It didn’t seem fair or right to the two local government chiefs.
Danette Gleason alerted J. P. Gallagher. He advised Bill Everett. And before long the two men reached out to the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.
On Monday, both Gallagher, chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow County, and Everett, chief executive of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, told Tester they are grateful his office intervened.
Gleason, finance and budget department director for Butte-Silver Bow County, had discovered a bureaucratic oversight that seemed destined to deny a source of federal funding for both Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge counties because they are consolidated governments.
During a small gathering Monday in the Butte Silver-Bow Courthouse, Tester said pressure from Everett and Gallagher set a remedy in motion.
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Ultimately, with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Tester co-sponsored the Local Assistance Fairness Act. The legislation ensured that Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge counties are eligible for money from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Local Assistance and Tribal Constituency Fund.
The bill passed and became law.
Tester estimates Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge counties will each receive a bit more than $1 million.
Gallagher said there are no specific plans yet in Butte-Silver Bow for how and where to allocate the money. Everett said Anaconda-Deer Lodge might use the money to match other funds for addressing Mill Creek Road, long a maintenance headache for the city-county.
Consolidated governments usually form to tackle particular challenges of local government, with the belief that a consolidated city-county government will be more efficient and effective, with less duplication of services and fewer officials.
Butte-Silver Bow County and Anaconda-Deer Lodge County both consolidated in 1977.
The National Association of Counties reports that there are consolidated city-county governments in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, Tester said his office will push to get the money released as soon as possible to Anaconda-Deer Lodge and Butte-Silver Bow counties.
“It’s a good day for Butte and Anaconda,” he said.