A bill for the dogs and taxes for you

SB 427 was plodding along on the senate floor. The subject matter involves trapping and snaring. Needless to say, emotions can run high when such a discussion occurs. The bill proposes to provide a uniform setback from trails, roads and recreation sites for such activities. Often, a bill seems to be garnering positive momentum and then a legislator might say, “I spoke to some of my local trappers and they don’t like the bill.” This is the critical juncture for a bill, the next man or woman to speak might be the savior or provide more ammunition for the demise and a negative floor vote. The bill is the product of Senator Willis Curdy a veteran legislator and Democrat from the Missoula area. Then, the Senate Majority leader, (A Republican reflective of the 32-18 majority), speaks to the bill. “I have an Aussie Shepherd. I don’t really see what’s wrong with this bill. It seems like common sense to prevent unintended accidents from occurring.” He then asks the Chair if he can question the sponsor. “Good Senator what do you think would happen if a dog got caught up in a snare?” Curdy is a no non-sense type, a long-time public-school educator and a former Griz football player. “Mr. Majority leader, unless you were able to immediately reach the dog, it would probably die.” With that said, momentum had swung the other way. The bill caught a tail wind and passed the Senate. Now, it will have to the same in the House first through committee and if successful a designee, a carrier of the bill, who will have to convince the majority. As a legislator, the mention of a dog as a family member is smart, perhaps the very best politics. 

I spent five months campaigning for this senate seat. I valued the conversations at the doors. In doing so, I highlighted my work on the Property Tax Task Force. You overwhelming endorsed the idea of shifting some of the tax burden from the 21% of residential properties that are not full-time residences to many of you who reside in your homes more than seven months out of the year. This is a tax shift with Class four properties, 73% of the state’s value inclusive of residential and commercial. There are competing bills contemplating lowering the rate from a multiplier if 1.35% to something as low as .76%. The appraised value times the rate yields a taxable value and that taxable value times the total amount of mills (.0001 of a dollar) will fund all things local plus a portion of state funding for schools and universities. This stuff can make your eyes water. You asked me, “How can it be that with so much growth, taxes still increased?” And I awkwardly tried to say, “It is difficult to grow ourselves out of this problem." More growth also equates with the need for more teachers, fire stations, upgrades of our wastewater treatment facilities, more police officers and it goes on and on. The property tax rates of 1.35% for residential and 1.89% for commercial is too high for most full-time residence’s along with medium and small businesses. The task at hand for we on the Tax Committees is to find those lower rates, have a backfill mechanism available through the income tax or perhaps portions of our lodging and rental car taxes to make up for the loss of revenues through fixed mills, which suffer when taxable values decrease. There is a friction that exists. The governor’s office prefers not co-mingling income taxes with property tax reduction mitigation. At the same time there are proposals to reduce the top marginal income tax rate which has a disproportional impact on collections, that may need to backfill property tax reductions. 

A new issue recently entered the fray. The Billings municipal charter form of government from 1978, caps the number of mills for the city general fund at 74 mills. If we devalue the rate resulting in lower taxable value, the mills will fall short between 7-8 million dollars. Montana is only one of two states that appraises properties at a state level with equal rates. Our system was not built to deal with volatility. There was a time when housing costs were not so transactional. Property tax reforms must do no harm, challenging when we consider the various sub-economies within Montana. 

Your eyes are watering and it is surely easier to talk about our beloved dogs. Most of the bills we deal with are not complex or controversial. But the legislature is weighted down by the issues that are seemingly far from a solution. Tax talk started on the doors on June 1 and I predict the solution won’t come to the final days of the session. 

Sen. Dave Fern, SD 5