HELENA, Mont. — On Thursday, Gov. Greg Gianforte listened to recommendations on property tax reform presented by members of his convened task force, offering limited insight into his support or opposition to specific proposals that will likely be debated in the upcoming legislative session.

During the 20-minute meeting in the Governor’s Wing of the Capitol in Helena, Gianforte generally praised the group’s final report and its efforts since its first meeting in February.

“I charged the task force with addressing rising property taxes and curbing the growth of those taxes to help Montana homeowners. And you have done that,” Gianforte told task force members on Thursday. “We have good work done.”

Gianforte advocated seeking a “property tax exemption” when the legislature returns to Helena in January – the only item on the list of recommendations that the governor explicitly supported.

The task force’s version of this concept, which appears to be the centerpiece of the group’s report, calls for lowering property taxes on Montana homes used as primary residences or long-term rentals, while increasing taxes on second homes and Airbnb-style short-term rentals to capture more tax revenue from out-of-state residents.

Specifically, the proposal envisages an adjustment of the conversion rates that determine how much of the estimated market value of a property is converted into the taxable value. The conversion rate will be lowered for primary residences and increased for houses that are not permanently inhabited.

“If passed, this will potentially provide permanent property tax relief of 15% to 20% to 215,000 homeowners, 130,000 long-term renters and 32,000 small businesses in Montana,” said Republican Rep. Llew Jones of Conrad, who chairs the task force subcommittee that developed the recommendation. “It will largely pay for itself by ensuring that many of these folks who don’t pay income tax in Montana will be involved in providing some of the services they use.”

At the end of the meeting, Gianforte praised this point of the group’s recommendations.

“I strongly believe we should move forward with the property tax exemption to give Montanans priority for primary residence,” Gianforte said. “That will provide good relief in the long run. It will also ensure that out-of-state residents who don’t live here, don’t pay income tax here, and own second homes here pay their fair share, not just for our schools, but for law enforcement, roads and bridges, and emergency response.”

The task force report also includes other proposals to make it harder for local governments to raise taxes, such as requiring 60 percent of voters to pass mill levies and overhauling part of the state’s school funding system to more evenly distribute property taxes on high-value industrial properties such as mines and power plants.

The governor on Thursday called those suggestions “innovative” but did not ask the group any questions or provide feedback on specific recommendations. The group also did not respond to questions from media representatives about the report.

A spokesman for the governor’s office, Sean Southard, did not directly answer emailed questions from the Montana Free Press on Thursday about Gianforte’s assessment of other elements of the task force’s proposals.

In a statement, Southard said Gianforte will “begin reviewing recommendations with agency leaders to identify potential bills for next year, and he will work with lawmakers to pass long-term, permanent relief and reforms to the property tax system.”

In a separate press conference later that day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse, accompanied by his running mate Raph Graybill and former Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer, argued that Gianforte’s task force was a disruptive bureaucratic exercise.

Busse said the state should have simply adjusted conversion rates for residential, commercial and agricultural properties to bring their relative share of the tax burden back to pre-2023 levels, as previous governors have done to avoid raising taxes on homeowners.

“These decisions were made intentionally, in the midst of an affordability crisis,” Busse said Thursday. “We have a governor who should have been responsive to the people of Montana who are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the affordability of living here.”

Busse said he was open to proposals such as property tax exemption or a staggered tax structure for higher and lower value properties. However, the first priority must be a fundamental adjustment of the exchange rate.

Critics of this approach argue that a simple rebalancing would impose undue hardship on farmers and small businesses in an economy where the number of large industrial taxpayers is declining and the number of luxury residential properties is increasing.

Legislative Democrats also highlighted a separate tax relief plan Thursday that would reduce taxes on modest homes by shifting some of the burden to more expensive residential properties. Unlike the task force proposal, it would not treat primary residences and non-primary residences differently. However, like the task force proposal and unlike the simple rebalancing supported by Busse, it would include a provision designed to protect small businesses from paying more because property taxes would no longer be shifted to residential properties.

In a statement Thursday, Democratic lawmakers said their plan would treat low- and middle-income property owners more fairly than the task force’s proposals.

“Our plan lowers the costs for Montana workers, families and retirees so they have the freedom to stay in their own homes,” said Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers (D-Belgrade) and Representative Jonathan Karlen (D-Missoula). “Someone living in a middle-class home should not pay the same tax rate as someone living in a mansion.”