Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown on Thursday accused Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer of ballooning the state budget and pushing an alternative energy policy that will cost Montanans in the long run.

Brown, speaking to Hometown Helena, a group of business and civic leaders, said the state general fund spending had risen by 41.1 percent since Schweitzer took office in January 2005.

“Did your wages go up 41.1 percent in the last three years?” Brown asked. “If your business had 41.1 percent more in expenses, could you survive without having to make some drastic changes? These are important questions. And can government survive this rate of growth and continue?”

Instead of spending more on government programs, Brown called for using some of the money to reduce or eliminate taxes.

Brown criticized Schweitzer’s one-time $400 property tax rebates, saying what Montana needs is “real long-term permanent property tax relief” and the elimination of the 3 percent business equipment tax rate.

In response, Schweitzer placed the general fund spending increase at 9 to 10 percent. The only way Brown gets to 41.1 percent is to count the state’s saving account and $156 million in tax cuts, including the $400 rebates paid to Montana homeowners.

“I can understand why Brown doesn’t like it (the rebate),” Schweitzer said. “He voted against it.”

Schweitzer said he and the Legislature increased K-12 spending by $150 million and froze tuition for Montana university system students for two years at a cost of $50 million. He said they spent $50 million to bail out the teachers retirement system, a problem Schweitzer inherited from past administrations.

He said the administration spent $367 million in one-time investments by paying “cash on the barrelhead” for new university system and computer system buildings instead of borrowing the money through bonds and paying more over 20 years.

Brown said Republicans set the stage for the state’s current economic boom by lowering a series of taxes since the late 1980s, including the business equipment tax, oil and gas taxes and income taxes.

“Where did all these dollars come from?” Brown said. “Did they just magically appear because on January 2005, Brian Schweitzer put his hand up and took the oath of office and all of these extra dollars started flowing in Montana?”

In response, Schweitzer said he guesses he should thank all of his predecessors for cutting taxes, just as he should thank former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower for creating the Interstate highway system, Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt for ending World War II, Theodore Roosevelt for creating national forests and parks and Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves.

“I guess according to Mr. Brown, all good things he created,” Schweitzer said. “All bad things, someone else did.”

On the energy front, Brown was highly critical of a Schweitzer-backed state law that requires utilities to obtain 15 percent of their power from alternative sources by 2015.

“I think we’re almost in another situation that could make (utility) deregulation look like a picnic,” he said. “That is through the forced mandating of alternative energy, no matter what the cost is.”

Schweitzer disagreed, saying the wind power generated in Judith Gap is as cheap as electricity being generated from coal.

“Is he saying the $25 million investment by the German energy firm in Butte is a bad idea?” Schweitzer asked. “Is he saying the $200 million investment in Judith Gap was a bad idea?”

More Montanans are working in the energy sector than ever before, he said, and Montana has the biggest increase in electricity production the past three years than the previous 16 years.