This story is excerpted from the MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest containing original reporting and analysis published every Friday.
Average annual increase in state General Fund spending proposed by Gov. Greg Gianforte’s 2023-25 budget. That’s equivalent to about $122 million in new spending annually during the two-year fiscal biennium that runs from July 2023 to June 2025, or roughly $111 per Montana resident. Gianforte’s Budget Director, Ryan Osmundson, argued in a press briefing last week that the increase represents a “very conservative budget” given the economy’s rapid rate of inflation, estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics at 14% nationally over the last two years.
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