The Republican sponsor and backers of the broadly supported bill to make changes to how Montana’s marijuana tax revenue is dispersed have asked the Secretary of State to allow the legislature to consider overriding Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of the measure. Gianforte’s veto of Senate Bill 442 last Tuesday came around the time the Senate voted to adjourn the 2023 legislative session, causing confusion for those who developed and supported the bill alongside its sponsor, Sen. Mike Lang, ...

As if Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks complicated system to apply for special hunting permits wasn’t confusing enough, a new wrinkle was added last year without public notification. The agency has allowed hunters to purchase bonus points for 20 years to increase their odds of drawing hard-to-get permits. The points accrue over time and are awarded after the hunter failed to draw one of their first-choice tags. In theory then, a hunter who is repeatedly denied a tag and purchases a bonus ...

Instead of signing a bill that would give elk licenses to nonresidents who own lots of land, the Governor’s Office returned it to the Legislature with amendments. But that hasn’t improved the schism among resident hunters. On Friday, after a week of consideration, Gov. Greg Gianforte sent House Bill 635 back to the Legislature with two amendments that have further disappointed some hunters. As originally passed, HB 635, sponsored by Rep. Joshua Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, would set aside up to ...

Two proposals with competing visions for the tens of millions in taxes that Montana collects annually on the sale of recreational marijuana are still making their way through the Legislature as lawmakers work to set a two-year state budget. One measure, House Bill 669, would funnel most of the state’s adult-use marijuana tax collections — which are forecast to top $50 million per year — to the General Fund, allowing lawmakers to distribute that money as they see fit on a session-by-session ...

When Drew Hanes thinks about the worst disputes over blocked public access she’s encountered in her career, she recalls the time when her friends found themselves arguing with an angry Montana landowner instead of hunting antelope. "In Montana we have a history of leasing BLM land to large ranches [for grazing]," says Hanes, the executive director for the Public Land Water Access Association. "My friends were hunting on this BLM land and the owner of the leases came out and said 'I own this, ...