HELENA – Gov. Brian Schweitzer needs Republicans more than ever if he wants to raise oil taxes and change mineral rights law — and GOP leaders will need Schweitzer, too, if they hope to make good on their ideas for energy development.
Each side has laid out firm plans for the Legislature: Schweitzer, in his State of the State address and Senate President Bob Story in his response to that speech.
But can either really woo the other side?
Perhaps so, but for the moment it seems a cold courtship, as Republicans have said they have no passion for the governor’s call to fund teacher pay raises with new taxes on energy production.
“We don’t want to fund raising wages on a declining source,” said Story, R-Park City. “We want an expanding source for any revenue increases.”
The new tax would raise surcharges on oil and natural gas companies, at a time when Republican lawmakers say they are worried about declining energy production in the state — and the impact on tax revenue.
Likewise, Schweitzer’s call for Republicans to join hands with Democrats and revive a stalled carbon-storage bill has drawn a tepid response from GOP leaders.
“My question to the governor would be: Is the state willing to accept that risk and liability, and if not, who’s going to assume the liability?” said Sen. Jerry Black, R-Shelby, chairman of the Senate committee that tabled the bill.
Black said that so far no one has come forward with a motion to resuscitate the bill, which would set preliminary legal guidelines for carbon-dioxide storage in Montana. The governor said the measure is needed to attract companies looking at the new technology of turning coal into liquid fuel and stripping out greenhouse gasses.
Black doubts the bill would pass on a second try.
But without Republican support, these two favored Democratic measures have no chance of success in such a closely divided statehouse.
So, how to tease a following out of such unwilling dance partners? Call them out on their word, says the governor.
“I will absolutely take them at their word,” Schweitzer said. “They said they wanted higher teacher salaries.”
To make his point, the governor has compiled a list of Republican statements in favor of teacher raises. And he is pointing to Republican fondness for Wyoming’s energy development model, which pipes oil money and gas money to schools.
Republicans, for their part, say they are happy to work with the governor — but on their favored energy legislation to loosen the permitting system for new energy projects. And they are confident they can get their bills passed, even without Republican compromise on the governor’s pet projects.
“How can the energy governor veto a bill that brings development to Montana?” said House Republican Floor Leader Scott Mendenhall.
The Republicans are seeking to change what they consider to be an onerous permitting system that makes it too easy to stall new energy projects in the courts.
Another proposal in the Legislature would make it harder for people to block development projects with lawsuits. Environmentalists, and many Democrats, say the proposal would give industry too much leeway on the type of projects that have proven to cause pollution.
Still, Mendenhall said the GOP would like to host regular, weekly meetings with the governor to swap ideas and look for areas of compromise.
But he doubts Schweitzer can romance Republicans into accepting the surtax on oil and gas development, pitched by the governor in his State of the State speech.
“I don’t know of any members of our caucus that believe in the fallacy that you can tax your way to prosperity,” Mendenhall said.