Montana Selected as First Western IP Engagement Office

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has selected Montana as the site for a new USPTO Community Engagement Office, the first dedicated office of its kind in the western United States. Establishing a permanent, physical USPTO presence in Montana ensures that inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs across the region have direct connection to federal intellectual property (IP) resources. A local engagement office (to be located at Montana State University) will provide personalized support, IP education, and guidance tailored to Montana’s technology ecosystem.

Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Tom McGillvray, R- Billings, has joined two other Montana State Senators, Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson and former Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, in filing a lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of SB 542, which was one of Montana’s major tax reform bills passed by the 2025 State Legislature.

Filed in the Gallatin County District Court, plaintiffs in the case essentially claim that the bill is unconstitutional. It violates at several aspects of Article V, Section 3 of the Montana Constitution.

Sen. McGillvray explained that SB 542 was introduced by Sen. Wylie Galt, R-Martinsdale, as a tax freeze. As it passed through the legislative process it was amended so greatly that its purpose became unrecognizable as to its original intent, which made it unconstitutional according to the three Senators.

“It became a monstrosity,” said McGillvray.

It was introduced to freeze property taxes at their 2024 level, but it became a bill that revised and shifted taxes, provided multiple appropriations and even suspended local city charters, explained McGillvray. ”It became a bill with three different subjects and with multiple appropriations” – all of which stands in violation of the State Constitution, which requires that each bill must deal with only one subject .

Further – it was changed so drastically that the bill’s title no longer reflected its original purpose of freezing taxes at 2024 levels. The Montana Constitution also requires that a bill’s title must accurately reflect its subject matter. The Constitution restricts changing a bill so much that it is changed from its original intent.

Introducing bills dealing with several subjects – “that’s what they do in Congress,” said McGillvray, “They make a big bill with multiple appropriations, that picks winners and losers. They buy enough votes to get it passed. That is what we try to prohibit, so each legislator can look at a single subject.”

“Montanans pride ourselves that our Legislature debates each policy idea on its own merits, with genuine public participation. We’re not Washington, D.C., where massive bills get cobbled together behind closed doors and shoved down legislators’ throats as ‘must pass’ legislation,” continued McGillvray, “ Senate Bill 542 was Washington DC-style corruption. We warned our colleagues on the floor that SB 542 violated Article V, Section 11. We voted to send it to conference committee to fix the constitutional violations. The conference committee ignored the constitutional issues and passed it out with no changes – a sham hearing.”

Violation to Article V section 11: 1-5:

 (1) Change the original purpose of a bill (11) (1) a bill shall not be so altered or amended on it passage through the legislature as to change its original purpose.”  It changed from a 2 page 7 line amendment to freeze property taxes to raise property taxes permanently for some and lower it for others. 

2. . Single subject: (11) (3) (4) each bill except for a general appropriations bill … “shall contain only one subject, clearly expressed in its title.

SB 542 changed from one subject with the purpose to freeze property taxes to at least 3 subjects;

1.  Appropriate 92 million for the $400.00 rebate

2. Revise property tax rates in multiple property tax classes. It raised some rates, lowered others permanently, shifting the reduction from the 80% to the 10%, with the other 10% remaining about the same.

3. It suspended local charters and provided an additional appropriation to cover lost revenue for four years. (This is likely another constitutional violation) of local government powers. 

Senate Bill 542 is to be implemented in two phases. The first phase applied to tax year 2025 and the second phase will generate tax bills that will be issued in November 2026.

By Mark Stricherz, The Center Square

Since 2020, fraudsters have scammed at least $36 billion and as much as $3 trillion in tax money from federal entitlement programs, dwarfing the amount federal prosecutors claim was stolen in Minnesota’s federal food aid scandal known as Feeding Our Future, an investigation by The Center Square found.

The Center Square reviewed all the statements about entitlement fraud cases issued by the U.S. Department of Justice from 2020 to last year, which did not include many of the cases prosecuted by U.S. Attorney’s offices in the various districts and any state prosecutions.

