Maybe Montana politicians don’t hear well. Maybe they have no personal understanding of what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. Many make decisions based solely upon a weekly paycheck.
Should we pay the rent, buy groceries, pay the power bills or insurance with this week’s paycheck? The truck’s been on empty all week. Nothing in Montana is getting cheaper. No minimum wage job pays enough to cover the median rent in Montana, never mind buying food. How can Montana be a working-class state when workers cannot afford a home?
As I arrived at the townhall, the parking lot was full and people were eager to be heard. Inside was standing-room-only as hundreds of locals turned out to talk with Democrats Rep. Debo Powers and Sen. Dave Fern.
Hundreds of people reportedly turned out at each of the Transmittal Break townhalls throughout Montana as Democrats met with locals during the halfway point of the 69th Legislature.
It’s an odd Legislative Session. This Legislature is certainly meaner than when I served. Sure, we had kooky bills like gold bullions for paychecks and public lashings for reduced jail time. Today’s Republicans are obsessed with trying to ban gay marriage or make sure pregnant women don’t leave the state.
This biennium is also historic as lawmakers sent the past and present President of the Montana Senate to the Legislative Auditor looking for graft or impropriety. Auditing your leaders during a Session certainly adds a wild card to politics.
The Governor has his own dishonors as it’s been reported in the Montana news that he’s been skimming the interest off federal pandemic recovery funds to use for pet projects like funding the interim committee that produced bills for this Legislature seeking to make Montana’s justice system partisan.
There’s over $1 billion left of pandemic money in Montana as lawmakers seek passage of bills giving legislative authority to spend the resources. Last Session lawmakers used a big portion of the federal dollars to give property tax rebates to qualifying homeowners.
Last fall the governor’s task force on property tax reappraisal delivered recommendations that have been written into a bill for this Legislature. The bill passed the House and sits in Senate Tax awaiting action. The governor’s proposal to fix property tax reappraisals remains a hot mess.
Of the combined $1.4 billion homeowner taxable valuation increase from the 2023 and 2025 reappraisals of property, the governor’s bill cuts qualifying residential taxable valuations by $417 million, cuts qualifying long term rental taxable values by $275 million, and increases non-qualifying home taxable values by $305 million.
The state levies 101 mills against these taxable valuations, meaning of the $140 million per year in extra property taxes paid by homeowners, the governor’s bill returns $42 million to qualifying homeowners, $28 million to qualifying long term rentals, yet increases taxes on non-qualifying homes by $31 million.
I know, I know numbers again. After including the tax increases from small business and farmers, the governor’s bill collects $114 million per year more for the state due to the past and upcoming reappraisals of property. The state revalues your home. The state increased taxes.
How can this be? In short, the governor’s bill seeks to neuter the upcoming 2025 reappraisal, the one which increases home tax values in the Flathead by 31%, while ignoring the 2023 reappraisal which increased home tax values by 38%.
Baked into the governor’s property tax cake, is the state over collection of $114 million per year, every year, simply by reappraising your farm, home or business. The local tax obligation shift from the state allowing home taxable valuations to spike gives corporations massive local tax breaks while homeowners continue to pay a $1/2 billion extra every two years.
Predictably the governor’s reappraisal fix targets the biggest state property tax increases onto places like Polson, Hamilton, Belgrade, Great Falls, Bigfork, Lakeside, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Hardin, and homes on fee land in Indian communities like Browning. It vastly over collects state property taxes from faster growing areas to partially pay for county retirements and corporate tax cuts in more rural parts of Montana.
Republicans have all the power they need to stop these homeowner property tax increases. They control the Senate, the House and the Governor. Surely, they know homeowners are upset with lawmakers. Democrats at their in-person townhalls got an ear full about how expensive Montana has become.
Back when I sat in those hard Helena chairs at the Capitol, Montana reappraised every six years to avoid this state taxing chaos. A six-year cycle also allowed the state to better mitigate the unique mill cap in the City of Billings by phasing valuations over time. Statewide homeowners don’t need to pay extra cause Billings has a local mill cap to control local taxes.
If you qualify, and a couple hundred thousand homes do qualify, the governor’s proposal gives like half of your increases back, maybe more, likely less. If you don’t qualify, expect to submit paperwork to the dozens of new employees required to implement the governor’s complicated scheme. The state keeps a lot of your money. What they intend to do with it, they won’t say.
Rep. Paul Tuss of Havre has a good bill requiring health insurance policies to pay for hearing aids in Montana. State says, that about a quarter of Montanans need hearing aids and the out-of-pocket cost is $5,000. Ironically, if a quarter of lawmakers need hearing aids, it explains a lot about politics.
The governor’s reappraisal fix only focuses on the upcoming revaluation of property while ignoring Flathead’s last 38% increase, partially still owed in the upcoming months. Regardless, you must qualify for relief, elsewise property taxes will again skyrocket as Flathead’s upcoming 31% revaluations hit mailboxes before summertime.