Property Tax Relief

Did you tell the Montana Department of Revenue to keep the change? That is what happened over the last 36 months of the Schweitzer administration. Supposedly the one time only $400 check that went to certain homeowners was touted as property tax relief. Did your property taxes go down? Did you know that you have to pay taxes on this one time only $400 gimmick? If you own rental or commercial real-estate you did not receive the $400 but you did receive an increase in your tax bill. Does this sound like tax relief to you?

The payment of the $400 was a partial refund of an over payment in taxes. Yes, the taxpayers of Montana sent $1.4 billion of extra money to Helena and all of it was spent on new programs and growth in government. What you got back if you own a qualifying home is a one time only check for $400. The cost to administer this gimmick was several million dollars.

We need real property tax relief for the future. Senior citizens with fixed incomes see their homes being taxed more and more each year even if they spent the last 30 years paying off the mortgage on their homes. Roy’s plan is for permanent, long term, across the board property tax relief for the future. The proposal will be similar to what was proposed in the last session but rejected by the Schweitzer administration. The governor said with a $1.4 billion surplus he could not afford to provide you with ongoing property tax relief of about $125 million per year. We cannot afford not to provide this relief! This is exactly what homeowners and businesses need and it’s what our economy needs to continue our economic expansion.

Please check back for a detailed breakdown of our plan.