HB 421 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Increase DNRC fire assessment fees

House Bill 421 increases the fire protection assessment rates collected by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC). This bill directly affects owners of forest land located within a wildland fire protection district or under contract for fire protection services. It raises the maximum annual fee per landowner from $50 to $58.70 and increases the additional per-acre charge from 30 cents to 49 cents for land exceeding 20 acres. These new assessment rates are set to take effect on July 1, 2025.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Apr 2025
House Passage
May 2025
Senate Passage
May 2025
Signed into Law
May 2025
Introduced Feb 6, 2025 Signed May 16, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 5 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0421_X(3).pdf HB0421_X(4).pdf · 1 edit
MINOR
The bill text was cleaned up by removing extra line breaks and quotation marks that were inconsistent with the rest of the document. The effective date of July 1, 2025 remains unchanged.
TECHNICAL

Removed unnecessary line breaks and inconsistent quotation marks from the title and effective date sections.

Floor votes · Senate Apr 24, 2025 · House Feb 24, 2025

How they voted

3713
Passed
Total votes 50
Apr 24, 2025
D Democratic18
18 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican32
19 Yea 13 Nay
59% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
47
Key actions
11
Committee
10
May 12, 2025
Signed into law
(H) Signed by Governor
lower
May 2, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Signed by President
upper
May 1, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Signed by Speaker
lower
Apr 24, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (37-13)
senate
Apr 18, 2025
Committee
(S) Rereferred to Committee - (S) Finance and Claims
upper
Apr 7, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Natural Resources
upper
Apr 4, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Natural Resources
upper
Mar 3, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Natural Resources
upper
Feb 24, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (92-7-1)
house
Feb 22, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Appropriations
lower
Feb 22, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Appropriations
lower
Feb 19, 2025
Committee
(H) Rereferred to Committee - (H) Appropriations
lower
Feb 17, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Feb 14, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Feb 7, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Natural Resources
lower
Feb 6, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Steve Gist
Steve Gist
RRepublican
MT
25