Montana county seeks reimbursement for policing Flathead reservation

Lake County officials say the county, which contains about two-thirds of the reservation, intends to withdraw law enforcement services if not reimbursed by the state

Lake County officials are threatening to withdraw law enforcement services to its portion on the Flathead Indian Reservation if the state does not reimburse the county for its policing.

The Montana Legislature has reviewed a package of bills seeking reimbursement for Lake County’s participation in a federal law that gives the county authority to police tribal members that live on the reservation within county lines. Of the three bills circulating throughout the Capitol halls, two have been tabled while a third moves forward.

Without the reimbursement, county officials said they will withdraw from Public Law 280 which would leave either the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe or the state to assume criminal jurisdiction, something that Lake County lawmakers say would be costly to do.

“The county does not want to leave Public Law 280, the state does not want the county to leave public law 280. It’s working, it’s very successful but it comes at an incredible cost,” said Rep. Joe Read, Republican, one of the bill’s sponsors during the House floor second reading of House Bill 479 on March 31.

The last-standing reimbursement bill is seeking an annual $2.5 million payment. Meanwhile, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, which reside on the Flathead reservation, have so far refused to comment.

Public Law 280 was codified in 1953 and gives participating entities authority to assume criminal jurisdiction over tribal reservations. In 1963 Montana entered into the law, giving Lake County rights to provide law enforcement on the majority of the Flathead reservation.

The Flathead reservation consists of nearly 1.2 million acres, of which about 66 percent, or two-thirds, is located within Lake County. County officials said the county spends more than 50 percent of its property tax revenue budget providing law enforcement and public safety services, despite the presence of a tribal police force.

Specifically, the income tax revenue budget for the county’s 2022-2023 fiscal year is approximately $13.2 million. About $7.7 million of that is used to pay for public safety, according to an email from the Lake County finance and budget director. That is about 57 percent of the income tax revenue being spent on providing law enforcement services.

“There have been discussions that Lake County is going to have to potentially declare bankruptcy because it just cannot afford the process,” Read said on his reimbursement bill during a hearing on the House floor.

If the state does not pay the reimbursement funds, administrators say Lake County would withdraw from the public law agreement. In fact, in 2022, the county officially passed a resolution to completely withdraw from Public Law 280 on May 26 of this year if the legislature does not pass the reimbursement bill.

Legislators representing the Lake County district introduced three separate bills earlier this year to address the issue. Two of the bills were tabled last month. One bill aimed to set up future payments for the county, while the other sought a $42 million retroactive reimbursement for law enforcement services provided through the years.

“One of these bills was looking forward, one of these bills was looking back,” Read said in the committee hearing explaining the differences of the bills that were tabled.

Read’s bill would have the state reimburse a portion of law enforcement costs annually for an unspecified amount of time. This bill is considered Lake County’s last effort to request legislative approval for funding.

Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker said the cost of policing on the Flathead reservation has affected several projects and departments.

“It’s taken away from our road budget, from our planning department, from our IT department,” Decker said. “You know, we can’t fund them the way they needed to be funded because so much of our budget is eaten up with public safety costs.”

The county filed a lawsuit last year against the state as another way to try and hold the state accountable for the policing costs. In the 2021 session, the Montana Legislature passed a House bill in which the state recognized its reimbursement obligation but only appropriated the amount of $1.

In 1993, the state legislature passed a house bill that allowed for the Salish and Kootenai tribes to remove themselves from misdemeanor jurisdiction. Since then the tribal law enforcement services have been responsible for tribal members that commit misdemeanors. Currently the tribe has 20 state certified tribal police officers and according to the CSKT tribal police captain Louis Fiddler about $2.6 million is spent annually on tribal law enforcement.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe leadership has no comment on the reimbursement bills, according to an email from the tribe’s communications team.

This story is co-published by Montana Free Press and ICT, a news partnership that covers the Montana American Indian Caucus during the state’s 2023 legislative session. Funding is provided in part by the Headwaters Foundation.

Dateline:

HELENA, Montana