Montana BHA has signed a report detailing crippling costs to the state that would ensue if federal lands were to be transferred to the state. BHA has long opposed this notion and has pushed back across the West and in Helena against any attempts to transfer our public lands. Below is the executive summary of the report. 

Read the full report here

Executive Summary

The financial implications of transferring federal public lands to state control are staggering and disproportionately impactful for a rural state with large swaths of national public lands. Montana taxpayers could face a conservatively estimated $7.9 billion hit over the next 20 years. This massive new state tax burden would be primarily driven by the stateʼs need to take on wildfire management, the deferred maintenance backlog, and abandoned mine reclamation on public lands. The state would be left shouldering a massive fiscal burden, with no capacity to manage the soaring costs of wildfire suppression, a ten-fold increase from current federal support, an ever-growing half-billion-dollar maintenance backlog, and nearly a billion dollars of abandoned mine reclamation work.

Montana currently shares wildfire mitigation and response costs with federal agencies, but transferring federal lands to the state will shift the financial burden largely onto state taxpayers, potentially costing Montana $5.5 billion over the next 20 years. This estimate does not account for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires due to climate change, nor the uncertainty of continued federal cost-sharing through FEMA.

Furthermore, Montanaʼs reliance on federal funding for local governments and schools would be severely disrupted. The federal government currently provides over $40 million annually through Payments-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT), which helps fund county services and school programs to make up for lost tax revenue. Without these payments, rural counties would be at risk of bankruptcy, school closures, and cuts to essential services.

The ranching economy would be hit hard. Federal grazing lands are crucial for Montanaʼs cattle industry, offering affordable leases that keep ranching operations viable. A shift to state control would see grazing fees increased by over 1,600%, throwing the stateʼs agricultural sector into disarray. "The financial implications of transferring federal public lands to state control are staggering and disproportionately impactful for a rural state with large swaths of national public lands."

Finally, Montanaʼs robust tourism industry, valued at $5.45 billion annually, is heavily reliant on federally managed lands like Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. The national and international appeal of these landscapes could be severely diminished by state ownership, potentially undermining the stateʼs tourism-driven economy.