A cornerstone of Sen. Conrad Burns' re-election campaign is the three-term incumbent's slogan that he is “delivering for Montana.”
How accurate is the senator's claim of “delivering” $2.2 billion? To provide perspective on the reality behind the numbers, Missoulian State Bureau reporters evaluated just one portion of the total: $246 million in federal funds that Burns says he steered to businesses in Butte.
Butte is home to a handful of companies that count on government contracts for a significant portion of their business. A major part of the money Burns says he brought to Butte has gone to these companies.
Analysis of the federally funded projects in Butte shows that Burns' help in securing federal dollars for the city and its businesses has been substantial.
The analysis also shows that lobbyists who formerly worked on Burns' staff were involved in appropriations; that not all the money stayed in Montana; and that in one case, $1 million included in Burns' $2.2 billion figure never made it to Montana at all.
Burns' $2.2 billion figure comes from the senator's own compilation, said Erik Iverson, a spokesman for the Burns campaign. At least some of the list was compiled from press releases that Burns' office sent out at the time the money was approved. The list released to the Missoulian State Bureau includes 33 pages of more than 900 projects that Burns said he either “earmarked” - set aside for a specific project - or otherwise secured for Montana. Most of the projects are from the early 2000s, while some stretch as far back as 1994. In Butte, the list included more than 90 projects.
One of the largest beneficiaries of federal largesse in Butte is MSE, a company that now employs about 160 people there and about 10 others in offices out of state. MSE has done work for a variety of government agencies, working mostly on defense and energy projects, said Jeff Ruffner, company president.
Burns claims to have brought almost $178 million in government business to MSE.
Another Butte company to which Burns has brought money is Resodyn Corp., which, like MSE, depends heavily on government contracts.
Burns brought more than $23 million in projects from the Defense and Energy departments to Resodyn, said company president Larry Farrar.
About 90 percent of that money stayed in Butte, Farrar said. The rest went to buy motors, pumps and other equipment made elsewhere.
The company manufactures equipment to sell to the military and industrial sectors and is creating jobs, Farrar said. Resodyn has 35 employees and is in the process of hiring another 10 to 15 more.
The company bought an empty building for its headquarters and built a 23,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, boosting local tax revenues.
“There's not a lot of technology, industry, not a lot of things going on out here,” Farrar said. “So the ability to secure these contracts has been really helpful to build a sustainable business.”
The money Resodyn said it has received with Burns' help is less than the amount Burns claims to have brought to the company, however. Several of the company's major contracts are for amounts several hundred thousand dollars lower, according to Resodyn's figures, than the numbers provided by Burns' campaign.
Burns spokesman Iverson said the difference is due to the way different federal agencies allocate money. Burns' list reflects money the senator earmarked or otherwise set aside for Montana projects. But government agencies sometimes hold some of that money back, meaning the amount of money that actually ends up in Montana may be less than the total amount set aside.
In one case, money Burns claimed to have brought to Butte never made to Montana at all. The senator's list includes $1 million in 2005 to an unnamed company to make special metals for the military. The money never came to Butte and was evidently included in the list by mistake, according to a Burns spokesman.
Lobbying by individuals with connections to Burns also seems to play a role in the appropriations benefiting Butte. Of the $246 million Burns said he has brought to Butte, more than half - about $117 million - went to entities that employed former Burns staffers as lobbyists, according to federal lobbying records.
Resodyn's Farrar said he started working with Burns' office in 2003, when the company hired lobbying firm Van Scoyoc and Associates, where Randall Popelka, who had worked for Burns for seven years, was then working as a vice president. Popelka was one of the company's registered lobbyists until the middle of 2005, when he left lobbying and returned to work in Burns' office as legislative director.
Resodyn has paid the firm about $200,000, federal records show. Farrar said the company chose Van Scoyoc because the firm was recommended to him and because the firm was well-known, and had clients in Montana.
MSE has also hired Burns' former staff as lobbyists. Federal records show the company employed Anderson & Baker in 1999 and 2000. Mark Baker is Burns' former legislative director. Baker is also the unpaid chairman of Burns' re-election campaign and early on served as its spokesman.
MSE paid Anderson Baker $120,000, Senate records show.
Since 2004, the records show, MSE has retained Gage, a lobbying firm started by Burns' former chief of staff, Leo Giacometto. Gage employs several lobbyists who previously worked in Burns' office.
Gage has reported $205,000 in lobbing income from MSE, the latest figures show.
MSE's Ruffner said the company hired Gage because the firm has “key knowledge” of the kind of projects MSE works on. Asked if MSE would keep Gage as its lobbyist should Burns lose, Ruffner said he didn't know, adding that all company lobbying contracts are reviewed annually and Ruffner can't say if any will be retained.
MSE has more than one lobbying firm. The company also retains Patton Boggs, a major lobby house, and Kimmitt, Senter, Coates & Weinferter, another big lobbying firm with ties to both Democrats and Republicans.
Ruffner said his company works with all of Montana's three-man congressional delegation, but Burns, with his spot on the Appropriations Committee, is pivotal.
“They've all been fantastic,” Ruffner said. “But with Senator Burns on Appropriations, he takes the lead on funding.”
Ruffner said the company “would survive” if Burns lost the election, but the absence of the senator's appropriating power would hurt.
“It would have an impact not just to MSE, but to Butte and Montana,” he said.
Burns' appropriations have been a boon to Butte and the state, said Marko Lucich, executive director of the Butte Chamber of Commerce. He said that for the first time in 40 years, Butte's population is growing, albeit slowly.
But Lucich doesn't give all the credit to Burns. Baucus, along with Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., have been a “huge part” of helping the area, he said, along with local state legislators.
“Senator Baucus is very important, too, equally important, he's done pretty much the same thing for our community,” Lucich said.
“This is one piece of the puzzle,” he said of Burns' appropriations. “I would say it has really helped us. Is this the sole factor? No, very definitely not.”
Where did all the money go?
Burns claims he brought $2.2 billion to Montana. Here's a sampling of where some of that money went:
In Missoula:
Amount: $16.8 million between 2001 and 2005.
For: Improvements to the Missoula airport.
Amount: $500,000 in 2001.
For: Buying Travelers' Rest, in Lolo, where Lewis and Clark camped.
In Butte:
Burns secured many millions for several projects pursued by MSE, including one in which the company built a special way to destroy old bombs and other munitions for the Army. MSE has a way of freezing the bombs, crushing them, then burning them in a special furnace until the bombs are rendered environmentally inert.
Resodyn Corporation, another Butte company, claims the following:
Amount: $6.5 million over 2004, 2005 and 2006.
For: Technology to mix materials for propellants.
Amount: $6.3 million over 2006 and 2007.
For: Research on treatments of wounded soldiers in the field.
In Billings:
Amount: $4.9 million in 1999 and 2002.
For: Money to secure Pompey's Pillar and build a visitors center at the landmark. Pompey's Pillar is a bluff near the Yellowstone River and the only place on the Lewis and Clark trail where the explorers left an intentional mark of their presence.
Amount: $500,000.
For: Money to build a bike and walking trail near Alkali Creek.
Amount: $7 million, over 2000 and 2001.
For: Sewer and water project for Lockwood.
In Helena:
Amount: $3.2 million between 2001 and 2005.
For: Improvements to the Helena airport.
Amount: $13.8 million between 2005 and 2006.
For: Improvements for the Montana Supreme Court.
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