HELENA — House Bill 2’s initial debate on the floor of the Montana House took almost a full day. Things went much faster on the Senate floor Thursday, where they wrapped up their debate on the main state budget bill after just under three hours.

The Senate gave initial approval to HB 2, on a 27-23 vote – with nine Republicans and all 18 Democrats voting to move it forward.

(Watch the video to see the changes lawmakers approved to HB 2.)

Montana Senate debates state budget

The bill includes roughly $16.6 billion in total spending over the next two years, with $5 billion from the state general fund. Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, who chairs the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, said the bill increased total spending by about 10% compared with the 2023 budget, and general fund spending by about 18%.

While the House went through each section of HB 2 in detail, the Senate generally gave only short overviews before moving on to debating amendments.

All together, senators considered 22 amendments Thursday. Most of them came from Republicans, led by Senate President Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, who sought to cut back what they saw as excessive spending.

“We came in with a surplus – a very large surplus – and I think we’ve lost track of exactly where that surplus, which is now negative, sits,” Regier said.

But senators only approved four changes, three of them from Democrats. They took off an amendment added in Senate Finance and Claims that increased funding for community colleges, restored funding for the pretrial diversion program, and removed millions of dollars in funding that would have paid to hire contract nurses at the Montana State Hospital – redirecting some of that money to fund nurse positions through the state.

“This amendment reduces contract labor, supports the state continuing to do what we asked them to do and hire state nurses at the hospital, and it’s going to save $35 million to the general fund,” said Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, who sponsored the amendment on MSH.

“If we’re concerned about the patients in the state hospital, you better not vote for this amendment, because they’re going to be left without nurses,” said Glimm, who opposed that change. “The reason that we haven’t hired state employee nurses is because we can’t get them. That’s why we’ve hired traveling nurses at a much higher rate.”

On many of the amendments, the vote was 27-23, with Democrats on the same side with the group of nine Republicans who have frequently broken with their party this session. Eight of those nine were among the Republicans who voted to advance HB 2 at the end of the debate.

Supporters of the bill said it was a good product.

“I think it’s a good compromise budget,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade. “I think it meets the needs of Montanans in a fair and meaningful way.”

But the Republicans who opposed the budget said it was irresponsible not to do more to cut spending.

“We’re passing everything under the sun,” Glimm said. “I imagine that the governor’s going to veto his way to a balanced budget, because he’ll have to. That’s a job that we’re supposed to do, but we aren’t doing it.”

The full Senate will need to vote one more time on HB 2 before sending it back to the House. If the House accepts the Senate’s changes, they can send the bill directly to the governor’s desk. If they don’t, the bill will need to go to a conference committee to hammer out the differences.