“This is to … incentivize the department to relinquish themselves of the Boulder campus,” said Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila. “ … By the time 2023 rolls around, they should not need the maintenance funds for taking care of that campus.”
That measure passed on a unanimous vote.
Glimm said the Montana Highway Patrol indicated they want to move their operations to the site.
“This would be a good solution for everybody,” Glimm said, adding a bill would be coming to transfer the property.
The committee also voted to cut the budget for the Intensive Behavioral Center in half, by $2 million.
Sen. Mary McNally, D-Billings, asked what was being cut from the center. A staffer for the budget committee said he was told to create “negative $2 million each year in the biennium. I don’t know that I can give you more details than that.”
McNally voted against the proposal, along with one Republican on the committee. She questioned the lack of details before taking the vote.
“We don’t know other than taking half their budget, we don’t know exactly the impacts,” McNally said.
Glimm said he’s heard that there’s willingness to take some of the people who live in the center, and that community placements are less expensive.
