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After our story this week about Montana’s legal marijuana market, Montana Free Press heard from a reader wondering how tax revenue from cannabis sales is spent and whether the current system matches what voters approved in 2020.
The short answer: The basic statewide tax rates haven’t changed (20% on adult-use sales, 4% on medical marijuana), but the Montana Legislature has significantly reshaped how that money gets divided, directing nearly half of it to the state’s General Fund in 2025. When voters passed Initiative 190, the law called for sending only one-tenth of the collected money to the General Fund.
In 2025, Montana collected roughly $60 million in marijuana tax revenue. After the Department of Revenue sets aside a three-month operating reserve, here’s where the rest goes:
First, 11% flows to the HEART fund (Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment). The remaining money is then split among several accounts: 20% goes toward wildlife conservation, parks, trails and recreational facilities and nongame wildlife programs each get 4%, and veterans’ services get the lesser of 3% or $200,000. The Board of Crime Control receives $150,000 for crisis intervention training.
What’s left — roughly 49% of the total, or about $29 million in 2025 — goes to the General Fund, the pot of money the Legislature uses to pay for everything from schools to prisons to state employee salaries.
When Montanans voted for Initiative 190 in November 2020, they were told the tax revenue would be split quite differently. The initiative promised 37% would go to Fish, Wildlife and Parks for wildlife habitat, while just 10.5% would flow to the General Fund. Another 10% was designated to offset Medicaid rate increases and pay raises for workers providing home and community health services.
The 2021 Legislature, however, rewrote those allocations. Among other things, lawmakers eliminated Medicaid funding, reduced the wildlife habitat allocation, cut funding for veterans and their surviving spouses, and boosted the general funds share.
More recently, the 2025 Legislature changed how the tax gets calculated at the point of sale — it’s now based on retail prices after discounts and promotions — and increased the HEART fund allocation to 11% from “an amount not to exceed $6 million.” Lawmakers also authorized counties to impose their own local tax of up to 3% on marijuana sales, though implementation varies by jurisdiction.
The changes to Initiative 190 aren’t the first time Montana lawmakers have modified voter-approved marijuana policy. In 2004, voters approved medical marijuana with 62% support through Initiative 148. But in 2011, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 423, which dramatically restricted the program by limiting caregivers to just three patients. Voters responded in 2016 by passing Initiative 182 to lift those restrictions. The back-and-forth over I-190’s implementation continues this pattern between what voters approve and what lawmakers ultimately implement.
— Jacob Olness
Wildlife Watch 🐻
Federal authorities are seeking information about the shooting of a grizzly sow found just west of the Montana-Idaho border near Perkins Lake.
The sow was part of the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population, which includes parts of northwestern Montana and northeast Idaho. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and nonprofit wildlife advocacy groups are providing up to $15,000 for information about the bear’s shooter.
Grizzly biologists were alerted to the bear’s killing Oct. 28 when the radio collar she had been fitted with started sending a mortality signal. Grizzly bears are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it is illegal for members of the public to kill them except for exceptional circumstances. According to a December press release, there is no indication that the bear was shot in self-defense.
“Service staff and [Idaho Department of Fish and Game] officers investigated and determined the grizzly was shot in a manner indicating it was not a threat to the shooter,” according to the release.
Two nonprofit organizations have joined the USFWS in offering a reward for information that leads to an arrest or civil penalty. USFWS is offering up to $7,000, Idaho’s Citizens Against Poaching is offering $700 and the Center for Biological Diversity announced on Jan. 13 that it is adding another $7,300 to the reward pot.
In a press release about the reward issued this week, Kristine Akland, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Northern Rockies director, emphasized the outsized importance of female grizzlies, particularly for the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem’s struggling population. After decades of reintroduction efforts in the Cabinet Mountains, recent estimates put the range’s grizzly population at just 30 to 35 grizzlies.
“This was a tragic, completely preventable loss, and the consequences to grizzly recovery are enormous,” Akland said. “In a population this small and fragile, every female is critical to survival. Losing even one can tip the balance toward the decline of the entire population. We’re increasing the reward because the person responsible for killing this bear needs to be held accountable.”
USFWS is encouraging anyone with information to call 1-844-397-8477 or make a report to www.fws.gov/wildlife-crime-tips. Reporting portals are also available through the Citizens Against Poaching website and hotline. Callers can remain anonymous.
— Amanda Eggert
By the numbers 🔢
Number of passengers served last year by the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, which was again on track to be Montana’s busiest as of November. According to figures published by the airport, that’s a 6% increase over 2024 — and an all-time high.
