Kyle Schmauch

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Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, and Senate Finance & Claims Committee Chairman Carl Glimm, R-Kila, are reiterating concerns about the Legislature overspending the state’s budget, following the release of new budget data yesterday. They are continuing to encourage Governor Greg Gianforte to veto irresponsible spending.

The General Fund Status Report (also known as “status sheet”) released yesterday by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Division projects Montana’s budget to be in the red starting in 2028 if Gianforte were to sign all spending bills passed by the Legislature. The Montana Constitution requires the state to have a balanced budget.

“We clearly have a spending problem, not a revenue problem,” Glimm said. “We provided a massive income tax cut to Montanans and still project revenue to remain steady. Meanwhile, spending is on unsustainable upward trend that will blow the budget out of balance.”

“Additionally, the projected ending fund balance for Fiscal Years 2027, 2028 and 2029 are below the generally accepted responsible minimum of 8.3%. We came into the legislative session with a huge surplus general fund balance—why, then, are we leaving a below-minimum ending fund balance at the end of the biennium?” Glimm continued. “Worse yet, the projection for 2029 leaves us below the 4% level that state law would require the governor to start making mandatory cuts.”

Montana Code Annotated 17-7-140 requires the governor to make mandatory budget cuts once the general fund balance crosses below certain thresholds.

Glimm noted the budget is likely to be in even worse shape than the status sheet indicates.

“These projections also don’t include expected overruns. Three overruns, in particular, are expected. The Office of Public Defender is expected to run short, as they have historically needed supplemental funding. DPHHS is expected to have an overrun at the state hospital, as their budget was stripped of funding necessary to hire traveling nurses to adequately staff the facility in Warm Springs. Finally, state government will probably have to backfill the City of Billings for budget shortfalls caused by the conflict between property tax reforms passed this session and the Billings city charter,” Glimm said.

Others are also noting the imbalance of Montana’s budget and related spending bills.

Lee Newspapers reported today that House Appropriations Chairman Llew Jones recognizes vetoes will be necessary. “He said it meant Gianforte would now have no other option than to start vetoing spending bills, meaning the [Democrat/Republican] coalition’s goals could be on the chopping block. In the coming days, the governor’s veto pen will ultimately decide what moderate Republicans and Democrats will have to show for their unconventional control of the [Senate] chamber,” the news outlet reported.

In two veto letters provided to the legislature yesterday, Gianforte noted his concerns about overspending.

In his letter vetoing HB 610 that would’ve made it easier for Medicaid patients to access mental health medication, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, Gianforte said:

“Our Montana Constitution requires us to balance our budget…The budget and other bills with hefty price tags that the Legislature passed, however, are not fiscally responsible. Therefore, I will keenly review the budget and spending bills the Legislature passed, making some difficult decisions to protect taxpayers and their hard-earned resources. Hardworking Montanans expect us to be fiscally responsible.”

In his letter vetoing SB 167 that would’ve put more money towards noxious weed prevention, sponsored by Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, Gianforte said:

“Expanding the Noxious Weed Trust Fund was part of my budget. Given the massive volume of

spending in the budget and other bills the Legislature has passed, however, I must consider

cutting the responsible spending my administration proposed. We must all tighten our belts, live within our means like hardworking Montanans do, and put every piece of spending legislation on the table. Therefore, I’m vetoing Senate Bill 167 to restrain the budget and spending the Legislature sent me…”

Senate President Matt Regier explained how Montana got into this situation.

“The budget is a mess because Democrats were allowed to seize control of the Senate. They stacked the Senate and Finance Claims Committee to where it couldn’t stop any irresponsible spending, and on the rare occasions where a spending bill did get held up in committee, they then blasted the bills to Senate floor and passed them anyway. Normal rules and procedures to prevent this from happening were amended, abused, or ignored almost daily in the Senate, and the House wasn’t able to stop the fiscal bleeding,” Regier said.

“The governor has a big task ahead of him to right side the ship after the legislature failed to do its job,” Regier continued. “First up on the chopping block should be new programs and completely unnecessary spending advanced by the Senate coalition in violation of normal procedure. I applaud the governor for starting to break out the veto pen.”

The responsibility for the spending mess has been clearly documented:

“this budget represents the significant work accomplished by Democrats this session.” -Montana Senate Democrats press release, April 17, 2025

“Overall, this budget represents the significant work accomplished by Democrats.”
–Senate Democrat leadership (Sens. Flowers, S. Morigeau, Smith, & Webber) in an April 28, 2025 op-ed in the Flathead Beacon and other newspapers

“This session really demonstrated that when Democrats lead, Montanans win.” -Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers as reported by Montana Public Radio, May 1, 2025

“Elinor Smith: What do Democrats have to say about the alliance? Shaylee Ragar: It got them a lot of wins…They’re proud of the work they’ve done…got many of their priorities into the state budget…”
–Montana Public Radio, May 1, 2025

“Republicans who are upset with [the big budget increase], tried on the Senate floor to make reduction after reduction, but they were repeatedly thwarted by this coalition of nine Republicans, plus the chamber’s 18 Democrats, who defeated amendment after amendment trying to reduce spending. And that’s why we heard from Minority Leader Pat Flowers there talk about how he feels like this budget’s in good shape.” –Capitol Talk program on Montana Public Radio, April 25, 2025

“‘Given our 18 members and their nine, we had, in effect, a working majority,’ [Flowers said]…Working quickly, Democrats and these nine Republicans stitched together a new majority, which enabled them to bypass Republican Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, and reassign their members to committees with the most influence over the state budget. The results were immediate.” –High County News, May 8, 2025.

Kyle Schmauch
Chief of Staff & Communications Director
Senate Republicans
Montana Legislature