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The Montana Department of Revenue, responsible for maintaining the property listings used to calculate property tax bills, is losing track of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new construction as it struggles to keep its data updated, according to a study published Thursday by legislative auditors. The auditors say the department’s approach to tracking new development and property-value-boosting renovations, which relies primarily on reviewing building permits, is failing to ensure that construction activity is quickly and accurately r...
Montana Department of Revenue staff told a legislative committee last week that next year's reappraisal cycle could produce a partial repeat of last year's jarring tax spike as the state's surging real estate market continues to translate into higher residential taxes. The department expects the market value of the average Montana residential property to be reappraised at 21% higher when it completes next year's reappraisal cycle. A staff economist said Monday that if the Legislature doesn't...
Fresh off a reelection win, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has proposed that Montana lawmakers adopt a two-year state budget that prioritizes further tax cuts alongside investments in public safety and education. The proposal represents a starting point for budget negotiations that will occur in and out of public view through the 2025 Legislature. Highlights of the $17.9 billion proposal include a top-bracket rate cut for state income taxes and a homeowner property tax relief provision...
A group that has repeatedly sought to advance ballot initiatives that would cap property tax growth on Montana homes said last week that it is taking another run at the idea, proposing a constitutional amendment that could appear on the 2026 ballot if it survives likely legal challenges and qualifies via a signature drive. Bozeman attorney Matt Monfortion, the director of Cap Montana Property Taxes, said in an interview Wednesday that he doesn’t believe property tax proposals circulating in advance of the 2025 Legislature will do enough to p...
Sibanye Stillwater, the South African company that operates the nation's only major palladium mine in south-central Montana, said Thursday that it plans to lay off about 40% of its Montana workforce as it scales back its operation in an effort to offset losses caused by low metal prices. In a letter to workers, U.S. Executive Vice President Kevin Robertson said the company will halt mining at the west section of its Stillwater mine southwest of Columbus until prices rise. It also plans to...
The Montana Supreme Court has overturned a lower court order temporarily suspending two pro-construction housing laws passed by the 2023 Montana Legislature, ruling last week that the laws can take effect as a challenge brought by a Bozeman-based homeowners coalition is litigated. The homeowners, organized as Montanans Against Irresponsible Densification, or MAID, challenged the bills and two other housing measures last year, arguing the Legislature's efforts to promote infill development by...
Overwhelmed by a flood of property tax appeals following last year’s historic valuation spike, the Montana Department of Revenue acknowledged earlier this month that its Bozeman-area office fell behind this year on tracking new construction that should be added to Gallatin County’s tax rolls. According to Gallatin County Chief Financial Officer Justine Swanson, the snafu will delay the adoption of local government budgets and push back mailing of November tax bills across the county. Additionally, she said in an interview this week, unless reve...
The individual backers behind four initiatives that have been gathering signatures in an effort to qualify for the fall ballot said this week that they haven't been able to gather the tens of thousands of required voter signatures. While Montana's secretary of state has yet to determine which measures will qualify for the November ballot, the backer groups behind three other measures have said publicly that they believe they surpassed their signature-gathering thresholds as of the June deadline...
The office of Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Thursday that Chris Dorrington, a longtime state official who has led the Montana Department of Environmental Quality since 2021, will be taking the helm at the Montana Department of Transportation. DEQ, which among other duties regulates water quality, mining and some aspects of subdivision development, will be led by current Air, Energy and Mining Division Administrator Sonja Nowakowski. Both appointments take effect July 1, the governor's office...
Low-income Montanans seeking help paying their property tax bills now have until June 1 to apply for aid through two state relief programs administered by the Montana Department of Revenue — including the flagship Property Tax Assistance Program intended to keep property tax bills from forcing low-income homeowners out of their homes. This year’s application deadline, previously set for April 15, was extended in an effort to give Montanans facing substantial tax hardship more time to apply, Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Montana Department of Rev...
A veto override effort on a much-debated marijuana revenue bill that initially passed the Montana Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support last year has failed, according to poll results released Friday afternoon. The override poll, conducted by a mail ballot by the Montana secretary of state’s office over the last month, attracted only 41 “yes” votes from state representatives and 24 from state senators — well short of the 67-vote and 34-vote two-thirds margins required for a successful veto override. An additional 14 represe...
Gov. Greg Gianforte announced last week that the state is deploying a small number of Montana National Guard troops to the nation's southern border, describing the action as an effort to help the state of Texas police cross-border drug trafficking in light of what he described as inaction by the federal government. According to the announcement, 10 Montana National Guardsmen have volunteered for active duty as part of Texas' Operation Lone Star. The Guardsmen are scheduled to arrive in Texas...
