What Montana residents lose with every APR land takeover

It is important to consider what we lose when APR removes land from agricultural production. Unfortunately, we are losing the next generation of family farmers whose job it is to grow food. The dangerous decline in American agricultural production over the past few decades will accelerate if we allow nonprofits to buy up prime ranch land in Montana. It is no wonder we are seeing such increases in food prices.

Our communities also lose the families who work these ranches. These families fill our schools and need goods and services, creating customers for businesses in our agriculture-oriented cities. Without these families, schools and communities suffer and shrink. It’s a devastating economic and cultural loss.

But if that seems too far off to worry about, do you realize that there is also a loss of tax revenue generated from these properties? It’s a loss that affects everyone. Half of Montana’s state budget comes from income tax collections, and the American Prairie Reserve pays nothing. In 2022, APR reported earning $63 million in tax-free revenue.

And it’s not just that they’re exempt from paying their fair share, APR has set itself up to collect taxes from Montana’s general fund. That’s because, as a nonprofit, the donations they receive are deductible and result in a lower tax liability for their donors.

APR sells luxury “glamping” trips on their property that include a private chef. In 2022, they reported making $140,000 on those trips, on which they paid no tax. APR also leases part of their property (for now) to cattle ranchers for grazing. They report making almost $500,000 per year in rental income — again, all of that is profit on which they pay no income tax. And to add insult to injury, in 2022, APR claimed $843,000 in federal tax credits — even though they paid zero federal income tax!

If ranching families had the privilege of tax-free income, how much wealthier would they be? Would they be able to meet their end of the bargain, so selling a family heirloom would be out of the question? What about financial gifts from donors? If some generous soul wanted to give a ranching family funds to pay off debt, the rancher would have to include the money in income and pay a very high gift tax. The donor would not receive any tax deduction for his generosity.

American Prairie Reserve is on a mission to destroy Montana’s vibrant communities where hard-working families live. Their radical plan is to give the land to wildlife and an elite class that can pay to pretend to coexist with them. You and every other taxpayer are forced to subsidize this nonprofit scheme.

As they grow, more and more of the tax burden is shifted to the rest of us. The land that APR acquires will never again be private property. That land will never again feed Americans. And that land will never again support a family. While APR brags about what it has gained with each new ranch it buys, the rest of us should reflect on what we are losing.