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As state lawmakers took their spring break this week, the Montana Free Press team took full advantage of the lull at the Capitol. Some of us had a bit of time off, and we also worked from such exotic locations as our downtown Helena office with access to windows and sunlight.
We also paused to appreciate the support from MTFP readers through our legislative fundraising campaign with a goal of $20,000, which will help power us through the second half of the session. We’re thankful for the backing and excited to bring Montanans news from the Capitol and beyond.
Our dedicated statehouse team is gearing up for what the Legislature will take up in the second half of its 2025 session, with me (State Editor Holly Michels) heading up all things Capitol-focused and Special Projects Editor Brad Tyer guiding longer-term work. Here’s what we plan to focus on:
Eric Dietrich — I’m following tax policy and the state budget, with a particular eye on what (if anything) the Legislature ends up doing to try to address rising residential property taxes. Several proposals are still in the mix, including Gov. Greg Gianforte’s preferred method to lower taxes on primary residences by raising taxes on second homes.
Kaiden Forman-Webster and Nora Mabie — We’re following Indigenous affairs at the Capitol, specifically keeping an eye on bills that aim to combat the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis, strengthen child welfare laws and bring accountability to state-tribal relations. We’re also tracking an ongoing dispute between the tribes and state health department regarding the elimination of a position tribal leaders say was critical for Indian Country.
Alex Sakariassen — There’s plenty of education policy in play this session, but it’s the Legislature’s proposed investments in Montana children that I’m paying particularly close attention to. Will a proposed $100 million infusion of state cash to boost teacher pay blunt lawmaker appetites for smaller appropriations elsewhere? Will lawmakers embrace a $1,200-per-child tax credit for families struggling to afford child care? These are my top-of-mind questions heading into the second half.
Mara Silvers — The first part of the session had me focused on Medicaid expansion bills, abortion policy, transgender health care, behavioral health investments and medical malpractice regulation. I’ll be tracking those issues during the Legislature’s second half, but I’m also interested in expanding coverage to other parts of the health and human services world. Please reach out if you’re following tobacco, vape and kratom policies; foster care and child welfare issues; and legislation about food and nutrition access. Don’t assume that I’m keeping close tabs on a bill you care about — let me know what I should be watching!
Amanda Eggert — I’ve been tracking issues pertaining to water, wildlife, energy, climate, land use and the Montana Environmental Policy Act in the first half of the session. In the second segment, I plan to pay particular attention to water issues. More specifically, I’m interested in a pair of exempt-well proposals that survived the transmittal deadline; House Bill 664, a proposal attempting (again) to repeal numeric water quality standards; and a $100 million bid to increase water storage infrastructure with the establishment of a special revenue account. I’ll also be tracking the fate of Senate Bill 307, which seeks to strip habitat and state park funding from the list of items paid for with recreational marijuana tax collections.
Zeke Lloyd — At the end of the first half of the session, we got the results of our first poll on Montanans’ attitudes about major issues facing the state — part of MTFP’s Montana Insights project. The policy-oriented survey that MTFP coordinated with Rutgers University’s Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling provides a broad look at where Montanans stand on a variety of questions. In addition to writing about polling results, I plan to spend the next month and a half reporting from the Capitol about organized labor and wildfire-related policy. I’ll have my eye on House Bill 490, which would codify utility companies’ civil liability after wildfires; and Senate Bill 394, which would enable first responders to use workers’ compensation coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.
Our local news team, led by Local Editor Nick Ehli, is also covering major issues facing the communities they’re based in, as well as legislative connections:
JoVonne Wagner — While trying to keep my eyes on bills at the Capitol that would have local impacts, I’ve reported on topics important to Helenans, such as the Helena Public Schools’ proposed facility changes and a sidelined affordable housing project. I’ve also been following the fallout from the recent rounds of federal layoffs by tracking rallies protesting cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and covering U.S. Department of Agriculture staffing changes that would potentially stall housing loan processes for nonprofits.
Matt Hudson — The bill I’m watching most closely (as are local officials here in Great Falls) is House Bill 20, which would change the way local governments seek voter-approved mill levies. There has been a lot of discussion in Great Falls about bills that impact local government operations, especially as another levy request may be just around the corner for voters here.
Katie Fairbanks — I’m watching several bills flagged by Missoula county and city officials, including Senate Bill 420, which would limit the amount of fees local governments can collect for children’s use of parks or sports fields, and Senate Bill 428, which would allow counties to decrease speed limits to 25 mph in urban areas. Outside the Capitol, I’m following how the city of Missoula rolls out its plan to house as many residents of the Johnson Street homeless shelter as possible in the next five months before it permanently closes the shelter.