Public safety net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid lost billions of dollars to scams each year, according to a review of 2,500 DOJ statements, press releases, and fact sheets. The amount ranged from $2.7 billion in 2022 to $14.5 billion in 2025.  

Fraud experts said, if anything, the $36 billion figure is too low. 

“The number doesn’t surprise me,” said Linda Miller, president and co-founder of the Program Integrity Alliance, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to strengthen government integrity through data, evidence, and public-sector innovation. “That’s fraud that has been identified and investigated, so it represents a fraction of the actual fraud that has occurred or is occurring. Fraud is deceptive, and most agencies lack the tools to proactively prevent it, meaning the actual amount of fraud is much higher.” 

Entitlement fraud has been in the news since November when the Manhattan Institute published an article about mostly Somali residents indicted for defrauding at least $250 million in federal food aid programs with allegations that some of the money went to fund terrorists in al-Shabaab.

Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said in an interview that “(w)hatever the fraud that has been uncovered (in Minnesota) is doubtless a fraction of the fraud occurring nationwide.”

He cited a 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office report concluding that, based on data from 2018 to 2022, the federal government is defrauded of $233 billion to $521 billion annually. While the report examined federal spending overall, Weidinger noted that “entitlement programs constitute the bulk of federal spending and presumably fraud, too.”

The public assistance that suffered the most from the fraud was Medicare and Medicaid, according to a review of Justice Department announcements. In the first half of last year alone, the agency announced that it had identified and investigated approximately $14 billion in fraud in the two federal health care programs, as well as Tricare, the health care program primarily for active-duty military, retirees, and their families.

The figure is more than twice the $6 billion in fraud to federal health programs that the Justice Department identified in September 2020.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent federal judicial body, concluded that from 2020 to 2024, health care fraud offenses increased by nearly 20 percent.

Fraud prosecutions around the U.S. 

While government officials and experts agree that fraud in Minnesota is substantial, the $250 million figure found in the indictments would barely rank among the ten largest alleged scams from 2020 to last year. Since the Feeding Our Future scandal was announced on September 21, 2022, six other alleged frauds have been larger, with some having nearly as many defendants.

Last month alone, the Justice Department announced two developments in scams centered in Maricopa County, Arizona.

On Dec. 22, Gary Cox, CEO of Power Mobility Doctor Rx, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and forced to pay $452 million in restitution for defrauding Medicare of $1 billion. According to the Justice Department, Cox and 78 co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and convinced them to sign up for medically unneeded pain creams and orthotic braces through misleading mailers, television ads and from offshore call centers.

On Dec. 12, Alexandra Gehrke and her husband, Jeffrey King, agreed to pay $309 million in restitution for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare of $900 million from 2022 to 2024. Known as the “glam-flam couple,” they administered unnecessary wound grafts that were ordered because of illegal kickbacks and applied to elderly and terminally ill patients. Each has been sentenced to more than a dozen years behind bars.

Earlier, two medical professionals were convicted of defrauding federal medical entitlement programs.

On March 6, Dehshid Nourian, a Texas pharmacist, forfeited $405 million in assets for defrauding and laundering money from federal workers. According to the Justice Department, Nourian and two other men defrauded the Department of Labor through the submission of fraudulent claims for prescription compound creams to injured federal workers. He was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison.

In September 2021, Dr. Francisco Patino of Wayne County, Michigan, was convicted of submitting more than $250 million of false and fraudulent claims submitted to Medicaid, Medicare, and other health insurance programs.

According to the Justice Department, Patino excessively prescribed highly addictive opioids to his patients at his medical clinic in Livonia, prescriptions that forced his patients to receive lucrative spinal injections. If patients refused, Patino would take away their opioid prescriptions, prosecutors alleged. While another 21 defendants were sentenced in the conspiracy, Patino received the stiffest sentence—16.5 years in prison.

