Tax reforms or a bonanza for billionaires?

The new appraised values from the Department of Revenue are now often hundreds of thousands of dollars above prior assessed values. With increased assessments being in play, the 2026 tax rate of 1.9% on the value of cabins, second homes and undeveloped residential lots will have a devasting impact.

The math is simple. For each $1,000,000 of value a second property owner will annually pay roughly 20,000 in taxes. With higher values, they’ll pay a corresponding increase. While some authorities suggest the mill levy process could bring the amount to be paid down, others believe the process may further increase the burden on the owners of second properties. The impact on businesses and industries that build, furnish, finance and serve owners of second properties of course remains to be determined.

The increase will impose a remarkably unfair burden on those who’ve worked hard to acquire, maintain and improve their second homes, lots and cabins. In my case, the future tax bill could well exceed four times what I paid last year. Others no doubt will share in the suffering. 

Why have Montana legislators and the governor decided to impose such an unfair burden on owners of second properties, who of course include many long present Montana families whose legacy rests in the affected properties?

I respectfully submit that there is no legitimate basis for what has occurred.

The notion that the legislation will somehow increase the availability of housing opportunities for Montanans is in my opinion pure fiction. Many long-term owners will no doubt be forced to sell. Will other Montana families (with a median Montana family income of roughly $70,000), buy these properties? In my opinion, not a chance. 

Cost burdens aside, the prospects of this occurring are all weaker as the affected properties are in many cases in relatively remote locations where jobs and good schools are not readily available.

One rationale for the hit on second properties appears to be that tax bills for many of the properties are sent to out-of-state addresses. The advocates for the legislation apparently claimed that this means many out-of-state owners enjoy services which they don’t financially support.  This is supposedly the case because they don’t pay Montana income taxes.  

Really? What do the revenues generated by property taxes cover, if not property related services? Also, what about Montanans who have both a primary residence and a second home in this state. And what about the fact that owners of second properties often don’t enjoy services all year long and often drill their own wells and install their own septic systems at substantial personal expense? 

I challenge the proponents of the legislation, and those who implemented this legislative buffoonery, to provide any evidence that the burden imposed on government by second properties comes anywhere near the amount of the tax detriment to which they will now be subjected.

Suffice it to say that the reasoning behind the exorbitant tax hit on second properties appears at best to be highly flawed. At worst, it is pure unadulterated drivel calculated to silence those who have legitimately opposed this legislative debacle.

And what will happen when longtime owners can’t afford the drastic tax increases? They will likely sell.  

Who will buy? Buyer’s will likely be mega millionaires who will be able to afford the cost of second properties. To them, the tax bills will be akin to pocket change. Such buyers will no doubt dot the most desirable Montana landscapes with more multimillion-dollar housing monuments to the very rich. Those forced out of legacy homes will be relegated to the status of proverbial “roadkill.”   

In another words, Montana’s government will have indirectly taken away second properties from Montanans and others who’ve worked so hard and spent so much to enjoy the benefits of owning them. The Montana government will have worsened the very problem it supposedly was concerned about in the first place, that is the influx of monied interests from out of state. 

There seemingly couldn’t be a worse plan.  Now is the time for all fair-minded Montanans  to object to the governor and those state legislators who were responsible for formulating and adopting this abomination. It is not too late for them to reverse the wrong that will be unjustifiably inflicted on the owners of second properties, and likely those who serve them as well.  

Those in governmental positions of power need to do right for ordinary people and  not embark on a misadventure which will advance the ownership aspirations of the mega wealthy and billionaires.  All concerned should contact the governor’s office and those legislators who advanced and supported this legislative train wreck. (To say nothing of the prospects of a legitimate legal challenge, I am advised that such contacts can make a very real difference.) 

If they continue to support the horrifically unfair treatment of second property owners, they should fully explain why this is so. They should be transparent about why they’ve gone down a path of degradation and disclose any research and studies, and the identities of those behind it, which supposedly support the notion that the legislation will be a benefit, rather a long-time curse, on the people of this state.       

Douglas D. Hughmanick lives in Polson.