services helping them make developmental gains. We\u2019ve prevented steep tuition increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve prevented many job losses. We\u2019ve protected public safety and prevented strains on local sheriffs\u2019 offices. We\u2019ve prevented financial duress on rural hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t just numbers on a balance sheet, these are real people. These are our friends, our families and our neighbors \u2014 our children, our grandchildren, our parents and grandparents. While we still have work to do, tonight Montanans can be pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Last Best News later this morning for more details on the budget fixes and an in-depth look at this week\u2019s special session.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: This story has been superseded by a later, expanded story, which you can read by clicking here. HELENA \u2014 The Montana House and Senate adjourned the special legislative session early Thursday after Republican leaders and Gov. Steve Bullock agreed on a plan to fill the state budget and revenue gap with $231 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":20258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[1122,6442,782],"class_list":["post-20257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-montana-legislature","tag-special-session","tag-steve-bullock","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20257"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20274,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20257\/revisions\/20274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}