In December 2022, Minal Patel of Atlanta, owner of LabSolutions LLC, was convicted of defrauding Medicare of $463 million. According to the Justice Department, Patel conspired with patient brokers, telemedicine companies, and call centers to target Medicare beneficiaries with calls falsely stating that Medicare covered expensive cancer genetic tests. In August 2023, Patel was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

In September 2022, Biogen Inc., a Cambridge, Mass-based biopharmaceutical firm, reached a $900 million settlement for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid.  According to a whistleblower’s complaint, from January 2009 to March 2014 Biogen gave speaker honoraria, training fees, consulting fees and meals to medical professionals who spoke or attended the company’s programs to convince them to prescribe three of its drugs to treat multiple sclerosis.

As large as those entitlement frauds were, even they scratch the surface of the nearly 300 cases the Justice Department announc-ed from 2020 to last year. Most were announcements of convictions, guilty pleas, and sentencing. They involved not only doctors and medical firms, but also universities, hospitals, corporations, bookkeepers, accountants and state agencies.  

Fraud experts reject the notion that scams are the natural byproduct of government contracts and oversight.

In a 2023 article, Miller wrote that cabinet officials and agency leaders should be held responsible for the fraud under their watch. 

“Fraud is unfortunately not an issue many agency leaders prioritize,” she said in an interview, “and the number of programs that have scaled up their preventative tools and capabilities is woefully small.”

Feds crack down in MN

On Dec. 18, Joe Thompson, then the acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, said scam artists have defrauded the state’s fourteen Medicaid programs of more than $9 billion. Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, disputes the figure, though in October he announced that the state would delay fourteen Medicaid payments run by the state’s Department of Human Services.  

Since the fall, the Trump administration has seized on entitlement fraud in Minnesota, a state where Democrats occupy all the statewide elected offices and hold a narrow majority in the state senate. On Sept. 21, 2022, the Justice Department announced it indicted 47 defendants for committing $250 million of alleged fraud in a federally funded child nutrition program run by the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future.  

Minnesota’s office of the legislative auditor released two detailed reports on fraud, on the federal-state childcare assistance program in 2019, and two federal food aid programs in 2024, both of which found fault with state agencies failing to detect scams earlier. Yet the chicanery did not become national news until this fall.  

On Nov. 19,  an article by the Manhattan Institute alleged that the defendants, nearly all of whom were Somali, were sending some of the stolen entitlement money to Al Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist group fighting the government in a decades-long civil war in one of the poorest countries on earth. Two days later, President Trump announced on TruthSocial that he was terminating temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota, a designation given to them because the Horn of Africa nation suffered from not only civil war but also famine. 

The think tank’s accusations of diversions of the money to terrorists have not been proven, but the scandal hit a fever pitch after conservative populist influencer Nick Shirley on Dec. 26 posted a YouTube video of Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota devoid of children. The video received more than 100 million views. 

On Jan. 5, the Trump administration froze federal subsidies for childcare, social services, and cash support for poor families in five states, all controlled by Democrats, including Minnesota. 

On Jan. 8, Vice President J.D. Vance announced the administration would create a new assistant attorney general for fraud detection — a position based in the White House.

While national in scope the official will “focus primarily” on Minnesota’s fraud scandals. 

Logan International Field, the airport that serves Billings, is destined to grow, with airport officials looking at a $110 million capital improvement plan, including $20 million in projects in 2026. The airport hit a record in passengers served, a trend that is expected to continue, and its leadership is taking a hard look at how the facility will be administered in the future.

Such were some of the unveilings at a Community Air Service Breakfast in Billings, on January 20.

Jeff Roach, Director of Aviation and Transit at the airport, stated that leadership at the airport and in Billings is working to provide more and better service to the community and the area. Adding more flights and “bringing our facilities up to date” is the overall goal, he said, noting that “a lot has changed since 9-11.” The tragedy of that day forced the industry to look at how things were done and to improve facilities.

At the Billings airport, said Roach, they are focused on their infrastructure, “making sure that aircraft have a place to operate.”

John Brewer, President & CEO of the Billings Chamber of Commerce, emphasized that “the airport directly impacts our community.” The airport serves every aspect of Billings’ including  businesses,  healthcare, tourism and communities for the whole of eastern Montana.  The airport is a “point of pride,” said Brewer, explaining that the community has an Air Service Committee, led by Brian Brown, that is focused on improving Billings’ air service.

