State officials are working to get refunds to Browning residents who were overcharged on their property tax bills.

Lee Montana first reported homeowners in Browning received unusually high appraisal values and property tax bills last fall — some four times the amount they paid last year.

That led the state Department of Revenue to re-evaluate the homeowners’ properties. The agency says a computing error miscalculated the values of 385 properties in town. Now, state officials are working to get refunds to Browning residents who were overcharged on their property tax bills.

Bryce Kaatz with the department told lawmakers in late June that all affected residents should receive letters with their updated appraisals this week. He said the department is working with Glacier County to issue refunds to homeowners as quickly as possible.

Kaatz said the agency is looking at safeguards to prevent the error from happening again.

Who doesn’t love a summer road trip? Cruising down the highway with the radio cranked up and your favorite snacks in hand. Stopping at all of the weird roadside attractions to grab a quick selfie, and then you’re back on the road heading to the next stop.

Some states are more popular than others when it comes to road trips, but what about Montana? Where do we rank on that list? We have Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Flathead Lake, and several other things to do and see. Surely Montana is near the top, right?

According to our friends at WalletHub, Montana’s ranking might surprise you.

WalletHub looked at all 50 states to determine their ranking. The criteria used were the following:

• Costs Rank
• Safety Rank
• Activities Rank

Before we reveal Montana’s ranking, let’s look at some of the best road trips in the state.

So how did Montana stack up compared to the other 49 states?

According to the data, Montana is near the bottom when it comes to the best states for road trips. Out of the 50 states, Montana is ranked 47th. Why is that? Well, it has to do with the criteria mentioned above. Montana ranks 31st in Costs, 37th in Safety, and 34th in Activities.

If you were wondering which state came in 1st, that honor goes to our friends down in Texas followed by Minnesota and New York for 2nd and 3rd.

Which states are ranked lower than Montana?

You’ll have to head to the northeast to find states ranked lower than Montana. The states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware rank 48th, 49th, and 50th. Yep, even Hawaii and Alaska beat out Montana.

Do you agree? Do you think Montana is near the bottom when it comes to the best states for road trips? Let us know by sending us a message on our station app.

MISSOULA: A judge on Tuesday struck down a Montana law that defined “sex” in state law as only male or female, finding that it was unconstitutional.
District court judge Shane Vannatta in Missoula ruled the law, passed last year, violated the state constitution because the description of the legislation did not clearly state its purpose.
Transgender, nonbinary, intersex and other plaintiffs challenged the law, similar to ones passed in Kansas and Tennessee, because they said it denies legal recognition and protections to people who are gender-nonconforming.
Vannatta did not address that argument, simply finding that the bill’s title did not explain whether the word “sex” referred to sexual intercourse or gender, and did not indicate that the words “female” and “male” would be defined in the body of the bill.
“The title does not give general notice of the character of the legislation in a way that guards against deceptive or misleading titles,” Vannatta wrote.
The bill was approved during a legislative session that also passed a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and saw transgender lawmaker democratic rep Zooey Zephyr expelled from the house floor, following a protest against republican lawmakers who had silenced her.
The law that was struck down by Vannatta was sponsored by republican senator Carl Glimm, who said the legislation was necessary after a 2022 court ruling in which a state judge said transgender residents could change the gender markers on their birth certificates.
A spokesperson for republican governer Greg Gianforte, who signed the bill into law, did not immediately return an after-hours email seeking comment on the ruling.
The American civil liberties union of Montana praised it.
“Today’s ruling is an important vindication of the safeguards that the Montana constitution places on legislative enactments,” the group’s legal director, Alex Rate, said.