Good times in Big Sky country

As Nevada struggles to emerge from the recession -- and again dabbles in previously failed efforts at "economic diversification" -- perhaps state officials should turn their attention north for pointers.

Growth in mining, energy development and other areas has Montana anticipating a $427 million surplus in the near future. Aided by lawmakers who take spending restraint seriously and a governor who says he runs government "like a ranch," Big Sky country is doing just fine.

"We're not a boom state like North Dakota." Patrick Barkey of the University of Montana in Missoula told Bloomberg News. "There have been decent earnings and employment growth in mining."

While Gov. Brian Schweitzer was setting his sights on the cost of printing government telephone directories -- "If you ain't smart enough to figure out how to find someone online, you probably got no information that we needed anyway," he once said -- Montana lawmakers were killing a 4 percent raise for state workers.

The resulting fiscal discipline has kept the budget in check. "The reason the budget has a surplus is the Legislature put a lid on spending," Don Cowles said, a Bozeman businessman told Bloomberg. "They didn't approve a pay increase for employees. ... They really held back on their spending."

Meanwhile, in Nevada, too many lawmakers in Carson City remain beholden to public sector unions when it comes to holding down payroll and benefit costs. Raises for state workers are commonplace, even as those in the private sector who cover the costs suffer pay cuts and layoffs.

In addition, energy development -- save the "green" kind that requires massive subsidies and rarely generates a profit -- has become taboo in the Silver State. While Montana isn't shy about touting that it's No. 1 in the nation in coal deposits, viable plans to build job-creating, coal-fired power plants that meet current environmental standards go by the wayside in Nevada thanks to political correctness regarding fossil fuels.

Montana at one time received poor grades on fiscal matters, most notably a feeble one-star from USA Today in 2003 when the paper found the state's spending between 1997 and 2002 had gone up by an average of 7.8 percent per year when adjusted for inflation and population growth. The fact that the state has turned things around for now should offer encouragement to states such as Nevada.