Q: What is the purpose of your organization?
Montana Residents for Fair Property Taxation was formed in response to the growing frustration felt by Montana taxpayers about the inequity and unpredictability of their property taxes. It is a statewide “grass roots” effort to seek property tax reform from the Legislature.
Q: What are the primary objectives of this effort?
They are simple and straightforward...
| 1) | Fairness – Montana residents should not see their property taxes skyrocket simply because a neighboring property is sold at a highly inflated price. | |
| 2) | Protection – Retired Montana residents should not live in fear of being “taxed off” their property. | |
| 3) | Predictability – Montana residents should know –within reason– exactly how much their property taxes will increase each year. |
Q: Who are members and supporters of this effort?
This is a bipartisan effort. This issue affects ALL Montana residents, regardless of which political party they might support or where they live in the state. But we all have one thing in common... we all have roots in Montana and we are all deeply concerned about the seemingly perpetual “crisis” in property taxes.
Q: Why have efforts at Montana property tax reform failed in the past?
One reason is because they have often been partisan efforts (Republican vs. Democrat) or geographic efforts (western Montana vs. eastern Montana). Another reason is because the problem has never been as acute as it is today. And a final reason is simply because none of these past efforts have come from a groundswell of public support - demanding legislative action.
Q: What legislative solutions have been offered in the past?
There have been many, here are just a few...
In 1994, a referendum was offered to the public that would adopt a property tax system based on acquisition or “sale” value. However, that bill only tried to change the Montana Constitution to adopt an acquisition tax method - without telling voters what would actually happen to their property taxes.
In 1997, after the usual 6-year reappraisal showed dramatic increases in overall property values in the state, the legislature passed Senate Bill 195, which limited annual increases in property taxes to 2% per year for the next 50 years. But that was challenged and overthrown in court by eastern Montana residents who had experienced deflation in their own property.
In 1999, another attempt was made at passing an acquisition-based tax (Senate Bill 61). But legislators could not agree on the specifics, so it never made it out of committee to a formal vote on the floor.
Also in 1999, a “land cap” (Senate Bill 184) was passed to protect residents who were seeing the most extreme increases in property taxes. It basically limited the assessed value on their land (up to 5 acres) at 75% of the value of their home. Over 73% of the beneficiaries were Montana residents, however one of the state’s appraisal offices released biased information that portrayed the land cap as a tax cut for wealthy out-of-state property owners. Subsequently, the protection provided by this bill was ended in December 2001.
Q: Is this a “Prop 13" tax revolt?
Absolutely not! What happened in California is that the legislature failed to address property tax reform, so the public took it right to the voters with an initiative (Proposition 13) that cut property taxes by rolling them back 3 years, and then handcuffed the legislature by requiring a “super majority” or 2/3's vote to pass any tax increases. That action devastated local government and school funding to the point, some would argue, from which it has never recovered.
This effort is not seeking a tax cut, and our members/supporters are as concerned about the quality of education in Montana as we are about our property taxes.
For more information on this pending tax reform legislation and to help ensure its passage, please sign up under Keep Me Updated.
Montana Residents for Fair Property Taxation
