We recently published an article on a John Tester ad that many Sheriffs across Montana called fake and wanted to know where the money was. We reached out to the Tester campaign and received this message:
Thank you for reaching out about the funds that Senator Tester has secured for law enforcement in Beaverhead County and across Montana in recent years. I noticed that you published your article before reaching out to the campaign for information. Is there any reason for that?
Happy to provide you the backup so that you can update your article to reflect that Senator Tester did secure federal funding for the law enforcement agencies mentioned in the article.
Senator Tester has worked hard to secure federal funding for law enforcement across Montana, and has personally pushed for grants and funding that have supported rural first responders in our state. Here is our spreadsheet with the break down of the law enforcement funding for Beaverhead County and the other counties mentioned in your article:
Jon Tester has recently secured funding for county law enforcement in the rural counties mentioned in our ads, including through grants, task forces, and PILT.
The federal funding Sen. Tester helped secure is through a variety of grants to fund needs like hiring new police officers, funding new equipment like bulletproof vests, and task forces to tackle drug trafficking.
Beaverhead County received $1.1 million for new body cameras for police, victim assistance, and resources to address violence against women.
In Broadwater County, you will see $255K from the COPS Hiring Program and the bulletproof vests program.
Park County received grants for hiring new police officers, new bulletproof vests, and additional PILT funds.
Dawson County received US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs funding, Operation Stonegarden grant funding, and PILT funds.
Roosevelt County received $1.8 million in federal funding comprised of U.S. Department of Justice Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation, Operation Stonegarden Grant funding, Bureau of Justice Assistance funding, Department of Justice funding for canine units to help crack down on drug trafficking, and PILT funds.
In nearly all counties there are also multi-jurisdictional drug task forces funded in large part by the federal government, which Sen. Tester fought to fund.
However, further examination reveals discrepancies between the ad’s claims and the actual sources of the funding. While Tester’s campaign cites federal funding as a primary source, critics point out that some funds, such as Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), fall under the administrative authority of the Department of the Interior, not the senator. This raises questions about the misrepresentation of Tester’s influence over these funds in the campaign ads. According to information from the Department of the Interior, PILT payments are calculated based on factors such as population and federal land within affected counties and have distributed nearly $12 billion since their inception.
When we asked Harry about this his response was as follows:
Hey Jeremy,
Thanks for the note back. If you look at the spreadsheet from my original email – linked again here – you’ll find a funding breakdown for the $1.1 million secured by Senator Tester for Beaverhead County law enforcement from several different grants and bills.
Some of the federal funding for other counties is from PILT payments, which must be reauthorized by Congress or they do not get appropriated. Sen. Tester has championed PILT funding over the years; this year, Sen. Tester voted to reauthorize PILT payments in March. He was the only member of Montana’s delegation to do so.
As you can see from the press release issued at the time, a large slice of that is intended to fund law enforcement & emergency services (and does!)
The bottom line is that Sen. Tester has worked really hard to secure this funding, and there are a lot of public resources that show his long-standing effort, year after year, to bring these dollars to Montana. The newspaper ads are an honest representation of that work.
Thank you, and if you could let me know about updating the article that would be great.
Best,
Harry
The breakdown of the $1.1 million funding claim shows that $24,000 for body cameras was allocated to the City of Dillon through the American Rescue Plan Act, with an additional $9,669 for remote backup related to those cameras. Furthermore, the grants cited in the ad appear to have gone to various local organizations rather than directly to the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office.
Organizations such as the Women's Resource Center received multiple grants totaling $427,863, the Beaverhead County Attorney’s Office obtained two grants totaling $162,713, and the Community Support Center received five grants amounting to $496,819 from the Montana Board of Crime Control. Some of these fundings and grants go as far back as 2019.
While it’s undeniable that these funds are crucial for community resources, the distinction between the allocations directed to local law enforcement and those granted to other organizations is significant. Critics argue that the ad's portrayal of Tester’s contributions does not accurately reflect the flow of funding to the Beaverhead County Sheriff's Office, particularly in the context of the current budget shortfalls the Sheriff is facing.
As the Sheriff’s office seeks voter approval for a levy aimed at addressing these financial challenges, the discrepancies highlighted in the advertisement only serve to amplify frustrations among local law enforcement. Many see the ad as misleading, suggesting that the funding directly supports deputies and essential services when, in fact, a large portion is allocated to other entities.
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