Second homeowners hurt by premediated deception

Now we know what happened. Premeditated legislative deception inflicted by Rep. Llew Jones on the people of Montana led to the prohibitive tax to be imposed on second property owners in 2026. Montana’s governor implicitly condones this wrong. The editorial appearing in the Jan. 25 edition of the Daily Inter Lake, which addresses the issue, contains significant failings.

This tax on second properties is not about making out-of-state owners of Montana “mansions which sit vacant for 50 weeks of the year” pay their fair share. Information attributed to the Department of Revenue indicates that roughly 72% of all second homes in this state are owned by Montanans — and owners of second properties do pay their fair share as is evidenced by the tax bills sent to and paid by them and they enjoy their properties throughout Montana summers and beyond.  

As a Department of Revenue calculation has confirmed, this new tax will in some cases double if not triple the 2026 taxes to be imposed on seniors, retirees, veterans, educators, widows, recent purchasers  and owners of legacy residential second properties who own cabins and second homes, over what they have paid in the past. Montanans, young and old,  who may in the future wish to acquire a second home or cabin, will also face a prohibitive tax burden and be priced out of the market. They and their families will simply be unable to afford the exorbitant new tax burden and will be forced to sell.     

The premediated legislative deception took place as follows: Jones deceptively transformed a simple bill which proposed to freeze assessed property values at 2024 levels. Knowing all along that he intended to completely transform the bill into a prejudicial abomination which is horrifically prejudicial to those who own second properties in this state, Jones allowed the public hearing to occur on this bill. Not one word was said at the public hearing about the changes Jones knew he intended to implement. 

After the fact, the unconscionable confiscatory changes so prejudicial to second property owners were rammed through. The bill was signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte less than one month after the sham public hearing had taken place. No new public hearing on the transformed bill ever occurred. An attorney for the Legislature called out the fact that what had occurred raised significant issues of unconstitutionality, but the chicanery went unchecked. Second property owners were left in the dark and had no opportunity to object or seek justification for the prejudicial burden the transformed legislation was imposing on them.      

How do we know all this. Respected legislators including the chair of the Montana Senate Taxation Committee and the majority leader of the Montana Senate, along with another respected member of the Legislature, have filed a new lawsuit which the citizenry may help fund through the Montana Policy Action Organization in Billings. The case was filed against the state of Montana in Gallatin County on Jan. 21 and fully exposes the wrong of what occurred. 

Attempts to whitewash what occurred run rampant. The Daily Inter Lake’s superficial editorial fails to do justice to the issue. Suggesting that second property owners should simply accept legislation tainted by fraud, which subjects them to the potential loss of their properties, evidences a lack of moral fiber and the principled journalism we would expect of an award-winning newspaper. 

The editorial also fails to address important questions, which the Governor’s Office and Jones have refused to answer. Such questions concern, among other matters, whether or not additional revenues were truly needed and, if so, whether other mechanisms were available which would not have discriminatorily prejudiced owners of second properties.

The need to fight the wrong of what has occurred has never been stronger. All those with a sense of right and wrong and who recognize the need for accountability should vehemently object to what has occurred.  They should demand that those responsible rectify the wrong inflicted on the people of the state of Montana.  

Douglas D. Hughmanick is an attorney in San Jose, California and has a second home in Polson.