Bob Brown, a respected Legislator, Secretary of State, candidate for Governor, is calling on the legislature to look at history and re-establish the education trust fund.  Created in the 70's and pillaged in the 80's, Brown points out the fund would have had 148 million today.  Brown suggests setting aside 148 million from the state's current surplus and re-establishing the fund.  Why?  As history has indicated, we may and most likely will need it.

As history is repeated, however, this isn’t where the story is likely to end. Within five years of the Judge $100-per-homeowner rebate, the state economy was in a tailspin symbolized by the collapse of the venerable Anaconda Company in 1982. Energy and agricultural prices sagged at the same time. To maintain funding for essential services while not raising taxes, Gov. Ted Schwinden proposed, and the Legislature agreed, to tap the Educational Trust Fund created in 1975 when times were good, and which had grown to nearly $80 million by 1986.

Initially the Legislature had intended that only the interest from the special education account be used for the ongoing support of public schools, but the actual corpus of that trust was used for that purpose when the governor and Legislature saw no better alternative. The Education Trust Fund balance reached zero in 1990.

The tough times in the years that soon followed the Racicot rebate were made no easier by the decision to return the “change.” Fearful of stifling an economic recovery, Gov. Judy Martz, like Schwinden, held the line against tax increases. Unlike Schwinden, Martz had no accessible reserve to fall back on.

I tell this story because government has on-going, never-ending responsibilities. Citizens can legitimately disagree about the extent of those responsibilities, but in a civilized society there is an inherent need and expectation for services provided by government. In Montana, the temptation to buy popularity in the short term has bought nothing in the long term because routine obligations for services have forced the piper to be paid.

We can easily find ourselves in the same situation.  It was a scant 3 years ago we were cutting programs and freezing wages because of a 300 million dollar deficit.  Brown points to the state's dependence on federal dollars, and the likelihood of budget reductions as we grapple with the federal deficit.

Either or both of the rebate plans promised in this election year will no doubt be approved by the next Legislature. But Montana’s economy is powerfully influenced by price fluctuations beyond our control. Predictable deficit-related federal budget reductions in coming years will seriously impact Montana since half our state government spending comes from federal dollars in such areas as highways, health care and education. The state will have to come up with new revenue; and what it will give back in 2007, it will take back from taxpayers again down the road.

Forty-five states keep “rainy-day” funds of some kind. Montana is one of the few that does not. Our current huge surplus provides us a rare opportunity to show that we have learned from our history. Adjusted for inflation since 1986, the Education Trust would have a value of $148,102,000 by the CPI of today. That is the minimum we should set aside now.