The Capital Improvement Plan, being prepared by Morrison & Maierle, is about three –fourths completed and expected to be completed by fall. One public hearing has been held to gather community input and another hearing will be held before it is completed.

The master plan is aimed at addressing future aviation demand by enhancing infrastructure, and responding to community needs, as well as maximizing profitability. It was noted that the expansion and remodeling of the airport is being done without the necessity of tax dollars. Revenue for the projects has been generated by tickets sales and enterprise funds.

Roach said that the airport has been self-sufficient since the 1970s.

The facility has, in fact, grown so much and gained such financial stability that it may justify its administration being transferred from the City to an airport authority. The City of Billings approved a $621,000 expenditure to hire a consultant to research the possibility of transitioning the management of Billings Logan International Field from the City to an airport authority. A report is expected in May.

An airport authority is an independent entity charged with the operation and oversight of an airport. Billings is the only major airport in the state that isn’t administered by an authority.

“We anticipate a recommendation to move to an airport authority,” said Rauch, adding that “the traveling public won’t see much of a difference. The change will be in the long term, in becoming more efficient and offering more services at a lower cost.”

A top need for the Billings Airport that is largely recognized by everyone is that of parking. Rauch said that they are short between 250 – 300 parking spaces. The plan is to build a parking garage, which is very expensive, said Rauch – estimated at $31 million. Also in the planning is shuttle parking which is expected to be available by the end of summer.

One of the more immediate projects is the renovation of the ticket counters , which haven’t been changed for the past 30 years. There will be 27 counters which will be moved further to the rear. The baggage area will also be modernized.

A $6 million runway project is also in the immediate plans in order to lengthen and strengthen a segment of runway to handle the larger aircraft.

Another project will be to build a pond to hold storm water for all the airport development. There will also be six additional taxi lanes built to serve the nine new hangers that have been built over the past three years. Rehabilitating cargo ramps, asphalt improvements and water line improvements are also in the plans.

Jay Richardson, a research engineer from Mead & Hunt of Madison, Wisconsin, talked about the ups and downs and trends of the airline industry and how it is impacting Billings. 

The Billings airport hit a new record, serving one million passengers, last year, with the expectation of increasing somewhat above that in 2026. Billings is on the cusp of becoming a small hub airport, said Richardson. It is that growth that is pushing the need for the Billings airport to grow and renovate.

Richardson said that airlines are shifting to larger planes with more seats, providing more comfort and offering more non-stop flights.

Addressing a common lament heard about fares in Billings as compared to Bozeman, Brewer said that the complaints really aren’t justified. Bozeman does offer more nonstop destinations – 25 of them – compared to Billings’ 16 nonstop routes, but Billings’ average airfare is $242 compared to $239 in Bozeman, and to Kalispell’s $238. It’s about the same. Sure, he said, there are chances of finding good deals but in general the fares are pretty much aligned. Airport leadership in Billings is working diligently to increase flight options.

The load factor for Billings flights is at 81 percent, which Richardson said is good. As more seats are added they are being filled which is a “good trend for Billings.”

Los Angeles is a large market that is underserved, said Richardson — in fact California in general is underserved out of Billings.

Going forward, said Richardson, the focus is to expand service to Los Angeles and San Francisco; in general get more seats, depths of schedules and more flights for Billings, and get more service to Boise, Burbank and Orange County – and to enhance marketing in places like Chicago.

By Sam Cardwell

Mountain States Policy Center

Across the country, raising the minimum wage continues to be a topic of conversation. Some claim that raising the minimum wage to $20 would help both low-income employees as well as employers. Though some are moving forward with this experiment, others are being more cautious.

For example, voters in Olympia, Wash., this year rejected a ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. California, however, recently enacted this policy for the fast-food sector with disastrous effects. 

