AG says state will consider funding for PL 280

Whether fueled by election-year largesse or Lake County’s impending withdrawal from Public Law 280, Attorney General Austin Knudsen delivered some long-awaited good news Monday. The office of Gov. Greg Gianforte, he said, “has authorized me to convey to you folks they would sign a bill through the Legislature that provided some law enforcement funding for Lake County.”

The announcement comes just three weeks before Lake County is slated to withdraw from the 60-year-old agreement that gives the county the authority to arrest and hold suspects and investigate and prosecute felonies involving members of federally-recognized tribes.

After years of trying to wrangle money from the Legislature to help pay for PL 280 and unsuccessfully suing the state, the county formally declared in December that that it was stepping out of the agreement, effective May 20.

All three county commissioners emphasized that their decision to pull out of PL 280 was driven by lack of financial resources.

“It would break my heart if we have to get out of Public Law 280,” Commissioner Steve Stanley told the attorney general. “But also, it's a money-driven issue.”

When the agreement was signed by the state, the county and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes 60 years ago, it wasn’t expected to cost the county additional resources, but as serious crimes increased in recent decades, so did the cost of enforcing PL 280.

According to Commissioner Bill Barron, Lake County currently spends more than half of its annual law enforcement budget of $7.2 million on housing and prosecuting tribal members for felonies. That leaves around $6 million in remaining property-tax revenue “to run the rest of the county.”

County Attorney James Lapotka noted that his staff of four attorneys prosecuted 400 felony cases last year, and half of those involved tribal members. “So there's 200 felonies there that we need help with and it's from the basement up,” he told Knudsen.

“We need help with detaining people, we need help getting Department of Corrections to get inmates out of here quicker. We need the Department of Health and Human Services to come get people and take them to Warm Springs. We need a lot of help from Helena.”

Sheriff Don Bell reiterated his concern that Lake County could become “a lawless land” in the absence of PL 280. “I appreciate the good news that at least we have an option to figure this out,” he said.

The attorney general was flanked by Colonel Kurt Sager, who was recently appointed to head the Montana Highway Patrol, and Dan Guzynski, head of the Department of Justice’s Prosecutions Bureau. Each spoke about their department’s limited resources and how little they could contribute if the county withdraws from Public Law 280.

According to Sager, the Highway Patrol lacks manpower and authority to provide day-to-day law enforcement in Lake County. The patrol is currently understaffed by about 23 troopers statewide he said.

“It would probably take at least an additional 10, if not closer to 15, to be able to pull off 24-hour-a-day coverage” in Lake County, he said. Plus, troopers are trained to deal with traffic incidents, not community policing.

“When we start operating in worlds that we're not really geared up to do, it's not efficient,” he added.

Expanding jurisdiction, said Knudsen, would also require a legislative buy-in. “I legally don't have the ability to step in here and provide law enforcement to Lake County. That's problem number one,” he said. “Problem number two, even if I did, we physically don't have the logistical capability. We have neither the budget nor the staff.”

The Prosecution Services Bureau also isn’t equipped to fill the void if the Lake County Attorney’s office quits handling half its case load. According to Guzynski, his office has 10 attorneys, and about half have specialized duties mandated by the Legislature. The remaining five are tasked with helping counties across the state prosecute violent crimes, especially homicides and child sexual-assault cases.

Commissioners heard a similar story from U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich last month. Federal law enforcement lacks funding and manpower to address anything other than major crimes on the Flathead Reservation.

“The state isn't going to show up tomorrow and solve the problems. The feds aren't going to show up tomorrow and solve the problems,” said Stanley. “So what do we do to protect 33,000 people on this reservation in this county?”

“In my opinion, the absolute best scenario here is Lake County stays in Public Law 280 and keeps enforcing the law inside of Lake County,” Knudsen replied. “They're here, they're trained for it, you've got the manpower for it.”

“I understand that funding is an issue, and I think the governor understands that,” Knudsen said.

Barron pointed out that the governor vetoed a bill passed by the Legislature in 2023 that would have provided $2.5 million annually for two years to help with law enforcement costs and to bring the state, Tribes and county together to study the situation.

Post veto, “it's very hard for me to trust the governor. In fact, right now I do not trust our governor at all,” Barron said.

Knudsen was asked if he would help mediate future discussions between the governor’s office and Lake County, and if the Department of Justice would endorse a bill in the next session to provide funding for PL 280, if the governor is also on board. He replied yes to both.

“I'm open to play mediator here. I want to see law enforcement carried out in Lake County and on the CSKT reservation,” Knudsen said. “Public Law 280 is a bit of a strange critter for us here in Montana. This is the only reservation that has it. But as you say, I think it works well. I think it's as good a vehicle as we have to provide law enforcement up here.”

“I just have a real hard time accepting that there's not $4 million somewhere in the state's budget to help Lake County with Public Law 280,” Commissioner Gale Decker said. However, he expressed openness “to hanging on” through the next legislative session. “Maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel there.”

“If we can find some language there that everyone's happy with, and a number that everyone's happy with, I think we can get this done,” Knudsen said.

Rep. Joe Read of Ronan, who helped craft and carry legislation in 2023 to fund PL 280, suggested raising the issue in a special session, either in tandem with other bills or as stand-alone legislation. He believes that if the DOJ and governor’s office are on board, the bill would stand a good chance of passing.

Read sits on the Legislature’s State Tribal Interim Committee, and said he hears from other reservations that drug cartels “are moving in fast” due to lack of law enforcement. “Well, we're going to have immediate and very confusing enforcement law here with what's going on,” he said.

Two members of CSKT Tribal Council, Martin Charlo and Danielle Matt, sat in on the meeting. Afterward, Charlo noted that tribal law enforcement already prosecutes all misdemeanors and some felony drug crimes involving tribal members. While they’ve looked at eventually pulling out from Public Law 280 completely, “right now, retrocession is not – just because of capacity issues – is probably not really an option,” he said.

“Down the road, eventually, we would really like to kind of lighten the load from the county and look at our own members,” he added.

Charlo said he welcomed the conversation between the state and county and hopes that by working together “we could be a model for other places.”

“I really hope that we can all work together for the good of the community.”