Billings MACo Presentation

The Montana Association of Counties held their Mid-Winter Conference in Billings Feb. 15-16.With all of the state and national attention that has been focused on the MonDak region and the oil and gas development, MACo took the opportunity to dedicate a full day of presentations to Eastern Montana and the challenges that they face. With a room full of county commissioners and officials from around the state in attendance, Rep. Matt Rosendale (HD 38) was the first speaker. Rosendale gave a power point presentation that included much of the information he had shared with legislators on a bus tour which he organized through the area in November. The slide show described the increased demands on the area including school systems, roads and water and sewer systems. It also itemized the enormous investment that the industry has made, and continues to make, lending credibility to the long term prospects of the activity. The representative stated that “The largest obstacle to the full development of this resource is the lack of infrastructure to support it. That includes pipelines and rail to transport the product to markets and adequate infrastructure in our communities to support the labor force and ancillary businesses. Ample tax revenue is collected from this production,” he stated, “more needs to be directed back to the communities that generate it”.

Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser was next up with commentary about the need for statutory changes in order to direct a larger portion of the revenue generated from the production tax, back to the municipalities. Throughout the area the municipalities typically support 50% of the county’s population yet only receive .10% of the production tax. That doesn’t provide the communities the revenue that they need in order to address the increased demands on services.

After the two presentations, Commissioners Jim Skillestad (Dawson) and Loren Young (Richland) gave some comments about how they were dealing with the impacts. Later speakers included Tom Richmond, Montana Board of Oil and Gas. Richmond gave a detailed accounting of Montana’s oil and gas production and of the fracing process.

MACo executive director Harold Blattie thanked the speakers for attending the conference. After participating in Rep. Rosendale’s bus tour he was amazed at the activity and told the audience “you need to see it to believe it”. “I am sure that the 2013 legislative session will have legislation focused on this region so this information is certainly valuable as we go forward”.