NEW STUDY GAUGES HUTTERITE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Hutterite Businesses Play a Significant Role in the State's Economy.

• Author: Barkey, Patrick M.

This article digests a study of the economic contributions of the Lehrerleut branch of the Hutterite communities in Montana performed by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana (BBER), in partnership with the Montana State University Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics. The study made use of a detailed financial database on the operations of a large fraction of the Hutterite communities that enabled us to track actual revenues and purchases for a three-year period.

The role of Hutterites in the local economy and the contributions made by the communities to the total economic pie are not well understood by many Montanans. The broad goal of this study is to address that information void and highlight the economic impact the Hutterite communities have on their local economies, as well as on the economy of the entire state.

About the Hutterites

Hutterites have had an important presence in Montana for more than 100 years. They are comprised of 53 communities of families with a centralized leadership structure and common ownership of land and other assets. The more than 5,000 members in our state are second in number only to South Dakota among U.S. states. The two prominent branches of Hutterites in Montana are the Lehrerleuts and Dariusleuts.

Hutterites came to North America from Europe in the 1870s as a means of escaping religious persecution. One of the oldest communal religious orders, they originally settled in South Dakota, which remains the largest concentration in the United States. The largest number of communities is in Alberta. Approximately 75 percent of Hutterites in North America are in Canada, just to the north of Montana.

Members of Hutterite communities live collectively, in groups of families governed by an elected minister. The communities collectively own land, produce and market agricultural and other goods and services, and pay taxes. Their religious orientation does not affect the tax treatment of their land and business property; in some rural communities where they operate they are the largest single property taxpayer. The fact that members of communities do not receive salaries for work done within the community does impact their federal and state income tax contributions.

In Montana the communities are largely located in the central portion of the state, east of the Continental Divide. The communities focus on farming and agriculture, including value-added production and...