Amelia Gardner-Knox and her husband moved from the Bitterroot Valley to Wyoming last year. It was a choice made out of necessity, she says over a Zoom call on her lunch break.
“You know unless we want to be even more strapped for cash, we should probably figure out how to live somewhere a little bit cheaper.”
Before the move, they lived near Florence and commuted to Missoula for work. The couple didn’t take big vacations, they had roommates and even used their honeymoon fund to pay down bills. When their landlord told them they needed to raise the rent, they knew they could no longer afford the rental.
“You know, we would sit down to do a monthly budget and be like, ‘where is our money going,” Gardner-Knox says.
After months of searching, the couple decided to move somewhere else. They wanted somewhere similar at a lower cost. They landed on Sheridan, where Gardner-Knox has family.
She says they like it. That it’s a nice community and they’re content there for now. But they dream of moving back.
“I think about it all the time, I think we both do. As far as, have we looked at it? No. And that’s mostly just because, like, I know I’ll get depressed. So for my own sanity, I’m just like, I’m going to pretend that I’m not allowed to go back there for a while.”
The couple is not alone in feeling priced out of their home state.
Montana property owners saw on average a 20% hike on their tax bills last year. The state Department of Revenue projects property taxes could again rise for residents by about 11% this year.
Gov. Greg Gianforte created a task force to look at the rising rates ahead of the session. He’s asked lawmakers to give the issue top billing.
“One of my top priorities is delivering meaningful, permanent property tax relief to Montanans here in 2025,” Gianforte said.
Montana lawmakers are considering several ideas, like using tourism tax revenue to backfill property taxes, giving local governments more sales tax options and offering tax breaks based on a person’s income.
Gianforte says he’ll consider any proposal that reaches his desk. But he has his sights set on two bills his office helped write.
“I think the homestead rate cut is really the way to go. So we’re looking forward to getting that out of the House and through the Senate.”
Gianforte took a road trip to Gallatin County to promote his favored proposal. Kate and Chris Forrest hosted him at their small business, Tactic, in Four Corners. Chris trains people how to use firearms in a variety of scenarios. Kate’s in charge of bookkeeping.
“I do pay the bills," Kate says. And I have to say that there are days where I do it like this.” [covers her eyes].
“And then I write that tax check. Or I do it like this and I send it to the insurance person.”
The proposed homestead rate cut would reduce property taxes for about 215,000 homeowners by 15%. Another 32,000 businesses could see an 18% reduction on their tax bills, according to state analysts.
Analysts say 130,000 long-term renters could indirectly benefit – if landlords decide to use a cut in taxes to lower rents.
The bill would shift higher taxes onto out-of-state property owners, short-term rental owners, large businesses and agricultural lands.
Kate hugged Gianforte and thanked him for legislation that could make it easier to run a business — a key promise the governor made on the campaign trail.
“So I’m really grateful!”
Republican Rep. Llew Jones of Conrad is the longtime chair of the House Appropriations Committee. He’s the lead author of the legislation and says the tax system needs a rebalance.
“Because if you continue to collect the same amount of money, the question isn’t who’s saving, it’s who pays. Because you haven’t changed spending, you’re just deciding who pays.”
His formula would also give medium- to low-value homes higher tax cuts than it would give to mansions.
The state House of Representatives gave the bill an initial endorsement. But the House also advanced a competing proposal from Democratic Rep. Mark Thane of Missoula. His proposal would have the state adopt a graduated property tax scale.The first $50,000 worth of property would be exempt, and then tax rates would increase in brackets, getting higher for higher-valued properties. Similarly to Jones’ bill, it would shift the tax burden onto other payers, like big businesses and agricultural producers.
Those who would pay more in taxes are objecting to both options.
Cut Bank resident Chrissy Grimm told lawmakers that her family owns long and short-term rentals in Pondera, Toole, Glacier, Flathead and Lincoln counties. She says they’re worried about being able to hold onto their properties.
“If we lose places to stay on the east side, tourism will decrease as will the much needed tourism dollars of our region.”
According to the University of Montana, tourists spent $5.5 billion in the state last year alone.
Some Republicans say paying for the services that, in part, benefit those visitors shouldn’t all fall to property homeowners.
Sen. Carl Glimm, a Republican from Kila, says the Treasure State needs to give some of that money generated from tourism back to residents to offset the rising cost of living. He proposes rerouting about $90 million in hotel room and rental car tax revenue from the state’s general fund to tax credits for property taxpayers.
“Primary residents would receive a tax credit of $436.97. And so that’s real dollars back in the pockets of Montanans.”
The bill is straightforward in its approach. It exempts properties valued at $1.5 million or more. Those eligible would get the same amount. It’s the favored bill of staunch Conservatives at the Legislature, but Gianforte isn’t a fan.
“The bright line for me is that I don’t think we should be using general fund money to subsidize local spending,” Gianforte says.
That brings us to Gianforte’s other top priority – to further cap local government’s ability to tax. He says local government spending has outpaced inflation, and largely blames the high tax burden on county commissioners and city councilors who ask for increased levies.
Local leaders of all political stripes have rebuked that characterization. Local governments are already limited in raising taxes to half of the percent of the three-year average inflation rate.
Local governments collect revenue from a variety of sources unique to each community, so spending isn’t always a reflection of taxes raised.
Republican Cascade County Commissioner Joe Briggs says local entities are already operating on shoe-string budgets.
“The narrative that most counties are spending way too much is not factual. What we spend on has changed because of federal regulations and quite frankly because of unfunded mandates coming out of the legislative body every two years. They tell us you have to do something else, but by the way you don’t get any money to do it with.”
Briggs and other county commissioners back a bill that would allow local residents to vote in a local sales tax for a narrow set of tourism-based goods and services. The revenue would be used to off-set property taxes for homeowners and long-term rentals. A portion would also go to rural counties that see less tourism.
That proposal has bipartisan support.
Other Democrats say the state should go further to help Montanans on lower-incomes. They’re rallying behind what’s known as a circuit breaker bill. It would give property tax credits on a sliding scale, calculated based on the ratio of Montanans’ incomes to housing costs.
Democratic Rep. Jonathan Karlen is carrying the proposal.
“Your property tax bill is the same whether you’ve got two parents both working in a house or whether someone gets sick or a spouse dies or there’s a change in life circumstances where they’re earning less than they were before.”
The credit would be available to households with incomes at $150,000 annually or lower. The governor’s fiscal analysts expect about 86,000 households to be eligible, costing the state about $95 million a year.
Former Bitterroot resident Amelia Gardner-Knox said that bill could have helped her stay in Montana.
She hopes to move back one day but for now, Sheridan offers family connections and a more affordable cost-of-living.
“Of course, we’d love to move back to Montana, and specifically the western part of the state.”
At this time, all proposals are still on the table.
