The Montana Legislative Finance Committee met on Monday and Tuesday this week with an update on the state budget. Committee Chair Nancy Balance says a group of state Democrats came to the meeting asking them to either appropriate money, declare a state of emergency or to create a supplemental budget allocation to address cuts in mental health services and services for the developmentally disabled. Balance says the committee can’t do any of those things.
“The response from the committee, was that, if there is an issue, this is because of the cuts that the governor made. The governor is the only one that can reverse them, so, my suggestion as chairperson was to have them walk upstairs to the second floor and make the request to the governor… I just don’t know whether or not it was a stunt, or exactly what it was.”