The supplemental property tax bills heading to property owners around the state this spring, made necessary by a November Supreme Court decision, represent a monumental headache for both local tax officials and homeowners. They also illustrate how the tax issue has driven a wedge between Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican seeking re-election this year, and local government leaders across Montana's political spectrum. Nearly all of the dollars collected by Montana's property tax system flow,... Full story
Last year, during a dispute with Gov. Greg Gianforte over the state's "95 mill" school equalization property tax, officials with 49 of Montana's 56 counties chose to reduce their fall tax bills against the wishes of the Montana Department of Revenue. This month, after landing on the losing side of a November Montana Supreme Court ruling, those counties' treasurers are left with the thankless task of sending supplemental property tax bills to hundreds of thousands of property owners across the...
Addressing his property tax task force at the group's first formal meeting Wednesday, Gov. Greg Gianforte had two big messages: Figure out how to bring some permanent tax relief to Montana homeowners - and don't do it by recommending a statewide sales tax. "As we and all Montanans know too well, property taxes are too high. That's why we're here - Montana homeowners need relief," Gianforte said, detailing a list of goals that includes slowing how fast property taxes are growing and making it...
Among several changes to Montana’s income tax system that took effect at the beginning of the year is a provision that makes income from tips subject to state taxes. The shift aligns Montana with the federal tax system, in which tips have long been taxed alongside salaries and wages. It also means that many service-sector workers will likely have their state income tax obligation increased by hundreds of dollars a year. The change was made by the 2021 Legislature as part of Senate Bill 399, a comprehensive reform measure that reshaped many p... Full story
A Gallatin County District Court judge has blocked two laws passed by the 2023 Montana Legislature that aimed to promote housing affordability by forcing cities to permit denser development in existing neighborhoods. The recent order, by Judge Mike Salvagni, prevented the two laws from taking effect as scheduled on Jan. 1 while litigation of a legal challenge filed by a Bozeman-based homeowners group last month proceeds. The order doesn’t change the status of two other laws that are also challenged by the same lawsuit, including one that broadl... Full story
A lawsuit filed late last month by a coalition of homeowners challenges the constitutionality of four bipartisan laws passed by this year’s Legislature in an effort to tackle Montana’s housing shortage by encouraging proactive land use planning and making it easier to build homes in situations where construction has been hampered by local zoning rules. The Bozeman-based plaintiff group, Montanans Against Irresponsible Densification, or MAID, describes itself as a group of members who live in neighborhoods “characterized by single-family homes... Full story
A federal judge issued an order Thursday blocking Montana's first-of-its-kind ban on social media platform TikTok, preventing the ban from taking effect as scheduled on Jan. 1. The ban, which passed this year's Legislature as Senate Bill 419, would have barred TikTok from making its app available to Montana users. By blocking the ban while a legal challenge moves forward, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy signals that he believes the company and other plaintiffs have a good chance of... Full story
The Montana Supreme Court ruled last week against Montana county governments in a dispute over the Montana Department of Revenue's authority to order the full collection of the 95-mill state-level school equalization levy, a formerly obscure piece of tax bills that became a flash-point this fall as state and local officials contended with frustration over rising property taxes. The ruling means that the 49 of 56 Montana counties that chose to collect a lower, 77.9-mill rate on tax bills sent to...
Montana's utility regulation commission has come under criticism recently for an agreement that lets the state's largest power company, NorthWestern Energy, implement a substantial residential electric rate increase. With some help from retired MTN News reporter (and occasional MTFP contributor) Mike Dennison, we've compiled a comparison of the residential electricity rates charged by different utilities around the region, estimating the typical monthly electric bills paid by residential... Full story
The Montana Department of Revenue said Wednesday it received more than 226,600 applications for homeowner property tax rebates during the application period that closed Oct. 2 — a figure that, MTFP calculates, represents about three-quarters of eligible homeowners. The property tax rebates, up to $675 per homeowner, were authorized by this year’s Montana Legislature and Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican. Lawmakers, who also authorized a similar round of rebates for next year, allocated about $350 million from the state’s budget surplus to pa...
Months of finger-pointing between state-level Republicans and local government leaders over who to blame for rising property taxes escalated last week as the lobbying organization that represents county governments sent a late-night press release that, among other points, singled out Gov. Greg Gianforte’s personal property tax bill. The release, sent by the Montana Association of Counties at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, said the association’s math shows that taxes on Gianforte’s personal home in Helena’s mansion district neighborhood are likely... Full story
Just how deep do Montana's widely discussed housing affordability woes run? Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau sheds some statistical light on one facet of the challenge. Housing affordability is a product of two things: how much it costs people to keep a roof over their heads, and how much income they have to pay for it. While Montana has seen ballooning housing prices in recent years, the state's population is also earning more. The census figures indicate the median monthly... Full story
Sara Feilzer was feeling the heat of Montana's boiling-hot housing prices last year. Her home, a quirky one-and-a-half-bedroom basement apartment she has rented in central Helena since 2018, was heading for the maelstrom of the open real estate market. Her then-landlord, a coworker, had watched home prices climb for years through the COVID-19 pandemic and determined they couldn't pass up the opportunity to sell. As a result, she found herself in an unwelcome situation that's become familiar to... Full story
