Move ahead with property-tax relief

The Inter Lake has long been sensitive to the plight of many longtime residents of the Flathead who have found themselves taxed out of their family homes because of rising land prices in our popular locale.

This problem has been especially marked for lakefront properties, but not exclusively so, and it also has fallen heavily on our elderly who live on fixed incomes and have not been able to keep up with their property tax burdens as their modest homes have been surrounded by mansions.

Legislators have taken various stabs at assisting folks in this untenable position from time to time over the years, but it’s usually been turned back by budget hawks who don’t want to give up the revenue. Either that or it’s just not been enough to make a difference.

This year, Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, has been leading the charge. His Senate Bill 94 made it through the Senate last week and is now awaiting action in the House.

As originally structured, the bill would have assisted 20,000 taxpayers, including an estimated 3,000 in Flathead County and 1,600 in Lake County. Under that version, the bill would have capped the taxable land value of a property at 75 percent of the values of the improvements (i.e., the home and related structures). In other words, if you lived in a house valued at $200,000, you could only be taxed on the value of your land at a maximum of $150,000. Of course, if you happened to have inherited a home on Flathead Lake, the land would actually be worth considerably more than that, but that doesn’t mean a person living within moderate means could afford the taxes.

Ultimately, the bill was amended to cap the taxable land value at 150 percent of the value of the improvements. That limited the assistance to fewer than 6,000 homeowners in the state, but they are the ones most in need of relief, so it’s a fair compromise.

Let’s hope the House does its part to OK this program, and that the governor is on board, too. For the most part, this will help middle-income and low-income Montanans, and that’s a noble goal.