Testimony Snafu Could Kill Some State Arts Grants

Legislature-authorized grants for several of Montana’s most prominent arts organizations are in limbo as a result of an apparent miscommunication about whether a budget subcommittee had a firm requirement for applicants to testify at meetings last month.

The subcommittee’s chair, Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, insisted at a Friday hearing that lawmakers should cut funding for organizations that hadn’t appeared — despite the state agency that coordinates the grant program, the Montana Arts Council, telling applicants that testifying was optional.

“They told these applicants that the legisla...