Montana Budgeting with Alternative Facts
This week, the Montana GOP is turning their alternative facts machine up to 11. The GOP continues to try and gaslight Montanans about the health of our economy and the state budget. After last week’s veto by Governor Bullock of HB 1, the Feed Bill, it’s no surprise that Montanans were subjected to some hastily penned Op-Eds by Rep. Nancy Ballance and Rep. Brad Tschida.
What Ballance and Tschida failed to mention in their Op-Eds, is that they both voted to line their pockets with tax payer’s money by increasing their legislative budget in HB 1 by a whopping 14%, giving pay raises to their staff and a slush fund to themselves.
They also failed to mention that Montana is still in the black with a rainy-day fund. Rep. Ballance equates the state budget to a Montana family’s budget. She should know then that a rainy-day fund is an emergency fund families set aside for unexpected expenses. So how come Montana still has a rainy-day fund? Well, it’s not because of Nancy and the GOP, it’s because of Governor Bullock.
Last session, Democratic Governor Steve Bullock foresaw the energy bust coming but the GOP Majority couldn’t believe that the invisible hand of the free market would ever betray them. They sent multiple wealthy tax handouts and spending bills to the Governor’s desk. These spending bills left hard working middle class Montanans with next to nothing, but made the GOP donors very happy. Here are the bills and those who voted for them: HB154, SB171, and SB200. But I’ll save you the time, both Ballance and Tschida voted for them.
Read more: http://mtcowgirl.com/2017/02/09/budgeting-with-alternative-facts/