Gov. Greg Gianforte is again focused on cutting taxes in his third proposed budget as governor.
The line item details of the roughly $12 billion budget weren’t available before a Wednesday press conference, but Gianforte highlighted his priorities.
“We should do what we can to help Montanans keep more of what they work so hard to earn,” Gianforte said.
Gianforte is asking for an income tax cut amounting to $850 million in savings for Montanans. This is the third, and largest, income tax cut Gianforte has proposed. He also aims to again expand a tax credit for low-income earners.
Some Democrats and advocacy groups have argued that those income tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy, and will ultimately result in cuts to government programs. The income tax rate is applied uniformly to nearly all income brackets, so the savings for low- to middle-income households are much smaller than for wealthier residents.
Gianforte declined to say whether he plans to propose budget cuts.
The state’s executive offers up a budget for running Montana’s government before each biennial legislative session. Lawmakers can take or leave the proposals as they build their own budget.
Gianforte hopes they’ll run with a proposal for high property taxes that would shift some of the burden to out-of-state residents with second homes in Montana. That’s projected to lower property taxes by about 15% for 215,000 residences.
He also asks for investments to expand the state prison by 500 beds, raise early-career teacher pay, expand a private school tax credit and fix aging public school infrastructure. Another proposal would use state funding to incentivize cell phone-free policies in schools.
Gianforte says the Republican sweep of state and national elections shows voters are happy with the results of the last four years.
“600,000 Montana voters cast their ballots. And what did they say? They want conservative leadership.”
Gianforte confirmed he’s proposing to renew Medicaid expansion — health coverage for disabled or low-income adults — and the Best Beginnings program, a child care scholarship for low-income families.
