(C) Daily Montanan
This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Property tax notices in the mail after 2025 legislative changes • Daily Montanan [1]
['Keila Szpaller', 'Jordan Hansen', 'More From Author', '- July', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img']
Date: 2025-07-02
Montanans might soon get a bead on which direction their property tax bill is going.
Lawmakers of both political parties made their top job in the 2025 session addressing stiff increases in residential property taxes, and after negotiations that took nearly the entire session, they agreed to legislation that aims to help.
Margie MacDonald, who looks out for senior citizens as a lobbyist for Big Sky 55+, said the group she represents came out with “a big win.”
“We felt it was a major substantial cut for the vast majority of older Montanans who were hit the hardest by the 2023 property tax shift,” MacDonald said.
The most recent reappraisal cycle pushed up the median tax bill for residential payers 21%, and the increase was expected to continue. In 2023, reappraisals went up a record 46% on average.
Now, the work done at the Capitol is starting to shape up in the real world, and local and state legislators and lobbyists are counting wins — such a change in the conversation about who’s to blame — and already pointing to losses — such as hefty increases for Montanans who own second homes.
This week, the Department of Revenue announced it is sending out reappraisal notices to property taxpayers and asked them to review them as soon as possible. The DOR said the information will reflect the recent changes signed into law.
“It’s important that Montana property owners review this information,” said Brendan Beatty, director of the Montana Department of Revenue, in a statement. “If property owners wait until property tax bills are sent in November, it will be too late for the department to correct property characteristics and make adjustments that may impact the value of the property for Tax Year 2025.”
House Appropriations Chairman Llew Jones, largely seen as the architect of the property tax redesign in the 2025 session, said he believes the new system evens out a spike that had put a significant burden on residential payers at the expense of other classes.
Jones said the business lobby paid lower taxes, but this session, they weren’t quite as happy.
“They all walked the halls and yelled at me,” said Jones, R-Conrad.
An analysis Jones shared from the Department of Revenue shows the before-and-after estimates of payments based on changes from House Bill 231 and Senate Bill 542 — the two main bills that together addressed property taxes.
The analysis assumes other factors remain the same, such as local levies.
In Cascade County, for example, a home valued at $400,000 would have been billed $3,225 without any change from the legislature.
With the pair of bills that passed, the owner will be billed an estimated $2,217 instead in 2025 and $2,238 in 2026, according to the analysis, again, with other factors being equal. That’s a difference of $987.
“For many Montana homeowners — with homes around $400,000 — the estimated savings top $1,000 or more per year,” Jones said in a statement. “But remember: these are projections. Actual savings will depend on local mill levies set by your county, city and schools.”
County Commissioner Josh Slotnick of Missoula said increases in value coming soon from the Department of Revenue might “usurp the gains” people may have experienced in property tax relief, if not completely, at least partially.
But Slotnick said one important thing that happened in the most recent session goes beyond the work to reduce the hit to residential payers. He said Gov. Greg Gianforte “is forever saying your local officials have a spending problem.”
But Slotnick said legislators, including Jones and Missoula Democratic Reps. Mark Thane and Jonathan Karlen, were able to respond to data instead — which showed the burden had shifted onto residential taxpayers.
“A huge victory is that to a large degree, the discussion stopped being about, ‘How do we stop county commissioners and mayors from spending like drunken sailors?’ To, ‘How do we deal with the burden shift?’” said Slotnick, a Democrat.
He said the outcome is a nod to fairness.
“This solution isn’t a Democratic solution. It isn’t a Republican solution. It’s a solution based in reality,” Slotnick said.
Gianforte, a Republican, signed the pair of bills that account for the property tax redesign.
Together, HB 231 and SB 542 provide for a graduated tax rate with three tiers for homes, support a rebate, and offer relief for homes that are primary residences, including long-term rentals, among other provisions.
The governor vetoed a bill that would have expanded a property tax credit for elderly people.
In his veto letter, Gianforte said the program in House Bill 831 would have cost $7 million, the program already works well in its current form, and seniors benefit from the other property tax relief bills he signed.
Meanwhile, residential property taxpayers also recently received postcards about a smaller short-term patch — a reminder from the Department of Revenue that property tax rebates of up to $400 will be available starting August 15, 2025.
