Water compact passes final reading in Senate

Senate Bill 262 had been tabled Feb. 24 by the Senate Finance and Claims Committee but was “blasted” to the full senate floor by a 33-17 vote.

The compact is a negotiated settlement among the tribes, the state and the federal government to quantify the tribes’ water rights in Northwest Montana. With a $55 million contribution from the state as part of the deal, it is an attempt to avoid thousands of claims the tribes plan to file across the state in a water adjudication court.

Because it is a settlement among the three parties, proponents have warned that any amendments to the compact bill will effectively kill it.

The bill could have been headed for that fate in the finance committee after Sen. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, proposed two amendments to increase transparency for the funding attached to the bill.

SB 262 obligates the state to pay the Tribes $55 million which would be used to start a $30 million interest-bearing pumping fund for low-water years, $13 million to restore bull trout on the Little Bitterroot River, $4 million for irrigation infrastructure improvements, $4 for stock water mitigation, and $4 million to evaluate river diversions by irrigators.

According to the compact, $8 million would be paid as a first installment, and the remaining $47 million would be appropriated by a future legislature once the federal and tribal governments approve the compact.

Taylor said it was not her intention to kill the compact.

“Fifty-five million dollars is a lot of money, and this legislature is very concerned with transparency,” she said.

But bill sponsor Chas Vincent, R-Libby, had a different take.

“This is nothing but an attempt to amend the bill, to kill the bill,” he said, after the first amendment passed 14-6. “And that’s your guys’ policy decision as well. I just want you to know that’s what’s happening.”

He said the amendments could easily be attached to separate appropriations legislation in the House.

“If that was my intention, I would have brought these amendments on the floor, which would have been much worse and probably would have killed the bill,” Taylor responded. “I did not think of these weeks ago, and I just want to make that clear.”

Legislative attorney Julie Johnson concurred that because the amendments were reporting requirements related to funding, they could instead be approved as part of the House-based appropriation bill.

Taylor passed out five amendments she planned to put up for a vote, ultimately holding off on three of them that she said were redundant. One amendment, requiring an audit of the compact funds, passed 10-9.

Speaking before the committee voted on whether to pass the bill as amended, Vincent then changed tactics.

“I would recommend that everybody that is in favor of ratifying this compact this session, … vote against the bill, so it can remain in this committee, and then I will remove it by a blast motion on the floor and take the amendments off of it.”

The motion to table the bill passed 17-2. It was scheduled to go to the full Senate on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Brown, R-Thompson Falls, has proposed a bill that would provide a $13 million legal defense fund to help anyone who water rights were in jeopardy should the CSKT water compact fail to be ratified by the legislature. House Bill 427 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee March 6.

The legal framework surrounding how the Tribes’ water rights are defined is uncertain, and if the compact fails, the Tribes have indicated they will file more than 10,000 far-reaching water rights claims as far east as Billings.

“I think it’s really a thing to protect the citizens in the event that the compact fails,” Brown said about his bill on Feb. 18. “That’s my basic motivation, to be sure those people who by no choice of their own are going to be thrust into some kind of legal battle and don’t have the finances or the ability to defend themselves.”

Under the proposal, $6 million would be administered by the Montana Department of Natural Resources to examine water rights claims filed on the Flathead Indian Reservation or elsewhere by the tribes. An additional $5 million would go to a newly created public defender fund specific to those water right cases. The remaining $2 million would go to the state water court’s caseload account to process those claims.

Montana Deputy Attorney General Cory Swanson has said the state will square off against the tribes in water court only when it is in the state’s interest, likely leaving out many individual objectors to the tribes’ claims, such as irrigators facing the loss of their water rights.

The Montana Senate passed bill to ratify the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact by 32-18 on a third reading on Feb. 26. It was transmitted to the House.

Senate Bill 262 had been tabled Feb. 24 by the Senate Finance and Claims Committee but was “blasted” to the full senate floor by a 33-17 vote.

The compact is a negotiated settlement among the tribes, the state and the federal government to quantify the tribes’ water rights in Northwest Montana. With a $55 million contribution from the state as part of the deal, it is an attempt to avoid thousands of claims the tribes plan to file across the state in a water adjudication court.

Because it is a settlement among the three parties, proponents have warned that any amendments to the compact bill will effectively kill it.

The bill could have been headed for that fate in the finance committee after Sen. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, proposed two amendments to increase transparency for the funding attached to the bill.

SB 262 obligates the state to pay the Tribes $55 million which would be used to start a $30 million interest-bearing pumping fund for low-water years, $13 million to restore bull trout on the Little Bitterroot River, $4 million for irrigation infrastructure improvements, $4 for stock water mitigation, and $4 million to evaluate river diversions by irrigators.

According to the compact, $8 million would be paid as a first installment, and the remaining $47 million would be appropriated by a future legislature once the federal and tribal governments approve the compact.

Taylor said it was not her intention to kill the compact.

“Fifty-five million dollars is a lot of money, and this legislature is very concerned with transparency,” she said.

But bill sponsor Chas Vincent, R-Libby, had a different take.

“This is nothing but an attempt to amend the bill, to kill the bill,” he said, after the first amendment passed 14-6. “And that’s your guys’ policy decision as well. I just want you to know that’s what’s happening.”

He said the amendments could easily be attached to separate appropriations legislation in the House.

“If that was my intention, I would have brought these amendments on the floor, which would have been much worse and probably would have killed the bill,” Taylor responded. “I did not think of these weeks ago, and I just want to make that clear.”

Legislative attorney Julie Johnson concurred that because the amendments were reporting requirements related to funding, they could instead be approved as part of the House-based appropriation bill.

Taylor passed out five amendments she planned to put up for a vote, ultimately holding off on three of them that she said were redundant. One amendment, requiring an audit of the compact funds, passed 10-9.

Speaking before the committee voted on whether to pass the bill as amended, Vincent then changed tactics.

“I would recommend that everybody that is in favor of ratifying this compact this session, … vote against the bill, so it can remain in this committee, and then I will remove it by a blast motion on the floor and take the amendments off of it.”

The motion to table the bill passed 17-2. It was scheduled to go to the full Senate on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Brown, R-Thompson Falls, has proposed a bill that would provide a $13 million legal defense fund to help anyone who water rights were in jeopardy should the CSKT water compact fail to be ratified by the legislature. House Bill 427 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee March 6.

The legal framework surrounding how the Tribes’ water rights are defined is uncertain, and if the compact fails, the Tribes have indicated they will file more than 10,000 far-reaching water rights claims as far east as Billings.

“I think it’s really a thing to protect the citizens in the event that the compact fails,” Brown said about his bill on Feb. 18. “That’s my basic motivation, to be sure those people who by no choice of their own are going to be thrust into some kind of legal battle and don’t have the finances or the ability to defend themselves.”

Under the proposal, $6 million would be administered by the Montana Department of Natural Resources to examine water rights claims filed on the Flathead Indian Reservation or elsewhere by the tribes. An additional $5 million would go to a newly created public defender fund specific to those water right cases. The remaining $2 million would go to the state water court’s caseload account to process those claims.

Montana Deputy Attorney General Cory Swanson has said the state will square off against the tribes in water court only when it is in the state’s interest, likely leaving out many individual objectors to the tribes’ claims, such as irrigators facing the loss of their water rights.