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MTPR - Montana Counties Challenge Property Tax Increase Responsibility

“At some point this has become a distraction. A distraction from the fact that a long term fix is going to take a lot of math, a lot of time and a lot of thought,” Jones said.

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    MTPR - Montana Counties Challenge Property Tax Increase Responsibility
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    Read/listen at MPR by Shaylee Ragar
    Excerpt:
    “Beaverhead County Commissioner Mike McGinley contends that a decades-old law limits the amount counties and the state can levy on property owners when taxable values increase. But, he said, state officials haven’t followed that rule in 20 years.
    “It doesn’t make sense that they are overtaxing the people on property taxes. And blaming county commissioners for it,” McGinley said.
    Montana homeowners saw their residential property values skyrocket in June, some upwards of 60%, when the state Department of Revenue completed reappraisals. That will result in tax increases this fall, although not as high as the increases in home values themselves.
    Many Republicans, including Gov. Greg Gianforte, have pointed to local county and city government spending as the culprit for the increases.
    But McGinley said that if the state adhered to the limit on tax increases that counties are following, property owners could get relief. Beaverhead County has asked Attorney General Austin Knudsen to determine whether the state is breaking its own law.”

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