Montana
In some Montana counties, tax appeal boards are hard to fill
Broadwater County is pictured (Upper Missouri Waterkeeper photo)
In some counties across Montana, finding people to fill the Tax Appeal Board can be challenging, and for at least one Broadwater County resident, that’s caused some frustration when it came time to pay her property taxes.
Tax Appeal Boards are required by state law of every county and allow a citizen to appeal their property taxes. They are to be made up of, at minimum, three people appointed by county commissioners.
Broadwater County recently had one member die and another move, County Commissioner Debi Randolph told the Daily Montanan, and just one member was listed on their website last week.
Randolph said the county has addressed the issue, but not before Broadwater County resident Linde Hoff ran into a situation where she says she was unable to appeal a property tax bill this year.
When Hoff got her property tax bill this year, rooms were added to her residential home that aren’t included in the house, so she and her husband appealed. Hoff, along with her neighbors, are also in a lawsuit against another neighbors regarding junk on the property.
That’s important because because during that lawsuit regarding junk, Hoff had a private assessor come to her property and found the neighboring property was devaluing theirs. This private assessment was also used to calculate her taxes, she said.
Tax Appeal Boards are supposed to give citizens a voice in their taxes, and in nuanced situations like Hoff’s, can allow for additional information to be presented to the county.
As Cascade County puts it on their website: “The primary purpose of the County Tax Appeal Board is to review the market value assigned by the Department of Revenue and to determine if the taxed property is correctly appraised at 100% market value.”
And if it’s not, that’s when changes to a person’s taxes can be made.
Hoff learned that the Tax Appeal Board wasn’t functioning while trying to go through with the process of filing an appeal. She was shuffled around between Broadwater County and the state, eventually being told to call Lewis and Clark County about the issue. Hoff said she was told to fill out the wrong form by Broadwater County treasurer Melissa Franks.
Broadwater County didn’t comment directly on Hoff’s situation, but said the tax appeal process is “confusing” and suggested citizens should use an attorney or accountant.
Hoff did call Lewis and Clark County Treasurer Amy Reeves and was told they can’t pull up that information from other counties, so they couldn’t help.
Hoff was also in contact with the state Department of Revenue. But DOR doesn’t “really play a role in the county’s tax appeal boards,” DOR communications director Jason Slead wrote in an email.
DOR sends a letter out and people have 30 days to appeal, which they need to do through a county form referred to as an “8026,” Franks said. If a property owner doesn’t like the response they get from the Department of Revenue, then there’s a separate form a person has to fill out to appeal it to a county tax board.
Hoff filled out the first form and a state employee did come out to their property, but nothing ever seemed to come out of it, she said. She then filled out the second form, was told there would be a call if something was wrong with it, and never heard back about it.
Now, Hoff said, she was told she has no recourse and will have to wait until next year. The new Broadwater County Tax Appeal board needs to be trained, and the county said they would wait until it was closer to a time they’d meet again. Tax Appeal Boards generally meet between July and October.
There is a Montana State Tax Appeal Board, but that’s an independent board separate from DOR, with members appointed by the Governor. That board handles disagreements that haven’t been resolved in a county Tax Appeal Board, though neither Franks nor Randolph appeared to know this during an interview on Friday, something the state clearly says in a video regarding the process.
Hoff said she feels “insulted,” though county officials did meet with her on Friday, she said. Hoff has successfully appealed property taxes before.
“I feel like I’m being ripped off by my government,” Hoff said, adding that someone needs to “take responsibility.”
‘No one wants to take that on’
Board vacancies are not unique to Broadwater County, nor is it limited to county Tax Appeal Boards.
In Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, there are currently only two members of the Tax Appeal board. It’s not for lack of trying — they are looking for someone to fill the position, secretary Jessica Dailey said, but they haven’t been able to do so.
“There’s been a vacancy for quite a while now,” Dailey said. “And I mean, we advertise it in the newspaper every so often, and we just don’t get any bites. It’s almost as if no one wants to take that on.”
