About a year after Montanans were surprised by an exorbitant property tax increase, the Governor’s Task Force has unveiled its plan to curb and reform the system with long-term solutions.

The bipartisan panel – including Republican Flathead County Commissioner Pam Holmquist and Democratic Whitefish Rep. Dave Fern – has compiled an interesting list of options for Governor Greg Gianforte to consider in the upcoming legislative session.

The so-called Homestead Exemption is the coveted remedy that Gianforte immediately praised.

Under this plan, the tax rate for primary residences or long-term rentals would be reduced, while second home owners and holiday home owners would have to pay a higher rate to make up the difference.

According to task force member Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, the Homestead plan would provide property tax relief to up to 215,000 homeowners, 130,000 renters and 32,000 businesses in Montana.

The plan has a particularly strong impact on attractive growth areas such as the Flathead Valley and Gallatin County, where property tax increases were most significant due to significant post-Covid increases in value.

In Flathead County, where the median home value is $555,295 – the third highest in the state – the tax increase would reduce property taxes on a primary residence by about 22 percent. According to the task force’s analysis, the average home in Flathead County would cost about $708 less annually. That’s significant.

Another potential benefit of the Homestead plan is that it could encourage some vacation rental owners to relist their properties for long-term renters, which would help alleviate the housing shortage caused in part by the proliferation of VRBO-like properties.

While the plan for fairer home taxation has many positive aspects, the task force failed with its ideas for reforming local and school taxes, which would require a two-thirds majority.

Requiring a municipality to pass a levy with a 60% approval rating is a good way to ensure that local services are permanently underfunded. A prime example is Kalispell’s recent public safety levy, which passed with a 57% approval rating – overwhelming support, but not enough under the proposed rules.

When it comes to school taxes, the unreasonable 60 percent limit could cause real harm to school districts that are already underfunded due to each state’s broken tax system.

The two-thirds majority plan would also shift the balance of power in favor of the other side. Why should a no vote carry more weight than a yes vote? That is unreasonable and unfair.

The working group also missed the mark with its idea of ​​phasing out local taxes after 10 years. This would hamper the ability of municipalities to carry out meaningful long-term planning. If a mandatory phasing-out period is considered, it should not be less than 20 years.

Limiting the levy election to a dollar amount rather than a mill amount is one of the task force’s recommendations that is likely to receive broad support. A dollar amount is fixed, while a mill amount can fluctuate depending on revaluations. When values ​​increase sharply, as they did in the 2023 cycle, these mill levies become a windfall revenue gain. Switching to a dollar amount would help avoid these large fluctuations.

The task force’s final report contains a number of additional reform proposals and is available online at budget.mt.gov.

All ideas deserve public scrutiny, so only the best ones may be accepted.