Top GOP legislator pitches tax cut

HELENA — A top Republican legislator pitched another tax-cut bill Tuesday, for a modest, across-the-board cut in state property taxes.

“Less property taxes will leave more money in [taxpayers’[ pockets,” House Majority Leader Keith Regier of Kalispell told the House Taxation Committee. “That money gets spent and the economy grows. The state has enough (surplus) to provide some property-tax relief.”

But the Bullock administration opposed Regier’s House Bill 201, as state Revenue Director Mike Kadas saying it provides an “inequitable distribution” of benefits, favoring larger businesses.

Kadas also suggested lawmakers should wait until later in the Legislature to decide tax-cut bills, because they haven’t yet agreed on how much revenue will be available.

“You really don’t have a very good feel for what your ending-fund balance is at all, at this point,” he told the committee. “Until you have a better feel for that, we would argue that you should hold onto these types of bills and not act on them.”

The Republican-controlled panel took no action Tuesday on Regier’s bill, but voted last week to advance two major tax-cut bills endorsed Tuesday by the full House.

Regier’s bill would cut statewide property taxes by about $13 million a year, reducing the number of “mills” levied on all property. A mill is a unit of measurement for property taxation.

Kadas said the average homeowner would see an annual cut of $11, while large businesses would see bigger cuts. For example, he said BNSF Railway would get an annual property tax cut of $248,000 and power-plant owner PPL Montana one of $169,000.

The statewide property taxes are earmarked for public school funding. Regier said his bill would use state income taxes to replace the lost property tax revenue for schools, so the schools wouldn’t lose any money.

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