Although some politicians praise the outcome from Helena, Commissioner Mike McGinley, from Beaverhead County, remains skeptical that residents in his district will benefit.
McGinley is a Republican who has been one of the most outspoken local politicians when it comes to recent property tax increases and challenges for local governments.
He has pointed out that local governments have been living under a constraint in state law that allowed them to increase property taxes in general just half the rate of inflation — putting them more behind year after year.
McGinley said he isn’t convinced the new system will work well in Beaverhead County.
For the county itself, he said, an estimated 27% drop for residential payers will probably hit agriculture and commercial classes and “cause a little controversy.”
Also, he said Dillon, the county seat, doesn’t have a diverse tax base, so the only way to make up the difference is by levying more mills — on the same residential payers.
McGinley said maybe on the whole, the legislation will help residential payers in the state, especially by shifting some of the responsibility to people with second homes. But he said he doesn’t believe some taxpayers in his district will see relief.
“People who are expecting these big tax decreases better buckle down. It can’t happen,” McGinley said.
Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, who spoke throughout the legislative session about hardships on seniors, said tens of thousands of people who qualified for the property tax rebate issued after the last 2023 session still missed out.
Dunwell said she worries that the same people who either didn’t hear about the rebate or had trouble with the application will be in the same boat this time.
This year, the state is paying rebates, and rebate applications automatically enroll a property taxpayer in the homestead rate reduction starting in 2026, according to a recent guest piece in the Missoulian from Thane, Karlen, and other Democratic members of the House Tax Committee.
“The poorest people, the most vulnerable, the most disenfranchised, the ones who generally fall through the cracks, are again going to fall through the cracks,” Dunwell said.
The Department of Revenue did not answer questions sent Friday about the outreach it is doing, in addition to the postcard, to ensure eligible people receive the breaks the legislature intended. In fall 2023, the DOR estimated 43,000 people who were eligible for rebates had not received them.
Although Dunwell raised concerns, she also said the property tax relief package that passed is an improvement, and if something isn’t working — “we’ll come back next session and fix it.”
The redesign aimed to support Montana residents with one home, a “homestead,” including by dropping the rate for the first $400,000 in value from 1.35% to 0.76% — while the rate for second homes goes from 1.35% to 1.9%.
Some Montana residents who aren’t rich but have family cabins have said the outcome means they get a break on their main residence but “crushing increases” on their second home.
“For many families, that may mean being forced to sell long-held properties and likely losing them to out-of-state buyers,” said Vicki Turner of Helena in a letter Dunwell shared. “That’s not only unfair, but it is also unjust and heartbreaking.”
Jones, though, said the goal was to support the majority of Montana residents — “the vast majority of folks are just trying to pay for their one house.” He said Montanans with vacation homes aren’t treated differently than others with vacation homes.
“Most folks don’t have two homes,” Jones said.
Slotnick, with Missoula County, said the difficulty in a place where values keep increasing is that even if commissioners increase taxes 4%, that bump could translate into a 20% increase in someone’s property tax bill.
“How it’s not fair is the increase in your home’s value is not an accurate value of your ability to pay,” Slotnick said.”
The pair of property tax relief bills reduce the tax rate on a graduated scale for residential property, which lowers the taxable value of the property, he said. In doing so, he said, it shifts the tax burden back to other classes of payers.
“The reason this is so difficult is some of those others (taxpayer groups) have really intense lobbyists and attorneys who typically win their arguments,” Slotnick said.
Slotnick said he appreciates the legislation because people with homes that have a lower value will get a larger reduction, and that result pleases him as a progressive Democrat.
But he also said people in Missoula, for example, won’t see as much relief as residents of some other counties because Missoula has a lot more houses in the $750,000 to $800,000 range.
“We have a whole bunch of middle income people who really need help who, through no fault of their own, own a $850,000 home,” he said. “I am one of them.”
(Slotnick, a farmer, said he bought a $250,000 property in 2000, and it’s now worth $850,000.)
But Slotnick also said legislators applied a scale they thought would work for the most people, and the bills are fair.
“They did a great job of trying to Goldilocks this thing,” he said.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailymontanan.com/2025/07/02/property-tax-notices-in-the-mail-after-2025-legislative-changes/
Published and (C) by Daily Montanan
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/
