POLSON — Lake County's efforts to get the state to pay for policing on Tribal lands hit another roadblock this week with the Montana Supreme Court ruling against the county.
The ruling concerns Public Law 280, which is a long-time agreement that declares Lake County will assume jurisdiction over felonies committed by tribal members within county lines.
Lake County leaders have turned to the courts over the past few years to get the state to handle rising court costs, which have reached almost $1 million since May alone.
The price tag includes the cost of jail beds, medication, and prisoner transports for example.
“Those are not the total amount, because we know there's some amounts that we would really have to spend a lot of time to investigate, and documenting, such as depreciation on vehicles. How much time in our 911 call center are dedicated to Public Law 280? So we haven't done that because we knew it would be time-intensive to do it,” said Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker.
Lake County District Court Judge Amy Eddy sided with the state of Montana last year, finding that Lake County is still responsible for costs.
The county then appealed to the state's highest court, which upheld that decision on December 3, referencing a statute that finds the county will be reimbursed only if the legislature chooses to appropriate the money.
“We were kind of expecting that to come down from the Supreme Court. There were some other pieces of it that, you know, we're still digesting, that we think gives us some more approaches to the funding issue," said Decker.
Lake County commissioners have officially withdrawn their consent to enforce PL 280. But despite that decision, a lack of state funding, and a vetoed bill from the 2023 legislative session, PL 280 is still in effect.
“We know the state has no ability to come into Lake County and do what we're doing at the present time. So, in the interest of public safety, which is our number one priority, we have continued to exercise Public Law 280 jurisdiction," said Decker.
Lake County commissioners are looking to the upcoming Montana legislative session for help in having the state fund PL 280.
