Montana's wildfire bill for this summer is already $4 million more than all the money set aside to pay for fires and other disasters for the next two years, state figures show.

As of last Friday, the state had written checks for $2.4 million to pay for the firefighting efforts that began on July 1, the beginning of the state's financial year, said Mary Sexton, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, which oversees firefighting.

But that's only a fraction of the estimated $20 million firefighting bill the state has racked up since July 1, she said.

As is the norm, the 2007 Legislature did not set aside any money specifically for firefighting. Instead, the only money easily at hand to pay the bill will come out of the governor's $16 million emergency account. Even if DNRC spent all the emergency money, an estimated $4 million of the firefighting bill would remain unpaid.

So far, $14 million of the emergency fund has already been allocated for firefighting, said Clayton Schenck, legislative financial analyst.

Sexton said weather forecasts do not bode well for an end to what has already been a busy fire season. In the near future, temperatures should cool off a bit, she said, but not a lot of rain is predicted.

"I think the fire season will continue on," she said.

Montana traditionally pays for firefighting with a complicated system that evolved over many years when the state's fire bill was very low. Lawmakers allocate no money for firefighting. The state pays the bill with emergency accounts or by Department of Natural Resources and Conservation dollars initially set aside for other things or to run the agency in the second year of Montana's two-year financial cycle.

Then, the agency comes before the next Legislature and asks lawmakers to pay back the empty accounts to run the agency.

In years past, bad fire seasons have come the summer before the Legislature convenes, meaning the DNRC doesn't have to subsist very long on shrunken accounts before lawmakers can backfill their coffers.

But this year, Schenck said, Montana is facing a bad fire season in the first year of the two-year cycle. That means the agency may have to move money around just to get through this year, to say nothing of paying for next year's fire season and to keep the rest of the agency running until January of 2009, when the Legislature is next scheduled to meet.

Schenck estimated this fire season could cost the state close to $40 million by the time it's all over.

"They have to get through the rest of this season, plus next spring and summer," he said. "It's a pretty huge obligation."

The problem is not a lack of state dollars, he said. Montana is sitting on $160 million that lawmakers didn't specifically earmark for anything.

Only the Legislature can earmark state money for spending and that means a special session may be called to specifically set money aside for firefighting.

At least one state lawmaker is already thinking along those lines. Republican Sen. Keith Bales, of Otter, recently sent an e-mail to his GOP colleagues in which he said that if a session is called he'd like to resurrect an unsuccessful bill to set up a fund just to pay for wildfires.

Schweitzer also included such a fund in his budget, but lawmakers rejected the idea.

Figuring out who pays what in a big wildfire is an imprecise business. In general, Sexton said, the state pays for fires that burn state or private land. The federal government pays for fires that burn federal lands and tribal agencies pay for fires that burn tribal lands. If fires threaten homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency often steps in and also picks up part of the tab, regardless of where the fire burns. Often fires burn on a combination of state, federal and tribal lands, Sexton said, and the costs of those fires are then split among the agencies.

Due in part to those difficulties of predicting fire costs, the governor is not ready to call a special session now, said Sarah Elliott, Schweitzer's spokeswoman.

"It's a little early to tell for us," she said. "We're still uncertain of (federal) reimbursements."

Senate President Mike Cooney, a Helena Democrat, and House Speaker Scott Sales, a Bozeman Republican, also said they were against a special session.

Cooney said he's "starting to hear discussions" and anticipates that a special session may be called to set aside money for fires. Sales said he'd ideally like to avoid a session altogether, but if one must be called, it should be later when the full brunt of both the fire season and the national housing slump is better known.

It could be, Sales said, that the state needs to spend money on more than just wildfires if the economy slows down.

Susan Fox, executive director of the legislative research and bill-drafting arm, said she's also beginning to think about what would be needed to get a special session rolling should one be called.

"We are just getting so many questions about the fire and fire costs," she said.

Generally, it takes about 10 days of preparatory work to get ready for a special session.

"We thought it was in our best interests to be prepared," she said.

Burning Cash

Montana allocates money on a two-year cycle. Here's a look at the cost of containing Montana wildfires for the past nine years.

For the two years ending June 30, 2007: Almost $44 million

For the two years ending June 30, 2005: $38 million

For the two years ending June 30, 2003: $16 million

For the two years ending June 30, 2001: $39.4 million

For the two years ending June 30, 1999: $10.5 million

Source: Clayton Schenck, legislative fiscal analyst.