Verbatim 💬
“We’re going to be changing our minds and learning things and molding this as we’re going.”
— Rep. Nelly Nicol, R-Billings, speaking about a bill she’s sponsoring to bring kratom regulation to Montana.
The bill, House Bill 407, has not yet had a hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee. Because it is a fiscal bill, it was not subject to the general transmittal deadline the Legislature reached March 7.
Drafted by the American Kratom Association, the legislation would be the first policy in Montana to restrict sales and marketing of the plant-derived substance commonly branded as a mood booster and sold at gas stations and vape shops. Nicol has expressed interest in working with lawmakers and other groups to bring amendments to the bill, dubbed the Kratom Consumer Protection Act. In its current version, the proposal would prohibit the sale of kratom products to anyone under 18. It would also create restrictions on what type of products can be labeled as kratom based on the quantity and potency of the substance’s two main chemical components.
Gist 📌
Montana’s utility board is continuing to push NorthWestern Energy for more information on the circumstances surrounding purchases it made to supplement its own power generation during the coldest period of 2024.
Amid record electricity demand, the Colstrip coal-fired power plant was offline for a five-day period in January 2024, resulting in NorthWestern spending roughly $40 million on market power purchases.
Now, more than a year later, the utility wants to pass those costs onto its ratepayers using the Price Costs and Credits Adjustment Mechanism, which allows a monopoly utility to recover from its customers the money it pays to other companies for power purchases. To tag those expenditures onto the bills of its 405,500 electricity customers, though, NorthWestern must first demonstrate to the Montana Public Service Commission that the costs were prudently incurred.
In a March 11 meeting, four of the PSC’s five commissioners indicated that they don’t yet have enough information to make that assessment. The commissioners approved a motion asking NorthWestern to supply more information about the issues that temporarily shut down Colstrip for repairs during the cold snap. Additionally, the commission is asking NorthWestern, the state’s largest utility, to cough up more information about the amount it spent on market power purchases and when those purchases were made.
Last spring, the company presented some of that information to the PSC, which is made up of commissioners who are elected by district to regulate monopoly utilities. The composition of the board has changed since that presentation, though. Jeff Welborn has assumed the seat of former PSC president Jim Brown and current PSC president Brad Molnar has taken the seat formerly held by Tony O’Donnell. All are Republicans.
District 5 Commissioner Anne Bukacek, also a Republican, cast the lone no vote on the March motion. She argued that NorthWestern “behaved responsibly” during that period and “sufficiently addressed [and] adequately identified” the commission’s questions about Colstrip’s operation and maintenance.
“An unnecessary redo adds to the cost of doing business, which increases rates,” she argued.
Molnar said he thinks this matter could go to court, and he wants a full record before the PSC, a quasi-judicial body, to prepare for that eventuality.
“I think we need to go forward with this. We’re not passing judgment — we’re asking questions. We’re asking questions in the PCCAM. We have every right to raise additional issues,” he said.
—Amanda Eggert
Glad You Asked 🙋🏻
Last August, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte urged education leaders in school districts across Montana to join him in combating the challenge of student cellphone use during school hours. His letter reiterated growing concerns about the academic and behavioral impacts of unchecked gadgets in public school classrooms, and he offered his administration’s help supporting local cellphone-free school policies. This month, a Montana Free Press reader followed up with us to ask: How has that gubernatorial vow for assistance carried over into the 2025 legislative session?
The Legislature has yet to entertain any standalone bills specifically targeting the issue, but MTFP did some digging and found a pertinent line item tucked away in the currently in-process state budget bill. Heading into the session, Gianforte requested $1 million over the next two years to fund small grants for local K-12 schools to purchase “secure systems” capable of rendering students’ cellphones inaccessible during school hours. Tactics like magnetically sealed pouches have become increasingly popular in schools throughout the country, but the cost has proven prohibitive in Montana. Billings Public Schools Superintendent Erwin Garcia told MTFP last year he determined the $100,000 required to purchase such a system for his district was too steep.
So far Gianforte’s budget request has received a warm reception among lawmakers on the Legislature’s education budget subcommittee. They advanced the full $1 million ask to the House Appropriations Committee last month, but not, however, before a bit of debate. Rep. Connie Keogh, D-Missoula, proposed carving $200,000 from the appropriation to fund professional development in media literacy for teachers — efforts like field training and guest speakers that Keogh argued could dovetail with cellphone-free initiatives.
Republicans on the subcommittee resisted the change during a Feb. 18 vote, voicing concern about dictating such a specific requirement, and the motion failed. Members then unanimously approved the line item as originally proposed, advancing Gianforte’s $1 million request to the next stage in the budget process: the full House Appropriations Committee.
