Message to Republican primary voters – Senate District 43

by Fred Thomas, 24 years in MT Legislature, Stevensville

I would like to address the voters of Senate District 43 regarding the upcoming Republican primary.

While many important bills were debated during the last legislative session, two issues in particular should concern every taxpayer in Montana: property taxes and the massive increase in state spending.

First, let’s talk about the new property tax legislation.

This bill passed with the votes of liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans, and it created something Montana has historically rejected — a progressive style property tax system. In other words, the higher your property value goes, the more aggressively the state taxes you.

Montana has never embraced this kind of socialist-style taxation before, and frankly, it should make every taxpayer uneasy.

The legislation also dramatically increases taxes on second homes and short-term rentals. Think about that. A family hunting cabin, a lake house, or a property someone worked hard to buy is suddenly targeted for higher taxation simply because it is a second property.

Where is the logic in that? 

For 24 years in the Legislature, including 20 years on the Taxation Committee with over half of those years in leadership, and 8 years serving as Majority Leader, I have never seen property tax legislation this misguided.

It also shifts higher taxes onto electric cooperatives and utilities — costs that will be passed 100 percent back to members and customers through higher utility bills. In other words, they are hiding tax increases in your power bill.

Even worse, the legislation left in place an automatic property tax increase that goes directly to the State of Montana every year. That little-known provision continues to push taxes higher whether legislators vote for it or not.

There are simple reforms that could reduce property taxes and undo much of the damage caused by the post-COVID property valuation spikes — but unfortunately, those solutions were ignored.

Fixing this will take serious work in the next legislative session.

Now let’s talk about spending.

You may hear legislators claim that state spending only increased by about one percent.

That claim reminds me of the old saying: “Figures lie, and liars figure.”

When you strip away federal money for Medicaid and COVID programs, the actual spending of Montana state tax dollars increased by 17 percent.

Seventeen percent.

Those are your tax dollars, not federal pass-through funds.

Medicaid spending went down — but that is irrelevant when the spending that comes directly from Montana taxpayers skyrocketed.

Anyone who returns home and tells you that this property tax scheme is good policy and that spending barely increased should not be sent back to Helena.

The truth is clear.

If you want more of this stuff, you can have it by sending the wrong people to Helena.

But for me, please consider voting for Kathy Love in this Senate Primary. She is a diligent worker, solid true conservative, and somebody that will work hard to deliver good policy for the State of Montana.