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Read the article at the Daily Montanan by Nicole Girten
Excerpt
“The state is asking the Montana Supreme Court to declare counties have no authority to impose fewer mills than what the Department of Revenue calculates to be imposed.
Attorney for the Department of Revenue Matthew Cochenour made the request in the department’s response to a lawsuit filed by the Montana Association of Counties asking the court clarify how much money counties must collect on behalf of the state for education equalization — one of at least three lawsuits on the question.
A majority of counties – at least 49 of 56 – levied 77.9 mills, as opposed to the full 95 mills, as part of a local solution to help homeowners with anticipated increases in property taxes.
One mill is equivalent to $1 owed for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
Top Republican brass in the legislature have said levying fewer than 95 mills would impact children in rural classrooms.
School equalization distributes money to ensure a quality education for all students, no matter if they live in a taxing jurisdiction with a high population or a more rural one, as required by the state’s constitution.
Breaking from his party in the legislature, though, Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, sided with the majority of counties’ decision not to collect the full 95 mills in a recent opinion piece and spoke about his own property tax increases, saying what he owes for school taxes went up from $625 in 2022 to $857 in 2023 and the state portion went up from $506 in 2022 to $589 in 2023.
“If the additional 17.1 mills are mandated by the courts to be added to my bill then the state portion will increase to a whopping $719,” he said. “This, at a time state coffers are awash in hundreds of millions in cash. Explain that one to my wife, my siblings, and my neighbors. I sure can’t.”
“In this unusual year when there have been such large increases in residential and commercial property values it would seem best to take a conservative approach, as 49 counties chose to do, and keep all the mill levies and thus our taxes as low as possible.”
The filing Monday by the state comes during a months-long blame game between the state and local governments over who is responsible for property tax increases; reappraisals jumped an average 46% in Montana.
Counties said in their initial filing state statute allows them to lower their taxing rate, but the Department of Revenue said otherwise Monday.
“The duty of calculating state mills is an area ‘affirmatively subjected to state control’ because the statutes vest the Department with the duty to ‘calculate, on a statewide basis, the number of mills to be imposed’ for school equalization,” the department argued.”
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