There is no simple solution to property taxes
In recent opinion pieces, Evan Barrett, a longtime Democratic consultant, and Mike Jopek, a former Democratic legislator, have repeatedly provided their “simple solution” to our high property taxes in Montana: just lower the residential property tax rate to 0.76%. If it truly was that simple, both Democrat and Republican legislators would have already done it. The reason it hasn’t happened is because it wouldn’t work like Barrett, Jopek and others claim.
Property tax rates don’t work like income taxes or sales taxes. If you have a 25% income tax rate and you make an additional $10,000 of income, your additional income taxes would be $2,500. Simple. And you get similar results in a sales tax.
Property taxes don’t work like that at all. If you own a $300,000 home and your tax rate is 1.35% (the current rate), your taxes are not $4,050 ($300,000 X 1.35%). Changing the rate to 0.76% would also not lower your taxes by $1,770 as you’d expect. That’s because your actual property taxes owed are calculated using many more factors than just the tax rate.
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