This was the moment that Rep Ballance revealed that she’d changed teams. She was no longer playing for the conservative Republican team. She told me so, before the House floor debate, when she asked me to follow her vote FOR the gas tax. When I declined, she told me in anger that she was “getting them 7 votes.” Obviously, that was the deal she’d made. But when you listen to her House comments, you’re lead to believe that she didn’t want to vote for it, but she had to becasue the Dems and RINOS had the votes. She fails to mention that SHE got them the 7 votes. She takes credit for “rolling up her sleeves” and negotiating the tax down. I thought every good negotiator knew that you start high with your "asking price" and negotiate down from there. I guess Rep Ballance must have missed that lesson in the art of the deal. There’s no feats of heroism here on her part. Anyone can acquiesce.
Republicans could have been hero's simply by sanding united and defeating the bill. The evidence was clear. We needed to steamline governement. I want our citizens to know, we tried. Several of us REALLY tried. We made phone calls and whipped votes from Rep Gunderson's hospital room. We thought the vote was going to be close, so the Speaker paid for Rep Kerry Whites air fare to his sons wedding, so that Rep White could be on the House floor for this most important vote and still make it to the wedding on time.
Here’s the vote tally - 57/43 Wait. Fifty SEVEN?
Entire bill history, including committee hearings and all debates can be found here.
And the worst part might be the fact that upon our return to the Special Session in Nov, The Motor Carriers of Montana presented a letter to Rep Ballance expressing their displeasure with misleading of the tax payers; and that they would never again believe the department or support a fuel tax.
