Montana as a national leader in reducing taxes

HELENA, MT – Governor Greg Gianforte and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform on Jan 30th, held a press conference at the State Capitol to discuss his proposals to reduce Montana’s income tax rate and to deliver permanent property tax relief for homeowners at their primary residence.

“I’m pleased to be joined on Jan 30th, by Grover Norquist who is here at the invitation of some legislators to discuss the importance of delivering meaningful, permanent tax relief for Montanans,” Gov. Gianforte said. “With advocates like Grover and with our partners in the legislature who understand the importance of permanent tax relief, I have no doubt we can deliver historic tax cuts for Montanans once again.”

Beginning the press conference, the governor introduced Norquist as the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a leading, national taxpayer advocacy group committed to limiting the size, scope, and cost of government with a belief in a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower in states than they are on Jan 30th.

In his Path to Security and Prosperity, his budget for the next biennium, Gov. Gianforte proposed the largest tax cut in state history. Included are proposals to permanently reduce the income tax rate most Montanans pay and expand the earned income tax credit to incentivize work and help lower- and middle-income Montana workers.

Since 2021, the governor and the legislature have simplified Montana’s income tax code from seven to two brackets and lowered the income tax rate most Montanans pay from 6.9% to 5.9%.

“The rest of the country is looking at doing exactly what you’re doing here, bringing income taxes down, and making them a single rate so that people can comfortably understand what's happening on their tax burden,” Norquist said.

The governor’s Path to Security and Prosperity also adopts a recommendation from his diverse, bipartisan Property Tax Task Force to permanently reduce property taxes for Montana homeowners for their primary residence and for Montana small businesses through the homestead rate cut.

This homestead rate cut is estimated to lower property taxes for Montana homeowners by 15% and for small businesses by 18%. It’s projected to directly reduce property taxes for more than 215,000 homeowners and more than 32,000 small businesses, as well as provide indirect relief to over 130,000 renters.

“One of my top priorities is delivering meaningful, permanent property tax relief for Montanans in 2025. To make that a reality, to deliver a permanent homestead rate cut for Montana residents for where they live, the bill needs to become law by mid-February,” the governor said of the bill to establish a homestead rate cut.

During the press conference, Norquist echoed the governor in advising against the state backfilling local spending to address rising property taxes. Norquist compared the use of imposing additional taxes as a solution to lowering property taxes to trying to swallow a tapeworm to eliminate another tapeworm.

“Watch out for efforts by cities that are not managing their own cities properly, deciding that somebody else should give them money so they continue not managing their funds as well as they need to rather than them having to do the management to keep spending reduced at a reasonable level,” Norquist added.

Watch the governor’s press conference here.