Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed a new law restricting the display of certain flags in classrooms and elsewhere on government property.

The law, sponsored by hard-right state Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, specifically bans flags “that represent a political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or political ideology.”

That includes, in this case, Pride flags.

“I know when I went to school in 2018 they had Black Lives Matter flags,” Mitchell, a graduate of Columbia Falls High School, told a legislative committee in April. “I don’t think that’s something that should be pushed in a school. There were some teachers that had Pride flags.”

The bill includes carveouts for flags officially representing countries — in other words, the governor can continue to raise an Israeli flag at the Capitol — as well as schools, branches of the military, tribal nations, local governments and law enforcement agencies. It also exempts a number of flags that (at least to this reporter) generally carry a certain conservative character: the POW/MIA flag, “flags honoring law enforcement and fallen officers” — so thin blue lines flags are safe — and “official historical flags of the United States and the state of Montana, including but not limited to the Betsy Ross flag, Gadsden flag, and other flags of historical significance.”

Of course, emblazoned on Gadsden flags — and on the popular sponsored license plate that benefits the 1776 Foundation, directed by Republican operative Jake Eaton — is the phrase: “Don’t Tread on Me.”

Officials with the University of Montana told the Daily Montanan they didn’t think the law would meaningfully affect campus life. The law stipulates that it applies “solely to government-controlled displays, ensuring personal freedoms remain intact while maintaining a neutral public environment.”

Council hikes hotel fees

The Missoula City Council voted this week to double the nightly lodging fee paid by those staying in hotels in the city from $2 to $4.

It’s the first increase to the fee the city has approved in more than a decade, and will take effect this July. The fee applies at all hotels in the city Tourism Business Improvement District, which has included the entirety of the city since 2019.

The associated revenue is managed by the Tourism District Board and used for tourism promotion and grantmaking to local organizations.

As city councilors frequently lament, state law makes it hard for cities to raise money without asking voters to approve a tax increase. The lodging fee is one way the city can generate a small amount of revenue on its own, council member Mike Nugent told his colleagues Monday.

“It’s very rare when there is any ability to collect revenue that isn’t straight from taxpayers, and I think this is one of the rare instances in state law that allows this kind of thing to be created,” he said.

The proposal passed with one “no” vote coming from council member Sandra Vasecka, a self-described libertarian who said she was worried about the impact to in-state residents staying at local hotels.

“I think this is not only going to increase prices for out-of-state folks to come in, but a lot of in-state folks and family and residents do use these hotels and I think it’s making Missoula overly priced,” she said.

City attorney OKs MRA contribution to housing sprint

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency has the legal authority to direct $44,000 toward the city and United Way of Missoula’s housing sprint fund, according to an opinion from city attorney Ryan Sudbury shared with the agency last week.

The money was originally intended for temporary bathrooms at the Johnson Street Shelter, which the city is set to close down in August. In announcing the closure of the shelter, the city also launched a fund — managed by the United Way — to help connect residents of the shelter with family members, pay deposits and clear other hurdles to stable housing.

Contributions to the fund, which now sits at over half its $400,000 goal, have come from the city, county and private donors.

The MRA uses tax-increment financing to incentivize redevelopment of “blighted areas” in the city. It often issues remittances from its various districts to help the city cover costs, including to help shore up its persistent budget deficit.

MRA Director Ellen Buchanan has advocated for transferring remittance money to the housing sprint fund. But the legality of the move under state redevelopment law was in question.

That question seems to have been answered to the satisfaction of the board.

“So long as the TIF funds used to support the City’s Housing Sprint are directed to activities associated with the clearing and preparing the site for redevelopment, the prevention of blight, or the relocation of occupants associated with a redevelopment project, the use of TIF funds for the Housing Sprint appears to be an authorized use under state law,” Sudbury wrote in a letter to the MRA.

The relevant statute lists a number of redevelopment-related expenditures that qualify for TIF funding, including the relocation of residents in a project area and the removal of blight. And connecting residents to housing — which, in theory, will prevent “blight” in the form of encampments at the former shelter site — falls under these criteria.

“Preventing camps made up of former occupants of the shelter will prevent the growth of unsafe or unsanitary conditions and will prevent the deterioration of the site that is sometimes associated with such encampments,” Sudbury wrote. “Thus, finding housing for these individuals would be an activity that is designed to prevent blight within the urban renewable district. As a result, TIF funds may be spent to support these efforts to prevent the spread of blight.”

The site of the shelter is indeed part of an ongoing redevelopment project, which will see eight acres of former Montana Rail Link property converted to up to 250 residential units with the possibility of retail.

Dissenters on the city council have made multiple attempts to maintain funding to the shelter — especially in the context of the council’s recent vote to ban camping in city parks — past its August termination date, to no avail. The council this week approved a new strategy for addressing homelessness. Daniel Carlino, one of the council members who has voted to keep the shelter open, supported the plan.

“Overall I think this plan is good, it’s aspirational, but honestly it’s not going to be possible without government funding,” he said Monday. “Right now I’m seeing us head in the wrong direction.”

The ledger #️⃣

53,033

Incidents that the Missoula Police Department responded to in 2024, according to a department presentation to the Missoula City Council this week. That number is down from 56,406 the previous year.

The week ahead 🗓️

On June 2 at 4:30 p.m., the Missoula Parks and Recreation Department is holding a listening session to review the newly developed draft Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Trails 2040 Master Plan.

Find a list of all upcoming city meetings here and county meetings here.