Compact contingency bill likely dead
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HELENA – A bill that would have appropriated $5 million for the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation office to take on the cases of privately held state-based water rights if the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Water Compact does not pass is likely dead.
House Bill 427, sponsored by Republican Bob Brown of Thompson Falls, missed the deadline for appropriation bill transmittal after it was voted down in the Montana House of Representatives by a 44-56 margin on March 27.
Brown had touted the bill as a possible avenue to help small ranchers and farmers that will likely have to enter a costly litigation process if the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes file the 10,000 claims the entity said it intends to file if they compact is not passed by the June 30 deadline imposed by state law.
“This is not a fight against a neighbor,” Brown said. “This is a fight against a sovereign nation. I believe that.”
Brown said he doubts farmers can fight against the Tribes.
“They will not have the finances to do it,” Brown said. “Their farms and their finances will be torn apart by it.”
But Democratic Representative Virginia Court of Billings was skeptical of the plan. She detailed how the bill first placed the responsibility of defending the state-based water rights to the public defender’s office, after the Montana Department of Justice declined. But when it was pointed out that the public defender’s office’s funding had just been cut, the responsibility was moved again.
“Now we have tossed this hot tamale into the Department of Natural Resources,” Court said. “There arises a problem, because there is a significant conflict of interest with having these lawsuits placed in the Department of Natural Resources.”
The DNRC holds rights for trust lands and would have to hire outside lawyers to defend both sides of the suit, Court predicted.
She said a fiscal note attached to the bill projected costs of litigation to be more than $5 billion.
“I don’t think $5 million will begin to touch it,” Court said. “If this bill happens it could reopen 37 basins.”
Republican Representative Dan Salomon of Ronan said the bill had the potential to become an “unfunded mandate” because it was unclear if the liability to defend the claims went away when the funding ran out.
“This is going to last for decades, it’s not going to last for one year,” Salomon said. “What is that going to cost the state?”
No representatives spoke in favor of Brown’s bill.
Brown said he wanted the state to send the message that “when our citizens come under attack and their rights are being taken away, we will defend those rights.”
The bill that will decide the water compact, SB 262, will have one final hearing on April 11. If the bill passes, it will have to be approved by the United States Congress and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