The figure is also close to triple the 1,021,155 passengers the airport reported serving in 2015. That year, it touted the fact that it had become the first Montana airport to serve 1 million passengers in a calendar year.
— Eric Dietrich
The Gist 📌
The Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Advisory Council recently launched a sponsored license plate to support its efforts. The new plate depicts several tipis and includes the advisory council’s emblem with a red handprint, the symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People movement. “Help find the missing,” the plate reads in block letters at the bottom. Proceeds from the license plate support the advisory council, which is tasked with improving communication and cooperation among state, federal and tribal entities in cases involving missing persons. Though the group was first established by the Legislature in 2019, it only recently gained the ability to accept funds to support its efforts. A new law that passed the last legislative session allows the group, which consists of tribal, state and federal leaders, to accept donations, grants, gifts and other money to support training, equipment and operational expenses.
Native Americans go missing at disproportionately high rates in Montana. While Indigenous people comprise about 6.7% of Montana’s population, as of Wednesday, they accounted for about 26% of the state’s active missing persons population.
— Nora Mabie
Snapshot 📸
The community group Missoula Sings led about 500 people in songs, including “And When I Rise” and “This Little Light of Mine,” during a vigil for Renee Good along the Beartracks Bridge on Jan. 11 in Missoula. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month.
News of the News 📰
Jan. 16 marks the end of an era in Montana journalism. Phil Drake, the editor for the Helena Independent Record and Montana Standard in Butte, is retiring.
Phil has worked lots of jobs in newsrooms around the Big Sky state and elsewhere; we first met when he was the Capitol reporter and columnist for the Great Falls Tribune and I was a state bureau reporter for Lee Newspapers. We were competitors, but he was also one of the people who made sure I knew when the important press conferences happened, where the bathrooms were and how to get a copy of a bill draft.
We maintained a jokingly (most of the time) adversarial relationship, and I know that the most annoying thing I could do to Phil is take an earnest tone in this newsletter — so that’s what I’ll do now.
In addition to knowing how to sniff out a good story, one of the most valuable roles Phil played in the Montana journalism world was as a teacher. He must have taken dozens of reporters out for hundreds of meals and mentorship. From breakfast at Steve’s Cafe to dinner at the Motherlode Sports Bar, he made sure that young journalists could fill their stomachs with food and minds with advice (always get the dog’s name, show up when an official comes to town in case they’re assassinated, follow the money).
Ask anyone who went through the University of Montana’s Legislative News Service, and they’ll tell you Phil’s time and attention were formative for learning the ropes around government and politics reporting. They valued his wisdom and level-headedness, as well as his levity about covering complex situations.
Phil left an indelible imprint on generations of journalists by taking the time to offer up a meal to eat, an ear that listened and advice that hit all the right notes. He’ll be missed.
— Holly Michels with Nora Mabie
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
University of Montana President Seth Bodar is planning a run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, much to the chagrin of state Democrats.
The Trump administration terminated about $2 billion in substance abuse and mental health grants, many of them in Montana. A day later, it reversed course.
NorthWestern Energy doubles down on coal.
And, about that postcard you received from the secretary of state …
On Our Radar
Nora — I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of blood quantum lately, as the Crow Tribe considers legislation that would change who counts as a member. So I was eager to read David Treuer’s essay in The Atlantic about Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, who posed as a Blackfeet leader but turned out not to be who he said he was. The piece interrogates the history of Indigenous identity in the United States and explores the nuances of what it means to be Native American.
Nick — I’m a sucker for “The Hunt,” a regular feature in the New York Times that tracks folks’ search for a home and lets you weigh in on what digs you would have chosen in their shoes. This week, the Times followed a couple in Helena. No kidding.
Zeke — When Montana Free Press reported on flooding in Libby in mid-December, freelancer Justin Franz included a brief mention of a man who plummeted into the river while driving his truck over a defunct bridge. I was very glad to see Missoulian reporter Sam Wilson follow up. The story is worth a read.
Mara — Winter ski plans are not quite panning out as expected, as many of you are probably also experiencing. That said, some friends and I weren’t ready to abandon our scheduled trip to Red Lodge this weekend. Does anyone have recommendations for January trail runs in that neck of the woods?
Eric — MTFP’s holiday vacation was long enough this year that I, uh, might have ended up with a touch too much time on my hands. So I filmed a YouTube video showing the process of making a handmade wooden box for our post-holiday office gift exchange. (Yes, it includes a cameo from one of our office dogs.)
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This week’s edition of the Lowdown was edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy-editing by Holly Michels.
