HELENA – The state’s Supreme Court chief justice pitched a new ballot measure Tuesday that would use alcohol tax money for prevention and treatment efforts, while lawmakers cooked up ideas of their own for cracking down on drunken driving.
But all the ideas could take a back seat to budget concerns that are increasingly dominating state government.
Mike McGrath, former state attorney general, introduced the ballot measure to the Law and Justice legislative committee and said the plan would take $5 million a year to pay for more alcohol and drug courts.
Lawmakers were both receptive to the idea and skeptical of a plan that would take millions from beleaguered state coffers.
The Law and Justice Committee also started drafting a blueprint for legislation it will take to the 2011 Legislature. Early ideas would stiffen penalties and give the justice system more tools to offer drug and alcohol treatment.
Lawmakers recognize proposals that cost money will be a tough sell to the Legislature. But panel chairman Shannon Augare, a Democrat from Browning, said he is confident the committee’s drunken driving plan will get the full Legislature’s attention next year.
“Based on conversations I have had with both Democrats and Republicans, we all agree we need to do something,” Augare said.
But with increasingly bleak revenue forecasts predicting the state coffers will run dry in 2011, other lawmakers feel there will be no room next year for new programs.
“We’re still living in denial. There is not going to be any money,” said Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber. “That will begin to sink in next month when we meet. We will be in crisis.”
The Legislative Fiscal Division, just a day earlier, predicted that at current spending levels, the state could be in the red by mid-2011.
Esp said that means lawmakers will be focused squarely on essential services like education, corrections and programs for the elderly and poor. He said McGrath’s ballot measure, which diverts money that now goes into the general fund, would force lawmakers to make cuts to such programs or raise taxes.
McGrath said supporters of the ballot measure believe it would result in a cost savings for the Department of Corrections by reducing the problem of repeat offenders.