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Subcommittee passes broad set of agency budget adjustments and adopts House Bill 2 language; one livestock staffing item postponed
Summary
The subcommittee approved multiple decision packages across the departments of Livestock, Agriculture and others, adopted House Bill 2 language for several agencies, and approved proprietary rates; one proposed livestock inspection staffing amendment was postponed for further fiscal detail.
The budget subcommittee approved a broad set of decision packages (DPs) for the departments of Livestock, Agriculture and others, adopted House Bill 2 language for several agencies and approved proprietary rates for the departments considered at the hearing.
Among actions the committee passed were: adoption of proprietary rates for the three departments on the agenda; acceptance of House Bill 2 language for Fish, Wildlife & Parks, DEQ, Montana Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation; and multiple agency-specific DPs including livestock lab expenses, milk-inspection fee shifts, agricultural lab equipment, pesticide ground-water authority increases, organic program funding and noxious-weed grant authority increases. Committee members recorded a repeated proxy vote notation that Senator Bogner voted "aye by proxy."
Notable items - Department of Livestock: The committee approved DP 40 (milk inspection fee shift), DP 42 (new laboratory expenses, $863,048), DP 44 (milk laboratory instruments, $200,000) and other routine DPs. Lawmakers postponed action on a staffing amendment tied to DP 43 (meat inspection additional staff) to allow fiscal staff to calculate dollar impacts of removing budgeted positions.
- Department of Agriculture: The committee approved a series of agriculture DPs including analytical lab equipment (DP30001, $561,000), pesticide ground-water authority (DP30002, $200,000 state special), digital produce inspections (DP30003), organic program operations (DP30004), noxious weed grant authority increases (DP30005), seed program authority (DP30006), granulator stations for pesticide-container recycling (DP30009) and CRM system implementation and maintenance (DP50007 and DP50008).
- House Bill 2 and proprietary rates: Subcommittee members accepted the recommended House Bill 2 language for the listed agencies and approved the proprietary rates packet the agencies had reviewed.
Why it matters: These approvals implement recurring and one-time program costs, authorize operating and capital items tied to licensing and fee revenue, and set the baseline language and rates used to prepare the House budget. Postponements and requests for more precise fiscal calculations mean at least one livestock staffing change will be revisited.
Quotes "Our recommendation to the committee is that you pass all the statewide present law adjustments at once for the entire section," a legislative staffer told the committee as he walked through the packet of HB2 language and proprietary rates.
"We will postpone this DP till tomorrow. I will have new numbers for you tomorrow as soon as I can sit down with the agency," Rob (legislative staff) said about the meat-inspection staffing amendment.
Ending Most DPs on the agenda were approved by voice vote, with proxy votes noted. The committee asked staff to return with itemized fiscal adjustments for the postponed livestock staffing amendment so the subcommittee can consider the specific dollar changes.
