The Montana Budget and Policy Center has a new report that details the recent shift in Montana tax burden away from the wealthy and down onto “everyday Montanans, like our teachers, plumbers, and construction workers”.

“Montana’s state and local tax system asks those with the least to pay the highest share of their incomes in taxes. Montana families with the lowest incomes are paying an effective state and local tax rate of 9.5 percent, while the wealthiest pay 6.7 percent.”

“However, this was not always the case. The last two decades in Montana have brought about great change to the tax system, and most of this change has benefitted the wealthiest over everyone else. The most significant piece of this change happened in 2003 when the Montana Legislature passed a bill that seriously altered the state tax system. The changes made in 2003 included collapsing the income tax brackets and creating a tax cut for capital gains income.^[2] Both of these provisions resulted in a big tax cut for the state’s wealthiest residents. These tax cuts have cost the state nearly a billion dollars in the following decade, which could have been used to invest in Montanans through education, health care, housing, and more.^[3] Before this significant tax cut was passed, Montana’s tax code was much more evenly structured. While families with the lowest incomes still paid high tax rates, those tax rates carried through to the wealthiest Montanans.”

And then there was the 2023 property tax debacle. Legislators knew there would be a huge property tax increase for residential payers, yet chose to do nothing. At the same time they actually lowered the taxes for some rate classes, like mines. For instance, “In 2022, large companies benefitted from tax reductions of over $108 million from this [business equipment] exemption, $90 million of which was shifted to other classes of property, including residential, contributing to the tax shift.” And in 2023 it was even worse.

But what else could we expect from the blatantly self-serving Republican legislators Cascade County has been sending to Helena? Casino owner goes to Helena to change the casino laws to help himself. Landlord spends his entire sessions changing and writing laws to shaft renters and benefit landlords. Small time local developer tries to short circuit local building codes to benefit himself. Champion of every corporation makes laws to benefit stock prices. Etc. And always always cutting taxes for the wealthiest like themselves. Leaving everyone else to pay the piper.

Republicans are doing what Republicans always do: Shifting more of the wealth upwards, while sticking the lowest income brackets with the highest burden. We must elect more Democrats to represent every day Montanans.

This is a very good article, well worth reading to learn exactly what is going on in Helena.

https://montanabudget.org/report/the-great-tax-shift

Categories: Issues