Cuffe proposes alternative to Bullock's bill

Rep. Mike Cuffe of Eureka, chairman of the Montana Legislature’s Joint Subcommittee on Long-Range Planning, is preparing to go toe-to-toe with Gov. Steve Bullock on the issue of state debt and infrastructure.

Bullock sent House Bill 5, the so-called Build Montana Act, to the Legislature for approval. The act calls for nearly $400 million in infrastructure spending in the state, half of which he proposes to pay for with long-term debt.

Cuffe intends to break the bill into six or seven smaller bills, the package of which will include all of the projects and spending proposed by the governor, but will break it down into “more manageable chunks,” Cuffe said.

Cuffe said his primary concern with the Build Montana Act is how it was presented to the legislature. “The governor made it pretty clear that this is his bill and we could take it or leave it,” he said. “He told us anything else would be met with a veto.”

The problem, as Cuffe sees it, is that the bill doesn’t allow the legislature to properly examine the projects and decide what should be funded. “My subcommittee has dealt with this bill every day for the past three weeks. When it goes to the floor for a vote the rest of the legislature will have 30 minutes, maybe an hour, to review it before voting.”

Infrastructure projects are funded through a variety of different budgets and revenue sources. Cuffe wants one bill to cover the cash expenditures for projects that come from each of the funds. For the projects the governor proposes to fund from the issuance of bonds, Cuffe suggests a separate bill.

“My quarrel isn’t with the projects,” Cuffe said. “It’s with the whole package. We shouldn’t have to accept $200 million in debt in order to approve projects we can pay for with cash.”

He compared the governor’s proposal to Eureka’s famous Bubba Burger. “That thing had all kinds of meat and cheese and vegetables stacked on it, then they added a couple of shrimp to the top. You could barely get your mouth open enough to get around it, and if you did manage to eat it you’d end up with a gut-bomb bellyache,” Cuffe said.

Cuffe’s second objection is with the debt incurred in Bullock’s proposal. Cuffe said the nearly $200 million proposed by the governor would double the state’s debt load.

Cuffe said bonds cost between two and four percent per year, depending on the bond. “Some say it’s smart money to issue bonds now, because debt is cheap. I disagree. I think we should bond when we need to bond, not bond when it’s convenient.”

Others question whether it’s really smart money at all. Montana currently has a positive cash balance of approximately $300 million, which sits in a short-term investment fund. The state earned just one quarter of one percent interest on that fund last year, Cuffe said.

Bullock has made clear his intent to retain that balance. Cuffe, on the other hand, suggests that some of that additional cash can be used to pay for the projects that aren’t funded in the individual bills.

Dave Parker, Bullock’s director of communications, issued this statement in response to Cuffe’s proposal: “As Governor Bullock said last night, we are one state and we have urgent infrastructure needs across Montana. And any infrastructure plan that is paid for by all Montanans, but only prioritizes the pet projects of certain legislators, will be met with a veto. The Republican leadership in the Legislature shouldn’t be playing political games, they should be helping Governor Bullock address the infrastructure needs of our state.”

Parker wouldn’t specify to which pet projects he was referring. “That’s traditionally how the Legislature has funded projects,” he wrote in an email to The Western News. “Projects in a particular legislator’s district are critical and must be funded, while projects outside of their district are ‘pork.’”

Cuffe said it is Parker and the governor who are being political. “I want the legislators who represent the people of Montana to decide how much we borrow. There’s no political talk there. The governor’s the politician.”

Cuffe said his subcommittee will refer the bill to the full Appropriations Committee next week. While not able to speak for the entire body, he expressed his own doubts about the bill’s chances of passage. “I don’t think HB5, in its current format, can pass through these two legislative bodies,” he said.

The timing of the individual bills Cuffe is proposing in place of HB5 is still uncertain.