And small numbers of board members can also put people in odd situations. In one instance Dailey said, one Tax Appeal Board member had to make the decision on one of the other board members’ taxes. Without any other board members, there was no other option.
“It would have been super helpful if we had another member on the board,” Dailey said.
Some Tax Appeal Boards, though, have no issue filling their ranks. Lake County Tax Appeal Board Secretary Kate Stinger said it’s “probably the easiest board” she’s had to fill.
“I think that’s probably because residents are interested in property taxes and frustrated with rising property taxes and maybe that’s the impact that they can have on that situation,” Stinger told the Daily Montanan.
There has been significant noise on the property tax issue in the Flathead and a lawsuit was filed this week by multiple current and former legislators, including Sen. Greg Hertz, a Polson Republican. Rising property values in one of the most scenic parts of the lower 48 states has been an ongoing issue in the area and second homes in the state are now taxed at a higher rate.
Both Stinger and Dailey said they were seeing significant increases in the number of appeals going through their boards. Franks said she hasn’t seen one since becoming Broadwater County’s treasurer.
Blaine County, meanwhile, recently went through the process of selecting a new Tax Appeal Board member. County Commissioner Miles Hutton said that board wasn’t a huge issue to fill, but others are.
“There’s lots of boards nobody wants to serve on,” Hutton said.
Across the state, many counties have a huge number of appointed boards. In Broadwater County, for example, there’s an airport board, a broadband advisory board, a county compensation board — all intended as a method of citizen engagement.
And if people don’t apply for these positions and serve terms, it doesn’t leave counties with many options.
“We rely on those boards a lot,” Randolph said. “They do a lot of research work for us, and deal with a lot of projects, where we don’t have time to deal with the beginning steps of them, and then they come to us, which is a wonderful community service that they provide.”
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Montana
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MISSOULA — Four out of five members of Montana’s Public Service Commission were in a federal courtroom in Missoula Thursday morning, as the PSC’s former president challenges the disciplinary action taken against him earlier this year. Now, newly released documents are shedding more light on to what led up to this point.
(Watch the video for a closer look at the case.)
New documents shed light Montana PSC dispute
Commissioner Brad Molnar has sued President Jeff Welborn, Vice President Jennifer Fielder and Commissioner Annie Bukacek – the three PSC members who voted in May to require him to work remotely, after an investigation into complaints about his workplace conduct. Molnar has claimed he is being unfairly punished for constitutionally protected speech, and he asked Senior U.S District Judge Donald Molloy to allow him to return to the PSC offices.
Matthew Monforton, Molnar’s attorney, told the judge that barring Molnar from the building was limiting his ability to do his job.
“He has not been officially kicked out of office, but his voice has clearly been diminished,” said Monforton.
But Natasha Jones, an attorney representing the other three commissioners, said the findings were about behavior, not just speech, and that the PSC’s action was a reasonable response.
“These are serious concerns about a pattern of conduct that has made employees quit,” she said.
Jonathon Ambarian
On Tuesday, Molloy ordered the release of redacted versions of two full investigative reports into Molnar’s conduct – more than 100 pages of documents. Monforton had moved for the full reports to be made public, and Molloy ruled attorneys for the other PSC members hadn’t shown a compelling reason to keep the documents under seal as long as the names of people involved in the investigation were obscured.
While the names remained redacted in the investigation reports, the attorneys for Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek also filed additional documents – including a public declaration from Bukacek and from former PSC executive director Alana Lake, providing information about their allegations against Molnar.
The two reports, from an outside investigator, cover Molnar’s alleged actions over two periods: the first from February to August 2025, and the second from August to October 2025. The investigation began after the first formal complaint, filed by Bukacek in May 2025 – though the reports say employees had been bringing up concerns about Molnar’s behavior informally for several months prior.
Bukacek’s complaint claimed Molnar had repeatedly made what she called “sexualized and demeaning comments.” The examples she cited included saying the PSC should replace “Taco Tuesdays” with “Topless Tuesdays,” reminiscing about watching girls in bikinis as a teenager, and commenting about the beauty of women in areas of China who didn’t get “old and wrinkly.”
