Send It Back Bozeman · registered ballot issue committee
Signs, postage and printing. That’s the whole budget.
The comparison Montana requires the study commission to publish describes Article VIII as “clarify role/purpose.” Nobody is funded to tell voters the other half. Money buys the other half: digital ads, print advertising and mail, aimed at people who have never heard of the Inter-Neighborhood Council.
Card giving opens shortly. Until then a cheque is the fastest route, and it costs the campaign nothing in processing fees.
Contributions to a ballot issue committee are not tax deductible. This is political spending, not charity.
What it buys
The study commission has $65,000 of public money for voter education. We have you.
On 18 June the study commission approved $65,000 for voter education, one commissioner abstaining with the words “I think we’re being very reckless here.” That money produced the materials that call Article VIII “clarify role/purpose.” We are not asking you to match it. We are asking you to fund the correction, and the correction is cheap by comparison.
- A day of ads
- $50 Twenty-four hours in front of Bozeman voters who have never heard of the Inter-Neighborhood Council and have no reason to go looking.
- A print ad
- $500 One display ad in the paper, where the people who actually turn out for a municipal election still read the local news.
- A targeted mailer
- $2,500 Mail into the precincts that decide this, instead of the whole city. The efficient version, and the one we can do soonest.
- Every registered voter
- $20,000 A mailer to every registered voter in Bozeman. The only thing on this list that reaches the people who will never visit this website.
Ballots go out by post on 9 October and most people decide at the kitchen table with the ballot in front of them. A voter who has never heard of Article VIII sees two options that both begin with the word FOR and no measure number to look up. Mail is the only channel that reaches that table.
By post
A cheque works, and it works today
Make it payable to Send It Back Bozeman and post it to PO Box 923, Bozeman, MT 59771. Please put your occupation and employer on a slip in the envelope, or in the memo line if it fits. We need both for anyone reaching $50, and a cheque gives us no other way to ask.
Cash is fine too, in person. We are required to hand you a written receipt for anything over $25 (ARM 44.11.407), and we will.
Before you give
Three things Montana law decides for you
- Contribution limit
- None The caps in MCA 13-37-216 apply to candidates. A ballot issue committee may accept any amount from any person. Give what it is worth to you.
- Public disclosure starts at
- $50 Cumulative across the whole campaign, not per gift. At $50 your name, mailing address, occupation and employer go on a public state filing.
- Anonymous gifts
- Not legal We have to be able to identify the source of every dollar. A contribution we cannot attribute is one we have to return.
The form
What we have to ask you, and why
None of this is us being nosy. Montana writes the list, and the treasurer is personally liable for getting it right.
- Your name and mailing address
- Required for anyone whose contributions total $50 or more across the campaign (MCA 13-37-229(1)(b)). We collect it from everyone, because the threshold is cumulative and a $20 donor who gives twice more crosses it.
- Your occupation and your employer
- Same statute, same trigger, and the field campaigns most often fail to collect. Chasing it down in late October is miserable, so the form asks up front. Retired, self-employed and not employed are all real answers.
- That the money is yours
- You may not contribute one person’s money in another person’s name (MCA 13-37-217(1)). If someone handed you cash to pass along, they are the contributor, not you.
Every contributor at $50 or more appears by name, address, occupation and employer on our Form C-6, filed with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices and published in the state’s searchable database. Under $50 you appear only inside an unitemised total. There is no private tier above $50. If that is a problem, it is better to know now than in November.
Read this first
Giving from a business? There’s a trap at $250.
Corporate and union contributions to a ballot issue committee are legal in Montana. MCA 13-35-227 bars them only for contributions to a candidate. So a business can support us, and we would be glad of it.
Here is the part nobody tells you. A business that contributes to a ballot issue committee becomes an incidental committee itself, with its own registration and reporting obligations to the state. COPP’s own manual works the example and ends exactly there. The escape hatch is the threshold in MCA 13-37-232(1): an entity that receives or spends less than $250 does not form a political committee and does not have to file.
Give personally, from a personal account, with no filing consequence at all. Or keep the company gift under $250. Or give more than $250 from the company with your eyes open, knowing the company picks up its own COPP paperwork. Any of the three is fine with us. Being surprised in October is not.
Why we put this on the page
Because a local business owner who writes a $500 company cheque and then learns they have to register with the state will be angry, and the anger will attach to us. A campaign that asks voters to read the fine print should not bury its own.
Where it goes
Every dollar lands in one account, and leaves it on the record
All contributions are deposited into the committee’s single primary depository (MCA 13-37-205) within five business days of receipt, and every expenditure is made from that account by traceable means. Nothing runs through a personal card. Spending is reported by payee, amount, date and purpose, with consultants and ad buys itemised in enough detail to show the specific service bought.
The spending plan is unglamorous and it is the list above: digital ads aimed at Bozeman voters, print advertising, mail, and the filing and processing fees that come with doing this by the book.
Straight answers
Questions about giving
Is my contribution tax deductible?
No. Contributions to a political committee are never tax deductible. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong.
Is there really no limit?
Correct. Montana’s contribution limits apply to candidate campaigns. A ballot issue committee may accept unlimited amounts, from individuals, businesses and unions alike. The trade is total public disclosure at $50.
Can I give cash?
Yes. We must give you a written receipt for any cash contribution of $25 or more, showing your full name and mailing address, the date, the exact amount and who took it (ARM 44.11.407). We still need your occupation and employer if you reach $50.
I don’t live in Bozeman. Can I still give?
Yes. Montana does not restrict contributions to a ballot issue committee by residence. Only Bozeman voters decide the question, but anyone may help fund the argument.
Can I give anonymously?
No, and this is not a policy choice we made. We have to be able to identify the source of every contribution. If we cannot, we have to return it.
What happens to money left over?
The committee closes out after the election and files a closing report. Surplus funds are disposed of as Montana law permits for a ballot issue committee, and that disposition appears on the final filing like everything else.
Who is actually handling the money?
Mark Egge, the committee treasurer, a Bozeman resident as MCA 13-37-203(1) requires. His name is on the filings and the personal liability for getting them right is his.
Nothing on this page matters as much as the ballot itself. Find out which oval rejects the 2026 draft, then tell five people who vote in Bozeman. That is free and it is worth more than $50.