CONDON — Missoula County spans approximately 2,600 square miles from Condon to Evaro to Lolo, and almost to Alberton.
Plus, as of the 2020 census, there are approximately 117,992 people living in Missoula County.
However, some people in the Seeley-Swan Valley think that their rural areas' time in Missoula County is up and they've started a petition to secede.
"It's the areas outside the city of Missoula that we feel like we're paying a high price and we're not getting the services," shared Condon resident Ted Morgan.
Morgan is frustrated about the cost of Missoula County taxes and said that he doesn't see his tax dollars put to use fixing roads near the area.
"We've had a lot of problems with our county road maintenance over the past two years," Morgan told MTN. "And we've also had a problem with our rural infrastructure. We have bridges out from Sunset all the way down to Cold Creek. We have bridges that are weight limited and Boy Scout that's closed."
Morgan and other Seeley-Swan Valley residents are gauging local interest in seceding from Missoula County.
“People who lived here for generations, such as Kerry, who put up that petition on change.org — they're worried about the future of their kids and their kids after that," Morgan said. "And I think with areas that are more rural, you look at Lake County and you look at Powell County, you have lower property taxes because they're less extravagant."
Under Montana state law, secession from a county can happen in multiple ways; one would be joining a neighboring county.
"So, you need a petition signed by the residents in that area. It's presented to both boards of county commissioners who place it on the ballot and both the receiving county and the sending county have to vote 'Yes'," Missoula County Chief Administration Officer Chris Lounsbury explained. "So, the receiving county has to say 'yes, we'll take you' and the county that you're leaving has to say that 'it's okay for you to go'. And that is a vote of the entire population of the county."
Another option is forming an entirely new county,which Lounsbury shared, but it is not a simple task. He stated,
"You must have 500 acres of non-federal, state, or tribal land. You have to have an incorporated city inside there which becomes the county seat automatically right now, there is no incorporated city in that area," Lounsbury told MTN. "So you also then have to meet the incorporated city threshold, 300 people in every square mile that's really hard to meet in a rural area."
If residents of a rural area want more control over where their tax money goes, they would need to incorporate a town.
"Incorporation would give us the ability to get our taxes and spend them where we want. We would need a county seat, and a county seat needs to be in an incorporated town," Morgan said. "So the only place in this area that I think could truly be incorporated would be Seeley Lake."
Morgan sees the secession area as being from Bonner to Condon. But if that large section leaves, MTN asked if there would be a financial burden on what remains in Missoula County.
"We would lose those property taxes, they would go to the new county. We would lose a portion of the federal taxes because those are proportional based on federal lands," Lounsbury answered. "Those new communities would gain those. For Missoula, it also means we would not have to provide services [to a larger area]. So, the services that we have to provide would also reduce correspondingly with those tax dollars."
For those concerned about the state of their community inside Missoula County, Lounsbury said the county's ears are open, and residents can discuss issues at community council meetings and bring them to county commissioners.
