Home Invoice 462 ought to be rejected. Though a parade of state businesses lobbied for this cash on the Feb. 16 listening to of the Home Appropriations Committee, the governor’s assistant Price range Director was clear. He said, “We tried to make use of any on-going income circulate to assist reduce particular person earnings taxes, level clean.”
This invoice raids a highly-respected wildlife conservation program to fund tax breaks primarily benefiting the wealthy. The governor’s earnings tax reduce equates to $70 yearly for a median Montana household however would give a $6,000 annual tax reduce to the richest 1 p.c. So the median Montanan would commerce a blue-ribbon conservation program for six {dollars} a month.
Presently over 3 million acres of state-owned and federally-owned lands in Montana are usually not accessible to Montanans. The lands are legally accessible, however bodily entry is blocked by personal lands. These are lands that Habitat Montana addresses, working with land-owners and native organizations to enhance wildlife conservation and supply entry. Raiding these funds reduces the cash Habitat Montana has for future work by roughly 75%.
Individuals are additionally studying…
The governor is prepared to sacrifice Montana’s wildlife conservation cash, cash typically leveraged by working with collaborators, cash that retains landowners on the land via conservation easements, cash funding work with native companions to make sure that all Montanans have larger entry to wildlands. Inform him no.
Inform the Legislature to reject HB 462. Preserve Habitat Montana well-funded. Shield Habitat Montana’s means to work to preserve wildlife habitat and improve public entry for all Montanans.