This story is excerpted from MT Lowdown, a weekly newsletter digest of original reports and analysis published every Friday.
Average annual increase in State General Fund spending proposed in Gov. Greg Gianforte’s 2023-25 budget. That equates to about $122 million in new spending each year during the fiscal two-year period, which runs from July 2023 through June 2025, or about $111 per Montana resident. Gianforte Budget Director Ryan Osmundson argued in a news conference last week that the increase represents a “very conservative budget” given the economy’s rapid rate of inflation, estimated at 14% nationwide over the past two years by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics became.
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