Jim Elliott
I don’t know when Merriam’s turkeys were introduced to western Montana, but they were introduced and have thrived, I can guarantee it.
In the 1980s and 90s, I converted about 65 acres of forest land to cropland and planted loads of oats to “tame” the soil. I grew loads of oats for hay and word spread fast in turkey country. Soon my haystacks began to look like the back of a thresher because the turkeys were scratching at the bales to get the oat kernels and popping all the strings off. This meant I had to use pitchforks to load the hay into the wagon.
I will be forever grateful to Montana Fish and Wildlife and Parks officers for netting about 400 whales and transporting them to the Flathead River, where they must have been very welcome. That was a “thank goodness” for me.
So when a neighbor asked me a few years later, “Jim, how do I get rid of these turkeys?” my advice was simple and clear: “Stop feeding them.”
So, let’s move from talking about turkeys to talking about tourists.
Montana’s two county commissioners, Democrat Josh Slotnick of Missoula County and Republican Joe Briggs of Cascade County, have been working together to come up with ways to alleviate the hardships imposed on Montanans by historic increases in residential property taxes.
One of the first things to consider when levying a tax is what the political repercussions will be. The best way to avoid repercussions in that regard is to tax people who can’t vote. Let the tourists show up like turkeys waiting to have their wings plucked.
The idea of taxing tourists and using the revenue to pay for increased residential property taxes isn’t particularly new, and it has been implemented successfully in several small taxing jurisdictions in Montana.
The tourism economy is not entirely beneficial. Tourism comes with costs that must be borne by residents, not tourists. There is an argument to be made that tourists should cover some of those costs, such as the need for improved water and septic infrastructure to handle increased tourism use. Places like West Yellowstone and the St. Regis Resort Area did not have the tax base to improve through resident contributions alone. I believe the “resort tax” first implemented in West Yellowstone in 1987 has done the town a great deal.
Nearly every town in the Mountain West has seen its economy shift from being centered on industry to tourism, which local governments see as their last chance, making tourism the state’s major industry today.
One reason for this is the introduction in 1987 of a lodging tax specifically designed to market Montana to out-of-state tourists.
The 4% tax generated $59 million in revenue for the last fiscal year (2023), of which 82.8% ($48.8 million) was dedicated to promoting tourism in Montana. About 60.3% went to the Brand Montana program administered by the Department of Commerce and 22.5% went to regional tourism bureaus.
I once suggested to the Legislature that it would be easier to just tax tourists at the border. Years ago, the highway into Montana actually had a gate that was kept symbolically open except when the road was closed because of snow, with a sign nearby that read, “Welcome to Montana, Gate Is Open.”
An attempt to bring it back during the 1989 state legislature failed, but today it might be tempting to recreate the quaint, simple wooden fence, complete with toll booths and a sign that reads, “Welcome to Montana. Insert your credit card to open the gate.”
Conservatives who don’t support government subsidies might ask why Montana is subsidizing a particular industry. Surely an industry that brings in an estimated $5.4 billion in revenue to the state should be large enough by now to be self-sustaining.
Could the $48 million for tourism be used to lower property taxes? Of course it could, but it probably can’t be because the tourism industry is too dependent on subsidies to allow them to be diverted.
Still, at some point, you have to stop feeding the turkey.