—Alex Sakariassen
3 Questions For
Annita Lucchesi was recently named program manager of Artemis, the National Wildlife Federation’s sportswomen’s initiative. As director, Lucchesi oversees various efforts that aim to make hunting and angling more accessible to women. Lucchesis, who is of Cheyenne descent, recently relaunched the Artemis podcast with a four-episode season dedicated to Indigenous hunters and anglers. Montana Free Press spoke to Lucchesi about the podcast, her vision for Artemis and the importance of diversity in hunting and angling. Responses are edited for length and clarity.
MTFP: How did you come up with the idea for this podcast series?
Lucchesi: One of the first things that came up in this job is there are quite a few Indigenous women that hunt and fish that don’t consider themselves sportswomen. And so the title of the program, Artemis Sportswomen, can be kind of alienating or confusing. I’m not sure if either of those are the right words, but you know what I mean. So now we’re trying to approach the work as sportswomen, but also women engaged in subsistence and cultural practices and healing practices through the land and all these different things. … So it’s really neat to see the full spectrum of women represented in Artemis for the first time, and the podcast is part of that broader effort to try to uplift voices that aren’t often heard in the sporting world.
MTFP: Tell us more about this podcast. Do you have a favorite episode? And what do you hope people take away after listening to the series?
Lucchesi: I guess my two favorites would be the conversations with Vanessa Castle (Lower Elwha Klallam angler and advocate) and Deleana Otherbull (Northern Cheyenne and Crow climate justice advocate) because they’re such incredible women with so many powerful, cool things to say. In terms of what I hope people walk away with, I think when people think of hunters and anglers, they don’t think of Native women. I don’t even think Native men think of Native women as hunters and anglers. This might sound silly but I still use Pinterest. I have a Pinterest board for manifesting what I want in my life, and I want to include hunting and fishing on that. And when you look up in Pinterest “woman hunter” or “woman fisher,” they’re all white. And if you just look for hunting and fishing content, they’re pretty much all men. So I think this season is really important in challenging those stereotypes. [It shows] how easy it is to walk our talk when it comes to uplifting voices that are not often heard that have powerful things to say. I think in the conservation world, there’s increasing lip service to that, but it’s not always something you see in action.
MTFP: What is your vision for Artemis as a whole? When you’re talking about “walking the talk” when it comes to equity, what does that look like?
Lucchesi: I think Artemis can be a role model in the sporting world and in the conservation world around not just who needs to be at the table, but who needs to have decision-making power. And it should be the people who are out on the land on a regular basis. It should be the people who are sustaining their families and their communities by being out on the land. And really, we all benefit immensely when it’s women. … The more accessible we can make it and the more role models or mentors we can uplift who break out of that mold, the better we’ll all be for it.
—Nora Mabie
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
- The American Indian Caucus in the Legislature says the first half of the session went well.
- President Trump could dismantle the National Environmental Policy Act.
- Republican lawmakers navigate a changed landscape when it comes to abortion rights.
On Our Radar 
Alex — The Flathead Beacon recently published a touching and humorous send-off to Glacier National Park’s oldest ranger, Doug Follett — aka “Ranger Doug” — who died this month at the age of 98. The piece closes with a nugget of life advice from Follett that I think many of us can get behind.
Brad — By happy accident, a trip to Missoula last weekend overlapped with the annual Roxy Theater record sale benefit — and thus with an unanticipated milk-crate-size dent in my checking account. Find of the day was Funkadelic’s eponymous 1970 debut, which kicks off with the glacial monster stomp of “Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic?” The official start of spring is still a week away, but everything within earshot of my speakers is already well and truly melted.
JoVonne — A video that shows an American social media influencer picking up a baby wombat and carrying it away from its mother in Australia has recently gone viral. It sparked public backlash and even prompted the Australian Prime Minister to issue a public statement. It turns out the person, Samantha Strable, grew up in Great Falls, the Daily Montanan reported.
Holly — The only parenting philosophy I cling to is that it’s probably better to be outside than inside. With all the muddy stomping our household engages in these days, and a certain child’s tendency to eat mud, this NPR piece is validating.
Katie — I always knew grad school was tough, and this Montana Kaimin article following one student trying to make ends meet in Missoula backs that up. The article also highlights how the recently formed Graduate Employee Union plans to help 450 University of Montana graduate students afford the rising cost of living in Missoula.
Eric — There’s been plenty of ink spilled on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. As I try to sort fact from fiery rhetoric, though, some of the most useful coverage I’ve seen has been the group of New York Times data reporters who are pedantically fact checking the savings numbers DOGE has claimed on its website.
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