Will Gianforte Have to Veto His Way to a Balanced Budget?

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Legislature was gavelled to a close on April 30; however, there are several GOP members who believe Governor Gianforte will be forced to veto some spending bills to maintain a balanced budget.

I spoke with Senate Finance and Claims Committee Chairman Carl Glimm on Friday about his deep concerns regarding the state budget following the legislative session.

Governor Gianforte will likely Have to Veto Some Important Spending Bills

“We have a final picture of what the finances look like after we left town, and what that shows is that we didn't do our job,” began Glimm. “We didn't provide a balanced budget coming out of this thing, and we had a huge surplus coming in. We basically had a spending problem, and we've spent too much, and so the governor is going to (have to) veto some stuff to get us to a fiscally sound spot.”

Glimm said the movement of several Republican legislators to side with Democrats caused the excessive spending.

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The Defection of Nine Republicans to Vote Democratic was the Chief Cause

“That was a very key component of what happened with those nine siding with the Democrats,” he said. “They actually added four more votes to the Finance and Claims committee. I was the chair of that committee, and that is the committee that on the Senate side, looks at the budget, looks at all the spending bills, and we have to make hard decisions about what we're going to fund in state government, and with those four added votes, we basically were just passing everything.”

Glimm said the legislature simply spent more this session than was possible to maintain a balanced budget.

“We have had too much spending going on in this legislative session, and what we ended up with is a status sheet that looks like this one, where our revenues that are coming in are less than what our expenditures are going out,” he said. “And just like your home budget at your house, if you're spending more than you're bringing in, you're spending down your savings, and that's not a good place to be.”

Glimm said He Sees Trouble Coming for State Government

Glimm looked out over a four year period and saw trouble coming for the state government.

“We came into this legislative session flush with money, and now after we leave this legislative session, we're leaving with ending funds below those minimums,” he said. “That's just not right. We're not doing a good job of what we should be doing. We've actually projected out four years, and that fourth year, at the end of fiscal year 2029, that ending fund balance is actually below the statutory limit where the governor would have to make cuts to the state budget.”

Glimm said this is the main reason why Governor Gianforte will be forced to ‘veto his way out’ of some spending bills, in order to maintain a balanced budget.