Last bill standing: County awaits final decision on funding PL 280

House Bill 479, a bill originally introduced by Ronan Rep. Joe Read and Bigfork Rep. Bob Keenan, has passed the House and advanced out of the Senate Finance and Claims Committee by executive action, 19-0, Monday.

The bill is the only legislative remedy still on the table that would deliver money to Lake County to help defray costs associated with Public Law 280, a law enforcement agreement that’s been in effect since the mid-1960s and stipulates that Lake County (as well as Missoula and Sanders counties) handle felony prosecutions of tribal members on the Flathead Reservation.

Two other bills, one introduced by Read and another by Polson Sen. Greg Hertz, were each left in the legislative dust. Hertz’s Senate Bill 127, which would have required the state and Lake County to negotiate an amount of reimbursement for the county’s costs in assuming felony jurisdiction over tribal members, and Read’s HB 478, which would have reimbursed Lake County for providing law enforcement on its portion of the reservation, were tabled in the House Appropriations Committee March 29.

This final effort has changed significantly since its introduction in February. HB 479 initially sought $75 million for the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute tribal members accused of felonies the reservation, which would include setting up a police force and justice system. The measure was intended to fill the gap in law enforcement should the county withdraw from Public Law 280, as the commissioners voted to do in January if no funding arrangement could be made with the state. The county’s resolution to withdraw from the agreement is effective May 30.

The next iteration of Read’s bill sought an appropriation of $27.5 million for the Department of Justice “to reimburse Lake County for assuming law enforcement activities on the Flathead Indian Reservation for the biennium beginning July 1.”

That amount has since been reduced to $2.5 million per year or $5 million total for the biennium.

The language of the bill has changed considerably too. It now reads, in part, that the State “believes that the relationship between CSKT and Lake County has facilitated effective law enforcement and the administration of justice,” and that “the positive attributes of the relationship could be significantly harmed if either the State or the Tribe decide to withdraw from their agreement.”

The bill goes on to say: “although the State does not believe it has an obligation to fund law enforcement in Lake County, it wishes to preserve the status quo … to determine whether the Tribe and Lake County wish to continue the relationship with their collective resources.”

Last Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, who was in Polson for a public hearing on another matter, suggested that HB 479’s success depended largely on how the Legislature opts to spend its remaining surplus during the waning days of the session.

“It’s going to be a function, in my opinion, of the budget and the final budget negotiations,” she said. “There are a lot of requests for the surplus that far exceed the amount of available funds so it’s going to be part of the final negotiations of the Legislature.”

“Speaking on behalf of the Governor’s Office, we have tried to facilitate conversations between Lake County and the Tribes to address the issues that have been raised and will continue to try to encourage resolutions,” she added.

The Tribes have taken no formal position on the matter. “It’s the county’s request, not ours,” said Tribal Chair Tom McDonald recently.

The Tribes currently have jurisdiction over misdemeanors and certain civil matters involving tribal members on the reservation. Jurisdiction over major crimes still rests with county under Public Law 280.

McDonald said the Tribes initially supported PL 280, which handed criminal jurisdiction to the county, because key tribal leaders Jean Turnage and Walt McDonald perceived it as a better solution than federal jurisdiction.

“The reason we were supportive of that, back in the day, was when you get into the federal court system there’s very little flexibility,” he said. “So any time you can bring a local court system into the fray you improve customer service. Unique things like drug court, family court – those aren’t allowed in the federal court system.”

“We’d love to be able to take care of more of our own, but we’ve never been empowered to do that,” he said.

However, recent changes at the federal level could allow the Tribes to take on an increased role in criminal jurisdiction over members. “We’re trying to figure out how to do that, how to finance that,” he added.

If the current bill is approved by the Legislature, Lake County would still have to figure out how to spend the $2.5 million allocation.

“A portion will go towards backfilling some of the department budgets that have been underfunded due to PL 280 costs,” predicted county commissioner Gale Decker.

He suggested the current legislation offers a short-term fix for a complicated issue. “The mood of the Legislature is to band-aid this to buy some time,” he said.