“Senator Galt’s BI-11 would be a step forward for addressing local government property taxes, but more reforms are needed in the long run to dramatically reduce Montanans’ property tax burden”… “ultimately Montana needs fiscally conservative limits on the growth of state, school, and local budgets to address the root cause of taxation.”
Senator Wylie Galt recently proposed a ballot initiative to cap property taxes, currently labeled BI-11. I welcome this proposal. It seems to be recognition from our leaders that the property tax shifts passed by the 2025 legislature were inadequate to provide the scale of permanent property tax relief Montanans are demanding.
The current draft of BI-11 would deliver modest but meaningful ongoing tax relief for every existing property owner. It would also provide more predictability and less volatility due to valuation changes. Will BI-11 fix everything about property taxes? No. I believe much more needs to be done to dramatically reduce Montanans’ property tax burden in the long run. But, BI-11 would be an improvement over our current system. If this is the final draft, I will happily support BI-11.
Most importantly, BI-11 focuses on the right thing: directly limiting the growth of government. The critical flaw of the 2025 property tax reforms was that they did not actually reduce the amount of property taxes the government collects. Instead, HB 231/ SB 542 shifted tax rates to redistribute the tax burden, creating temporary relief for some and big tax increases for others. Overall property tax collections for 2026 still increased by about 5%, or $127 million. The government is consuming MORE property taxes, not less. Increased taxes have to be paid for by someone. If not you, then your neighbor. Meanwhile, property owners remain largely unprotected from the impacts of future reappraisals spiking property values or government budget decisions to increase property taxes.
BI-11 would replace the current statutory cap on overall local property tax revenue growth with a hard 2% per-parcel per-year cap on the amount of taxes levied on individual existing property owners. This would create more predictable and generally slower tax growth for existing owners because increases are fixed at 2% rather than fluctuating with inflation. It would also provide stronger protection from big valuation-driven tax spikes and reduce uneven tax shifting during reappraisals because local governments must set the mill levy low enough to ensure the total taxes paid by each existing owner rises by no more than 2%, even if property values surge.
The original draft of BI-11 had maintained the current loophole which allows local governments to bypass the property tax cap via a simple majority of voters in an election. My organization noted this was a missed opportunity to provide more substantial tax relief. As the Governor’s Property Tax Task Force pointed out, voter-approved levies are a major driver of the property tax burden.
Thankfully, the current version of BI-11 has mostly closed this voted-levy loophole. The draft now requires a majority of all registered voters to increase property taxes above the 2% cap. This significantly raises the bar for passing voted tax levies, which will in turn provide more substantial ongoing relief.
However, it’s important to note the limits of BI-11. It only addresses property taxes from local governments, which account for only ~40% of property tax bills. BI-11 DOES NOT address taxes going to K12 schools, which are ~55%+ of property taxes paid. Limiting local government property taxes is only one part of the picture.
In sum: Senator Galt’s BI-11 would mean modest but meaningful ongoing property tax relief for every existing property owner. It’s a step forward for addressing local government property taxes, but more reforms are needed in the long run to dramatically reduce Montanans’ property tax burden. And I continue to believe that ultimately Montana needs fiscally conservative limits on the growth of state, school, and local budgets to address the root cause of taxation.
This publication originally appeared in Lee Newspapers.
