The Montana Legislature has reached transmittal, or the point in the legislative session at which general policy bills must move from one chamber to the other. That means that if a general policy bill started in the House, the Legislature must refer it to the Senate (and vice versa). If the Legislature fails to do so, that bill dies. This deadline does not apply to bills that appropriate money or deal with revenue.
This blog provides an update on some of the state-tribal bills that the Legislature has considered so far, not just those bills that are impacted by the transmittal deadline. The following bills are not a comprehensive run-through of all bills relevant to Indian Country.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP)
House Bill (HB) 35 would establish a missing persons review commission, which would review closed missing persons cases. The commission would 1) examine patterns and trends of MMIP cases, 2) educate stakeholders about MMIP and investigation and prevention strategies, and 3) make recommendations to curb MMIP rates. For the biennium, HB 35 would appropriate $85,000 from the general fund to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to operate the commission.
HB 36 would establish a grant program to help fund training opportunities for community-based missing persons response teams. For the biennium, HB 36 would transfer $61,000 from the general fund to the missing persons response team training grant account for the DOJ to administer.
The 2019 Legislature created the missing indigenous persons task force and the Looping in Native Communities (LINC) network grant program when it passed Senate Bill (SB) 312. The LINC grant program supports efforts of tribal nations to identify, report, and find missing indigenous persons. The task force administers the grant program. HB 98 would extend the termination dates of both the task force and the grant program from June 30, 2021, to June 30, 2023. HB 98 would also require the task force to identify causes of and make recommendations to reduce MMIP cases. The bill would also require the task force to produce a written report of its findings and recommendations. HB 98 would transfer $50,000 from the general fund to the LINC special revenue account for the biennium for the task force to provide matching grants to tribal agencies to implement LINC.
Senate Judiciary is scheduled to hear all three bills on March 10. MBPC supports all three bills.
Property Taxes
In 2011, the Legislature passed SB 412 to create a five-year tribal property tax exemption that tribal nations apply to fee land with a pending trust application. (For more on what this means, see MBPC’s report, Policy Basics: Land Status of Indian Country.) SB 138 would have repealed this exemption. As MBPC wrote about in early February, SB 138 has deep roots in settler colonialism. This bill is possible because of the forced allotment of reservations, which the federal government used in its efforts to dissolve tribal governments and reservations and assimilate American Indians into non-Indian society. One legacy of this policy is that it allows for state and local taxing jurisdictions to assess property taxes on tribally owned fee land. Senate Tax tabled SB 138 in committee.
SB 214 would revise the previously mentioned tribal property tax exemption to allow for counties to recapture “lost” tax revenue, should either the federal government deny a tribal nation’s fee-to-trust application or should the application remain pending after the five-year exemption expires. Senate Tax passed the bill on a 7-4 vote.
HB 526 would allow counties to challenge property tax exemptions that the Department of Revenue provides. The bill passed 3rd reading in the House on March 2 on a 66-33 vote. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.
MBPC opposes these bills.
Again, this blog does not capture the full breadth of bills that impact Indian Country. There are bills related to language preservation, voting rights, cannabis revenue, and more. MBPC will continue to track legislation and provide updates.
MBPC is a nonprofit organization focused on providing credible and timely research and analysis on budget, tax, and economic issues that impact low- and moderate-income Montana families.