House appropriations subcommittee reviews new budget tracking sheet, hears legal services requests

The Section D subcommittee of the Montana Legislature met in a work session to review a new automated tracking sheet staff will use to manage executive action on DOJ appropriations and to begin follow-up questions on Department of Justice decision packages.

Committee staff described a ledger-style, program-level spreadsheet that shows base budgets, decision packages (DPs) and funding sources by account. "These will be what you will have in front of you during executive action to vote on," staff member Walker told the committee, noting the document is based on the agencies' November 15 submissions and will be updated.

The tracking sheet lays out each program's base budget, individual DPs, fund type (general, state, federal) and whether proposals are present law or new. Staff explained columns for account-level expenditures, positions requested (columns J and K) and color coding for statewide present law vs. new proposals. The staff demonstration included an example showing the judicial branch program-level summary.

Members then discussed legal services and the natural resources damages program. Walker summarized the legal services program DPs and highlighted a requested $500,000 restricted authority (annual) for natural resources damage claims and a $1 million restricted litigation fund requested as ongoing authority. Walker said the $1 million was provided once previously and the request would make that authority ongoing.

Representative questions focused on how the spreadsheet would be used in executive action and staff explained there is a working tab that lets members toggle DPs on and off to see budget effects. Staff also explained the difference between restricted, one-time-only (OTO) and biennial tags and noted that some reclassifications of modified (temporary) FTE to permanent positions are presented to the committee as $0 DPs because agencies report having paid those positions out of existing budgets.

The subcommittee asked staff to provide updated tracking sheets and follow-up information on items raised during the session. Staff said they will update and email the printed ledger-style copies, and will gather additional data the committee requested before executive action.

The meeting concluded with staff noting several DOJ initiatives depend on other legislation; staff recommended the committee consider coordination language in HB 2 to provide general fund fallback authority if the separate policy bills do not pass.