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HELENA — As many as 27 Montana Highway Patrol jobs that faced elimination because of budget cuts now appear to be safe, as a legislative committee began discussing a statewide spending plan on Tuesday.

Legislators reconvened for the remaining half of a legislative session that will likely be dominated by debate over the state budget and how to address Montana's infrastructure needs.

The budget discussions began with a sigh of relief from the attorney general's office, which had expressed alarm over the proposed staffing reductions. The nearly $8 million in proposed cuts sparked tensions between Attorney General Tim Fox, a Republican, and the budget office of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.

The state has about 250 uniformed highway patrol officers, and the cuts would have represented a significant reduction in staffing.

"With all the crime issues we have in this state, it doesn't make sense to reduce public safety funding and put Montanans at risk," Fox said in an interview.

Of particular concern, he said, is keeping personnel on the road to patrol for drug traffickers who are using state highways to spread the scourge of methamphetamines and other drugs in communities across the expansive state.