The Montana Legislature voted to override Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of a bill that would use state funds to reimburse counties some of the cost of holding inmates in local detention facilities while awaiting mental health evaluations or treatments.

House Bill 643, brought by Rep. Tracy Sharp, R-Polson, was seen by many as a stop-gap measure to address rising costs to counties that have seen increased mental health issues arising in civil and criminal cases. 

The law provides a one-time appropriation of $6 million for the Department of Public Health and Human Services to reimburse counties for holding individuals awaiting a DPHHS evaluation, or have been committed to DPHHS and are awaiting an open bed at a mental health facility. The reimbursement rate from DPHHS would be $133.88 per day in fiscal year 2026.  

Gianforte vetoed the bill, citing its cost to Montana taxpayers and lack of long-term solution. 

“This issue requires a permanent, comprehensive solution, but House Bill 643 only applies an expensive Band-Aid,” Gianforte wrote in his veto letter. 

But the Legislature, which voted overwhelmingly 99-1 and 48-2 in the House and Senate respectively during the session, disagreed with the governor. 

A veto override poll sent to lawmakers closed on July 14 with 67 representatives and 34 senators voting for the legislation — the exact number required to usurp the veto pen. 

“This was a very bipartisan bill, it had support across the entire state,” Sharp told the Daily Montanan. “It was intended to help all the counties in the state dealing with the issue of having to hold people for the Department of Public Health and Human Services.”

Sharp said that commissioners from various counties had approached him before the legislative session and pointed out that the state makes similar reimbursements through the Department of Corrections, if there is a waiting list to get into a state-run prison, but not for mental health services. 

According to the bill’s fiscal note, DPHHS said the waitlist for individuals who need DPHHS evaluations or beds at state facilities averages between 100 and 125 — a number not projected to decrease in the next few years. Those individuals are held in county detention centers, sometimes for several months. 

Travis Ahner, the Flathead County Attorney, told the Daily Montanan that one inmate currently housed in the county detention center had been sentenced to DPHHS custody in mid-October, but had yet to leave the county. 

In the more than 270 days since his sentencing, the county would be owed more than $37,000 in reimbursements were HB 643 currently in effect. The same inmate had also waited for several months for a DPHHS evaluation — spending even more time in the county jail at the expense of the county. 

Ahner said that there are several inmates in the county’s detention facility awaiting evaluations by DPHHS, and “a couple” who have been committed, but have yet to be transported to new facilities.

“It would free up a lot of money,” Ahner said. “The county’s other expenses are still being accrued. It takes money that we have been spending on these particular inmates, and we won’t have those expenses on the books.”

But Ahner, and Sharp, both acknowledge that while the funding will help counties short-term, it doesn’t address the state-wide problem of limited facilities for inmates who need mental health services. 

“There’s nothing in this that specifically says you’re going to get evaluations faster, or that you’re going to get a placement faster or additional beds,” Ahner said. 

Sharp told the Daily Montanan that he hopes the interim period will allow DPHHS and lawmakers to gather data that can be used next legislative session to determine the best path forward. 

“The Governor isn’t incorrect when he says it’s kind of a temporary fix,” Sharp said. “But it will allow us to return in 2027 and see where we are, what we need and see if we will need to take money from the general fund in future to support counties while DPHHS continues to work on long-term solutions with the state’s mental health facilities.” 

“This is me saying, ‘Hey, while we’re working on fixing this, let’s do something to pay for the situation counties are dealing with,’” he added. 

House Bill 643 is the second piece of legislation lawmakers have successfully voted to override the governor’s veto on. The first, House Bill 368, provides funding for the town of Colstrip pay for access to a water supply if the nearby coal-fired power plants close down.