Bill offers solution to cabin lease rate hike
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We’re between legislative sessions, but as your elected representative, I’ll stay on top of issues and provide these briefs. As always, I value your input. Contact me at 406-883-4677 or carminemowbray@gmail.com.
For generations, Montana has leased cabin sites to folks willing to make improvements at their own expense. The lessees invested money and sweat equity on utilities, structures, wells and septic systems. They maintained access roads, removed noxious weeds and dead trees. Some live in them year-round. Others built seasonal cabins. Many are more than 50 years old and have been enjoyed by generations of families. Eighty-eight percent of leaseholders are Montana residents, and many are retirees living on Social Security.
Lease revenue benefits Montana’s schools and universities. The infamous 2009 reappraisal slammed those lease rates over the fence. On Rogers Lake west of Kalispell, 15 of the 28 sites have already been abandoned due to impossible lease rates. What happens when a cabin site is abandoned? No one takes care of the land, so noxious weeds and soil erosion can occur; there is reduced vigilance against crime and forest fires.
Senator Tutvedt took on the challenge and drafted SB409, which offers a long-term solution. It requires an open bid process to determine fair full market value. The bill contains no special privileges or preference for current leaseholders. I spoke in favor of the bill, and it passed the Senate on a vote of 44 to four; and easily passed in the House. The governor allowed it to become law.
Now the Board of Regents and the Land Board are threatening legal action to stop the implementation of SB409. The governor now claims it was a “dumb bill,” in spite of its overwhelming bipartisan passage. They are on this adversarial path despite the legal costs to Montana taxpayers and poor perception of state government.
If the land board wins the suit, the rates will go up so high that the probable outcome will be wholesale abandonment of the state’s 802 sites. Anyone in business knows that to maintain volume, you keep prices reasonable. Now the state will have to rake high rates off fewer and fewer folks willing to pay above-market prices.
Let’s hope common sense prevails and Senator Tutvedt’s bill is given an opportunity to work.
