Letters to the editor Jan. 16

Tax code tweak

Montana Sen. Greg Hertz, chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, says “there is no simple solution” to Montana’s property tax fiasco. On this point, he is simply wrong. It is not any more complicated than changing a number in the Montana Code from 1.35% to 0.94%. (Hertz uses 0.76%, not the number used in 2023, namely 0.94%.)

Property taxes are calculated differently than other taxes.  He is right that the final number of mills is set by the county commissioners after they determine the amount of revenue needed. However, it does not take a nuclear scientist (or a skilled accountant) to realize that if someone’s house goes up in value, they will pay more property taxes on that house unless the state Legislature does something about the rate of the tax.

Even though the Republicans were advised by their own Department of Revenue that they should change the rate of property tax on residential properties, something every Legislature has done in the past whenever home values increase significantly, they refused (or failed) to act.  It would be hard to imagine anything simpler than changing one number in the code.

Changing the rates is not a perfect solution. Nor is it the only solution. There are many other things that can be done to lessen the added burden on home owners. This, however, is the simplest and most effective. It neutralizes the results so that all tax collections statewide after the appraised value increase will be essentially the same as all taxes collected from home owners before the new appraisals. Since it is an average, there will be some that pay a little more and some a little less.  

It is not too late to correct it for future tax collections (with updated numbers) to mitigate the harm that was done by the 2023 Legislature’s inaction. Let’s not go into the next biennium without doing this simple little change. 

Hertz is not wrong on another part. In dealing with property taxes, when one group of taxpayers pay more, someone else pays less. That is exactly what the Republicans did to the Montana homeowners in 2023. With increased values of homes, homeowners paid more — some a lot more — and some other taxpayers paid less. Guess what. The state’s biggest corporations paid less — much less.  

That should be corrected. 

— Thomas E. Towe, Billings

Climate crisis

The urgency to transition our economy to non-polluting energy isn’t so much about more days above 90 degrees or fewer days on the ski slopes. That’s small potatoes. It’s fundamentally about the surprisingly fragile dependence of modern life upon the relatively stable climate we’ve had since the Industrial Revolution. 

Buy stuff produced overseas? Imagine how much they’ll cost when the Panama Canal can’t be used because of drought. Use electricity produced by hydropower? Imagine blackouts when reservoirs are too low to run the turbines. Care about Montana ranchers’ ability to stay in business? Ask them how difficult it is when weather conditions fluctuate wildly. Concerned about folks moving to Montana to escape hurricanes, floods, tornadoes or rising sea level? These all will get worse as the atmosphere heats up, so expect to see more climate refugees.

We still need fossil fuels in the short-term, but our very way of life depends not on burning them as we’ve always done, but rather on transitioning away as quickly as possible. 

For our kids’ sake, do what’s reasonable in your daily life to minimize spewing carbon into the air. Equally importantly, encourage elected officials to enact policies that ease our way to a sustainable future. We actually know how to get there, and have most of the tools we need already — except the political will to convince politicians to act on our behalf.

— Rich Harris, Charlo

National debt

According to a recent study released by Truth in Accounting, the end of 2024 brought the U.S. government $153 trillion of total liabilities. Your government currently holds claim to $966,000 of future productivity for every citizen in the U.S. Measures to correct a growing burden will require some pain that few will escape. The million-dollar question remains:  What will you be willing to sacrifice?  

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” — Thomas Jefferson

President-elect Donald Trump and his dream team certainly have their work cut out for them. More than anything else, they will need the support of every American citizen to sacrifice. Simply put, public officials (who we have voted into office) have violated the parameters of our constitutional form of government. 

It’s past time to hold our public officials and ourselves accountable for the situation we find ourselves in.

— Bob Wagner, Harrison