On April 1, 2024, California implemented a $20 minimum wage for fast food employees. To fit this definition, an operation has to offer limited or no table service, and customers pay for the items before they are consumed. Also, the restaurant has to be a part of at least 60 establishments nationwide.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that California’s fast food minimum wage increase led to a detrimental effect on jobs , totaling around 18,000 jobs lost in the fast-food market in California from September of 2023 to September of 2024.  Relative to the rest of the country, employment in California’s fast-food sector declined by 2.7% more during that time period.

Using the 2023 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a $20 minimum wage imposition for fast food employees would harm the labor force in every state. Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming should pay attention to these results as they consider similar policies.

Washington state already has a high minimum wage of $16.66 for fast food workers. The industry employs roughly 100,100 fast food employees. Based on the California study, if the state implemented a $20 minimum wage, this would be a 20% increase from its current minimum, resulting in 2,402 jobs lost.

A study done by the Washington Hospitality Association found that eating out in Seattle already costs 17% more than it does on average across 20 major U.S cities. A majority of this unaffordability can be attributed to the high minimum wage, meaning employers have to increase menu prices to make up the cost on their razor-thin profit margin.

Idaho has a minimum wage of $7.25 for fast food workers, and it employs 20,840 workers in the industry. Increasing the minimum wage to $20 would result in 4,395 jobs lost, which would be a major shock to the industry.

Montana has a minimum wage of $9.95 and employs 15,380 fast food employees. With a $20 minimum wage increase, the state would lose about 1,860 jobs. Montana would find itself in a situation that sits right in between the estimated impacts for Washington and Idaho.

Wyoming has a minimum wage of $7.25. The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t have as accurate job numbers for Wyoming and may have suppressed them. This is because Wyoming has a small fast-food employee population, and confidentiality could be breached. The best estimates are around 6,500 fast food jobs. Based on the estimates, a $20 minimum wage would result in a loss of 1,372 fast food jobs.

A simple economic principle is that when the price of something goes up, people will buy less of it. That exact rule applies to labor as well. Large minimum wage increases greatly contribute to job loss. As the wages increase, businesses may be forced to reduce staff to offset higher labor costs, as occurred in California. 

Proposals for large minimum wage increases have become a policy prescription to combat poverty, but they operate on a false premise. It says that raising the minimum wage will improve the well-being of the workers affected, but that is far from the truth. The minimum wage of a fast food worker let go is zero.

States in our region can avoid this outcome. If policymakers really want the best for these fast-food workers, they should avoid proposals that put their jobs in jeopardy. Let California’s failed $20 minimum wage experiment serve as a warning to the rest of the country.

Sam Cardwell is a Policy Analyst for the Mountain States Policy Center, an independent research organization based in Idaho, Montana, Eastern Washington and Wyoming. Online at mountainstatespolicy.org.

By Amber Gunn

Mountain States Policy Center

For most families, owning a hotel is a fantasy. But owning a single rental property is the ground floor of a bigger dream—a way to fund college tuition or seed a future business through sweat equity and a spare key. For those who can’t afford the overhead of a traditional business, short-term rentals (STRs) are one of the most accessible paths to move beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck existence.

Beyond providing a platform for growth, these rentals serve as a critical safety net for many owners. According to Airbnb, 43 percent of hosts use their earnings to stay in their homes, while 11 percent say the income helped them avoid eviction or foreclosure. Yet, as cities move to ban or cap STRs, they are not just limiting tourism; they are criminalizing the small-scale ambition that allows ordinary people to build financial independence.

STRs have become a useful villain for politicians seeking a scapegoat for the lack of affordable housing. In city council chambers across the country, the narrative is identical: ban short-term rentals and housing affordability will follow.

It’s a comforting story for a frustrated public. It’s also wrong.

In our upcoming study, Short Term Rental Regulations: Principles, Pitfalls, and Practical Reforms, we examine the consequences of turning our backs on the first principles of property ownership. A presumption in favor of peaceful property use is not a mere policy preference; it is the starting point of legitimate governance in a free society. When we abandon this—forgetting that a home is a private asset rather than a tool of the state—we create a vacuum filled by elitism and administrative whim.

