Montana

Montana Viewpoint: Turkeys & Tourists

Published

2 years ago

June 6, 2024

I don’t know when the Merriam turkey was introduced to Western Montana, but it was and they have prospered. I can vouch for it.

In the 1980s and ’90s I broke out about 65 acres of timberland into cropland and I planted a lot of oats to “tame the soil.” I put up a lot of the oats as hay and word spread fast in turkey-dom. In short-order my haystacks began to look like the rear end of a threshing machine because the turkeys scratched the bales to get at the oat kernels and popped all the strings. This meant that I had to use a pitchfork to load the hay onto a wagon.

I shall be forever grateful to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, whose staff netted some 400 of them and relocated them to the Flathead where I am sure they were welcomed. To me, it was “good riddance.”

So, when a neighbor of mine asked me, years later, “Jim, how do you get rid of these turkeys?” my advice was simple and straightforward. “Stop feeding them.”

Which leads me from turkeys to tourists.

Two Montana County Commissioners, Josh Slotnick, a Democrat from Missoula County, and Joe Briggs, a Republican from Cascade County, have been working together to come up with a way to mitigate the hardships imposed on Montanans by the historic increase in residential property taxes.

One of the first considerations in collecting taxes is what are the political repercussions going to be. And the best way to avoid repercussions in that regard is to tax people who can’t vote for you. Enter the tourist, like the turkey, ripe for the plucking.

To tax the tourists and use the receipts to offset residential property tax increases is not a terribly new idea and has been used successfully in several small taxing jurisdictions in Montana.

A tourist economy is not entirely beneficial. There are costs associated with tourism that residents, not tourists, have to bear, and the argument is that tourists should pay their share of those costs. There are such things as the need for water and septic infrastructure improvements to address the increased use brought on by tourism.

Places like West Yellowstone and the St Regis Resort Area did not have the tax base to make improvements on the shoulders of residents alone, and the “Resort Tax”, first put into use by West Yellowstone in 1987, I believe, has helped the town immensely.

Almost every town in the Mountain West has seen its economy change from one of industry to what the local governments see as their last best chance, tourism. So, we now have tourism as a major industry in Montana.

One of the reasons that that has occurred is due to the implementation in 1987 of the Lodging Facility Use Tax which was expressly designed to market Montana to out-of-state tourists.

In the last fiscal year (2023) the 4% tax brought in $59 million dollars of which 82.8% ($48.8 million) went to promote tourism in Montana. Some 60.3% went to the Brand Montana program administered by the Department of Commerce and 22.5% to regional tourism bureaus (see https://brand.mt.gov/Programs/Office-Of-Tourism/Lodging-Facility-Use-Tax).

At one time I suggested to the Legislature that it would be simpler to tax tourists at the border. Years ago, there used to be actual gates on the highways leading into Montana which, except when snow closed the roads, were kept symbolically in the open position with a sign nearby which said, “Welcome to Montana, the gate is open.”

An effort to revive them in the 1989 Legislature failed, but today it might be tempting to re-invent the quaint and simple wooden bars with a tollgate and a sign that says “Welcome to Montana, insert credit card to open gate.”

Conservatives who are not in favor of government subsidies might ask why the State of Montana is subsidizing a particular industry. Surely an industry which brings in an estimated $5.4 billion in income revenue to Montana should be, by now, big enough to stand on its own.

Could that $48 million in tourism promotion be used to lower property taxes? Sure, but it won’t be because the industry is too vested in the subsidy to permit it to be diverted.

Still, at some point you’ve got to stop feeding the turkeys.

Montana Viewpoint has appeared in weekly and online newspapers across Montana for over 25 years. Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

Published

10 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

22 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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Montana

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

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Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.

The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.

MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.

MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74

MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.

Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.

Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.

But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.

As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.

Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Montana Western 65, Carroll 56

After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.

Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.

Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.

Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.

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