PROPERTY TAX ESTIMATES ‘INCORRECT AND INCOMPLETE’ COMMISSIONER ZACH BROWN URGES PROPERTY OWNERS NOT TO BUT TO COMMUNICATE WITH MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

BY JACK REANEY

This is a shortened version of the original story published on explorebigsky.com

If you own Montana property and are vexed by your estimated tax bill for next year, you aren’t alone.

Gallatin County Commissioner Zach Brown and fellow county officials have been fielding concerned calls and emails since the two-year appraisals hit mailboxes last week, even though Gallatin County “is not responsible, nor do we have control over, most of people’s property taxes,” Brown told EBS during a phone call. “But we send out the tax bills so people think we’re responsible for all of it.”

Property appraisal assessments have been made on a two-year cycle since the state shortened the sixyear reappraisal cycle in 2015. Over the past two years, Gallatin County’s real estate boom has led to a “somewhat unprecedented” rise in appraised property values, Brown said. However, when property values rise, the amount of mills a local government can levy must decline proportionally, by law.

Here’s the catch: the Montana Department of Revenue’s recent appraisals include an estimate of 2023 property taxes using higher property values, but also by law, the DOR estimate cannot yet subtract the proportionate number of mills from that estimate.

“The net result is, people are getting these letters and saying, ‘Good god, my taxes are going to go up by 70%,’” Brown said. “No, they’re not.”

Brown said the recent tax estimates are nonsense, “incorrect and incomplete,” because DOR is making calculations on incomplete information—bound by state law to do so.

“[It’s an] arbitrary number, not based on actually likely tax bills,” Brown said. “It’s almost like they’re trying to create chaos. People won’t know what their taxes will be until they get their tax bill in November.”

Still, property taxes will increase for 2023. Property values have generally increased, and Brown pointed out that Montana is particularly reliant on property taxes due to the lack of state sales tax. Property taxes tend to be higher in similar states like Wyoming and Texas, Brown said.

In addition, inaction by the Montana Legislature has resulted in an additional $81 million per biennium year in property tax collected toward state education funding, Brown explained. In November 2022, the DOR had sent a memo to the legislature warning that education mills are not subject to decrease with the then-estimated 43% increase in state residential property value.

“The legislature and Governor’s office neglected the suggestion from their own employees at DOR to cut