In her declaration, Bukacek also claimed Molnar had “maliciously disseminated false information” about her and “engaged in behavior that was dismissive, derisive and otherwise abusive.”
“My primary concern now is not for my safety nor my feelings, but for the rest of the staff who may not have the temperament to speak up or may feel too intimidated to speak up given concerns over job security,” Bukacek said in her declaration.
MTN News
The investigators determined Molnar had violated the PSC’s code of conduct by making comments of a sexual nature, and that it appeared his behavior had continued for some time after he was warned about it. They also found he had behaved unprofessionally and in a belittling manner toward Bukacek, though they said Bukacek herself had at times used “language that could be considered inappropriate” in emails to staff or other commissioners. Bukacek told MTN she “readily self corrected” any behaviors that were brought to her attention.
The investigation also found a violation in connection with a complaint from a PSC staff member, who said he “felt bullied” by Molnar when the commissioner sent an email complaining about his team not being “people with competence.”
However, much of the first report and the entire second report was focused on conduct after the initial complaints, when Molnar was accused of retaliating against people who participated in the investigation. Lake said in her declaration that she saw “an immediate and significant change in his behavior toward staff involved in the process.” She claimed he said he would use an attorney and private investigator to go after people who filed complaints, and she accused him of publicly criticizing her in interviews and removing her job responsibilities because of her handling of the investigation.
Lake said Molnar’s actions led to “declining morale within the agency,” undermined staff members’ ability to do their jobs and damaged her reputation. She said that led her to resign as executive director.
“I believe no employee should be forced to choose between reporting misconduct and protecting their career, reputation, or personal well-being,” she said in her declaration.
Lake has since become Helena city manager.
Jonathon Ambarian
The report said there was evidence to show Molnar had retaliated, including by “making disparaging statements about investigation participants” including Lake, by sending an email warning he could file complaints of his own against people involved, and by taking other actions investigators said could dissuade employees from reporting behavior in the future.
Monforton said during Thursday’s hearing that the initial comments Bukacek complained about were jokes Molnar had admitted were inappropriate, that he regretted saying them, and that he hasn’t made any similar comments in about a year. But he argued the vast majority of the findings against Molnar were about retaliation – and that those were primarily based on speech that the other commissioners don’t have the right to interfere with.
Monforton said it’s unreasonable to punish Molnar for what he said in the July news conference where he announced he was under investigation, in interviews with the media or in commission meetings. He said Molnar’s conduct doesn’t rise to the level of actual retaliation.
“This is an elected official, engaging in speech in his forum,” Monforton said.
He said Molnar may have made harsh comments toward staff, but that he had the right to raise objections about the way the agency does business.
Jonathon Ambarian
Monforton also argued the retaliation claims no longer justify keeping Molnar out of the office, since Welborn, Fielder and Bukacek voted to remove him as president in October and he no longer has the authority he’s accused of misusing. He said there haven’t been further complaints about his behavior since that time.
“We’re not asking for the moon and stars, we’re asking for the status quo as it existed for the last seven months,” he said.
Jones said there is enough evidence to show Molnar would have been punished regardless of whether any protected speech was excluded.
“This is not about a couple of jokes,” she said.
Jones said Molnar made maliciously false statements about people like Lake, and that type of statement isn’t covered by free speech protections.
She also said Molnar’s exclusion from the PSC offices is temporary, and that the PSC will reconsider whether to let him return if he apologizes for his actions, accepts the agency’s code of conduct and undergoes training.
Molloy indicated he saw indications that there was “acrimony” on both sides of the situation, and said he was skeptical it would be resolved easily.
“It would be nice if instead of juvenile behavior, there was professional behavior,” he said.
However, the judge said there was an avenue for Molnar to pursue if he wanted to reach a resolution.
Molloy took no immediate action Thursday. He told the parties he would rule as quickly as he could.
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