Montana House Bill 676 - Sale of "Isolated" Sections of State Trust Land

[JMG]

HB 676 - Sponsored by House speaker Brandon Ler (R-Savage) will "facilitate the sale of isolated sections of State Trust land". Seems like the slippery slope of selling State Trust lands and this may lead to the selling of State Trust lands.

Billings Gazette Article 03/27/2025

 

[Southern Elk]

Terrible bill. See thread below.

Montana House Bill 676 - This could sell off 1.25M acres of State Trust Lands - that's almost 25%!!! This is not the Homesteading Bill

This one seems to be floating under the radar! The main intent of the bill is water rights - but there's a catch. There's a section in this bill that FORCES the sale of school trust lands where the lessee requests it - if they have water rights on the lands and the lands are "isolated". This...

www.hunttalk.com

 

[D4570]

This is absolutely a very BAD thing.
How will the school funding be replaced?
I understand the landowner's point of view.
Wouldn't it be better to trade land on the edges of the property? The school funding would be kept, and the public could still have access. You never spend your prinsabal on your investment, school land IS an investment...

 

[DP_PublicLands]

HB 676 Update - They just uploaded an amendment to the bill.

Link here:
https://docs.legmt.gov/download-ticket?ticketId=dfc16a4f-82fb-48d3-b328-046fa2729baf

Guess what - there isn't one word about selling public lands in this amendment!!!!