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Montana politics, elections and legislative news

Montana's Higher Education Levy Passes With Over 60 Percent Approval

Grizzly statue and Main Hall on the University of Montana campus in Missoula.
Josh Burnham
/
Montana Public Radio
Grizzly statue and Main Hall on the University of Montana campus in Missoula.

Montana voters Tuesday passed the Six Mill Levy for the eighth time in the past 70 years.

The property tax provides about 10 percent of the state’s appropriation to higher education and helps support approximately 40,000 in-state students.

The levy enjoys bipartisan support, but its margins of victory have trended downward.

The last time it went before voters back in 2008 it only garnered 56 percent of the vote.

Bob Brown, with Montanans for the Six Mill Levy spoke to MTPR late Tuesday night.

"In recent years it's declined a little bit, but not precipitously," Brown said. "If it remained at about 62 percent, then I think that would buck the trend a little bit.”

By mid-afternoon Wednesday the six-mill levy pulled in over 62 percent of the vote with almost 93 percent of precincts reporting.

University officials say the 6-mill helps fund day-to-day business operations on Montana’s four and two-year campuses.

O’Brien first landed at Montana Public Radio three decades ago as a news intern while attending the University of Montana School of Journalism. His first career job out of school was covering the 1995 Montana Legislature. When the session wrapped up, O’Brien was fortunate enough to land a full-time position at the station as a general assignment reporter. Feel free to drop him a line at edward.obrien@umt.edu.
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