Infrastructure bill puts political 'pork' on state's credit card

Do you ever wonder how the state picks which road, bridge and sewer projects to fund each year? Historically, infrastructure grants in Montana are provided through several separate funding bills, passed individually by your representatives in the Montana Legislature. This process allows like proposals to stand on their own merits rather than having their fate tied to unrelated projects that the state pays for in a completely different way.

Well this year, the Governor’s Office has introduced a proposal that puts the state’s entire infrastructure spending in one box and then slapped a catchy name on it so they could sell it to the public. But the truth about Gov. Steve Bullock’s plan is that it is an unprecedented and unnatural spending bill — plain and simple. And this type of political maneuvering doesn’t fly in Montana.

How often do your friends and neighbors say, “I wish Montana was more like Washington, D.C.”?

Politicians in D.C. use these tactics of omnibus bills and “pork barrel spending” to push projects through the legislative process for their own political benefit. It’s a questionable practice that has been used for years by the professional politicians in our nation’s capital but has thankfully been largely absent in Montana. We don’t like spending tax dollars on political “pork,” and we certainly don’t like putting that “pork” on the state’s credit card.

But it appears that there are some who wish to change the traditional budgeting process within our citizen legislature and are putting their own politics before the needs of the people.

A key issue of the 64th Legislative Session will undoubtedly be the debate over how we fund much needed infrastructure projects across Montana. Our governor knows that the state is in dire need of this funding — having vetoed the funding passed by the legislature last session — and is ready to leverage the needs of the state to advance a political agenda.  

The governor’s infrastructure proposal, self-titled the “Build Montana Plan,” is exactly the type of “crony capitalism” that perpetuates the image of political corruption in Washington, D.C., and now the Governor’s Office wishes to make political “pork” a permanent feature of the budgeting process here in Montana.  It’s an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” type of deal.

The biggest problem with proposing a massive, omnibus infrastructure bill like the governor has done is that it puts the state’s entire infrastructure funding at risk. Legislators must decide on an all-or-nothing basis, forcing them to vote for political “pork” in order to fund much-needed projects around the state. Does that really sound like responsible governing?

After looking at the governor’s plan, it is pretty clear that its purpose is more for political jockeying and his re-election campaign than to help the people of Montana and their real infrastructure needs.

There’s a reason that “pork barrel spending” has a bad reputation. We see the massive pet projects passed in bills like this in Washington, D.C., and it makes us all cringe. The governor’s plan is just like something you would see in Congress. It’s a plan where pet projects are paid for with the taxpayer’s credit card.

Fortunately for Montana, there are plenty of responsible individuals serving in the legislature who are focused more on helping the people of our state rather than advancing political agendas.

Sen. Cary Smith, R-Billings, is a four-term legislator representing Senate District 27. He serves as a Whip in the Senate Majority Leadership for the 2015 Legislative Session and is a current member of the Joint Long Range Planning Committee.