STR bans act as a significant barrier to housing market entry, effectively shrinking the buyer pool to high-net-worth individuals. Before a ban, a middle-income family could sometimes afford a mountain or lake house by offsetting the mortgage with rental income. When that business model is outlawed, the buyer disappears and the ladder to wealth-building is kicked away.

The data consistently proves that STR crackdowns fail to solve the structural housing shortages they purport to fix. In New York City, a near-total ban eliminated 90 percent of available listings, yet citywide rents continued climbing to record highs—reaching nearly $4,700 for a one-bedroom apartment while vacancy rates remained at a critical 1 percent. If anything, affordability worsened.

The ban also had the unintended consequence of shifting tourism dollars away from local businesses in dispersed neighborhoods, instead funneling revenue toward centralized hotel chains. An analysis by Charles River Associates found that NYC’s restrictions resulted in $638 million in lost guest spending, while hotels benefited from a nearly 15 percent boost in nightly rates.

This isn’t just an American phenomenon. A 2024 Ernst & Young review in the U.K. found that over 95 percent of housing cost increases are driven by broad economic factors and supply constraints, with STRs accounting for mere pennies on the dollar. Similarly, when Los Angeles County slashed its listings by half, home prices fell by a negligible two percent.

While politicians fixate on STRs, they ignore the staggering cost burden of their own bureaucracy. A 2021 study by the National Association of Home Builders found that government regulation accounts for 23.8 percent of the final price of a new single-family home—a hidden tax averaging nearly $94,000 per house.

Restrictive zoning and regulatory overreach have made it nearly impossible to build enough homes to meet demand. Short-term rentals represent a fraction of the housing stock, yet they receive most of the blame. It is much easier to ban a vacation rental and claim victory than it is to unwind decades of spectacular housing policy failures.  

None of this is an argument for “regulatory anarchy.” Local governments have a clear role in managing noise, safety, and trash. But as our research outlines, the solution is targeted enforcement and market-based solutions, not blanket prohibition. A serious policy framework begins with a presumption in favor of property rights. It rejects arbitrary caps that create artificial scarcity and instead focuses on clear, standardized rules that address actual harm rather than speculative fear.

To that end, states should adopt narrowly-tailored, uniform rules focused on essential protections—accurate tax remittance and objective safety standards—while prohibiting municipalities from using STR bans or licensing regimes as indiscriminate substitutes for enforcing existing nuisance laws.

History is rarely kind to policies that treat property rights as expendable. Housing affordability will not be achieved by suffocating peaceful uses of private property, but by expanding supply and allowing markets to respond to demand.

A disciplined, property rights-centered STR framework helps move policy back toward that goal—strengthening opportunity for homeowners and keeping government aligned with its proper role in a free society.

Sales tax will be a primary subject of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research’s annual Economic Outlook Seminar this year. The seminars, which will be held in nine Montana cities will commence on January 27 in Helena. It will be held on other dates in Great Falls, Missoula, Billings, Bozeman, Butte and Kalispell, Lewistown, and Havre. It will be in Billings on Feb. 3.

The research and history of sales tax in Montana in the context of today’s economic conditions and trends will be explored during the seminar, as well as the economic forecasts for communities around the state, along with a look at Montana’s important industry sectors.

Montana is one of five states without a general sales tax. Voters resoundingly defeated sales tax proposals in 1993 and 1971, and the idea still polls poorly today.

It’s been over 30 years since Montana voters have weighed in on sales tax, and interest in putting it on the ballot again is rising. At least five bills were introduced in the 2025 legislative session having to do with sales tax. As tourism increases and property taxes become more unpopular, some Montanans believe it’s time to reconsider a sales tax.

How would a sales tax affect Montana’s economy? How much revenue could it generate, and could it meaningfully reduce property taxes? Could it be designed to target tourists and reduce the impact on local residents?

That’s exactly what BBER economists and keynote speaker, Bob Story, executive director of the Montana Taxpayers Association, will be discussing at the 2026 Economic Outlook Seminars.

Register for the event a the Bureau’s website. A webcast will be provided for regions outside the nine cities.