Why a special session won’t fix the property tax problem

The Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of 21 legislators, has called for a special session. The content of the call asks for a reduction of the 95 mills, clarification of MCA 15-10-420, a mechanism that caps growth on cities and counties, and permanent legislation that would return budget surplus to taxpayers. 

At first glance, the aforementioned appear to be worthy aspirations. However, with passage of HB 587, the actions of the past Legislature to invest and return surplus dollars, and the recent actions by Gov. Greg Gianforte to create a residential property tax task force, the need for immediate action through a special session will likely result in hastily crafted remedies of complicated taxation issues.

HB 587 passed both bodies of the chamber and committees without a negative vote. This popular bill will return taxes collected from the 95 mills to property taxpayers to subsidize the portion of K-12 funding known as the Guaranteed Tax Base (GTB), specifically allocated to fund our school employees retirement benefits. It’s a good idea as it retains the current contributions of non-residential property tax payers without a generous discount offered to non-residential tax payers as specified in the call for a session.