Op Ed: The Blame Isn't Local - It's Everywhere

For many reasons, I am writing this letter. It truly has been the toughest tax season in my experience as Jefferson County Treasurer. The cost of inflation on our everyday items, gas to get to work, rents and more have just continued to rise. Now so have taxes. Our assessments of our homes, homes that some of us have lived in for more than twenty years, have skyrocketed during the last reappraisal cycle.

Higher assessments lead most government agencies to lower the mills so as not to collect more money than needed for their annual budgets. In fact, county governments are limited by an inflation factor in creating annual budgets. Our Jefferson County Commissioners have tried very hard to get our budget down to manageable levels and still give our agencies enough money to pay our team members and do business. I can't tell you how hard this is. They even went so far as to lower budget requests where they could.

Like all the counties, the State is also required to do a calculation of mills based on assessments for school equalization. The calculation they arrived at was 77.89 (rounded up is 77.90) mills. This calculation supported the belief that counties should lower the State mills from 95 to 77.90. When most of the counties did this it began a fight. A fight that was presented to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the State based on a precedence that it has never been objected to in 20 years. We have been ordered to mill 95 (despite the calculation done by DOR).

This ruling means that the State general fund will have a benefit of over $88 million "extra." This money is more than School-equalization funds that already have been allocated by House Bill 2 (the State's budget).

How can everyday Montanans stay in their homes when mills are calculated but not respected by this administration? It is time to make a difference by asking your state government how we can do better with reappraisals and the high costs of supporting our local and state governments financially. Our taxes allow us to provide service to you as a citizen. Our Governor wants to put the blame locally, but the blame is everywhere. But today, I blame the State for not honoring their own calculations.

What does this mean for us as taxpayers? Because this ruling came down after tax bills were sent, we will have to create new bills for the second half due in May of 2024. The details of how this will work are in the works and will be settled in early 2024.

There is more to come on this, and I work hard to keep you informed. To me this is tragic, but I will do my best to overcome and support rulings that I don't agree with but what is required of me under the law. My office is happy to guide you to property tax assistance programs where they apply. There are representatives that need to hear from you on how to improve our system. Especially for those of us who live on fixed incomes and are over 65. Please send me your thoughts via email or mail and I will be happy to forward those on to them. Or better yet, send them directly! Thanks for always being kind.

TERRI KUNZ

Jefferson County Treasurer