Letters to the editor Jan. 6

Property tax burden

As tax reform dominated the 69th legislative session, legislators likely felt rushed in the final days of the session as they were offered limited tax proposals. 

Some of the rushed tax bills contained blind spots yet to be resolved. A sign of intelligence is the ability to change your mind when you learn something new. 

Shooting the messenger for sounding the alarm is counterproductive to getting taxation back on track. 

In this response to Sen. Josh Kassmier’s challenge to the Freedom Caucus and others, I argue that, whether in a special session or at the next session, Montana policymakers should consider legislative models from other states to avoid endangering stable housing for homesteaders, elderly homeowners and renters.

The multi-home tax legislation that threatens to burden homesteaders and retirees who have lived in their homes for decades can be improved. 

California has legislative models that set a good example for safeguarding primary residents from displacement. 

Prop 13 protects longtime and elderly homeowners through assessment limits, and Prop 19 allows seniors to carry a lower taxable value to a new primary residence. 

Montana can apply some of these core principles to pass legislation that exempts or reduces multiple‑home surtaxes for elderly homeowners and long‑term homesteaders.

Also, as far as the separate tax legislation that spiked the cost of monthly rent for tenants. In a fair spread of state taxes, renters will inevitably share some of the burden through rent. 

However, the state Legislature could convene a special session to clearly limit how much increase of the property tax that landlords can pass through to tenants. 

This would place a fairer burden on renters, while ensuring the bulk of tax increases — should they be necessary at all — fall elsewhere.  

I believe legislators can pass a balanced state budget that also works to safeguard housing.  

I’m looking forward to seeing how our state legislators creatively lead the people of Montana forward.

— Faith Dawson, Polson

Israel-Gaza War

Mr. Myerowitz’s letter (Jan. 1) about antisemitism and Israel misstates some facts and ignores others. 

The claim that Israel is merely trying to “defend its right to exist” belies the facts on the ground. Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed over 70,000 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of them women and children. Aid workers are targeted for execution by Israeli military, perhaps because they keep bearing witness to the execution-style killings of non-combatants by Israeli soldiers. 

Four-fifths of the structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. Only concerted efforts by nations around the world stopped an openly stated Israeli policy of forced starvation. In the West Bank, illegal Israeli settlements are being expanded, while homes of Palestinians are bulldozed to make way for them. Israeli soldiers stand by and watch as settlers attack Palestinian families, driving them from their homes. 

Is it any wonder why so many nations have labelled Israeli policy as genocide? Certainly, it is not antisemitic to oppose what Israel is doing; indeed, many Jewish scholars themselves condemn Israeli actions. 

The chant “From the River to the Sea” has contested meanings. To some, it means the end of the Jewish state in which Palestinians are second-class citizens dispossessed of their land. To others, it means the creation of a state in which Jews and Palestinians live in equality and peace. Ironically, the extreme right in Israel has used this phrase to stand for reestablishment of an expanded Jewish state with expulsion of those who do not accept Jewish hegemony over the land. 

All people of good will should abhor the murders of Jews in the U.S., Australia, and elsewhere as the manifestations of a sick, antisemitic extremism. This is the deplorable result of carefully stoked racial hatred. But these acts in no way excuse or justify what Israel is doing, and it is the height of political hypocrisy to claim they do.

For the record, the writers of this letter are Jewish. For the record, many American Jews and, yes, Israelis, share our view. And for the record, it isn’t antisemitic to be critical of Israel. In fact, holding Israel to a high standard of ethical behavior is probably the most Jewish thing we Jews can do.

— Todd Clear and Dina Rose, Kalispell