Many searching for answers as southwest Montana sees highest property tax estimates in the state

BOZEMAN — Throughout the past few weeks, MTN News has been covering property tax appraisal town halls hosted by the Montana Department of Revenue. Many homeowners have felt shocked when they opened their new property tax assessments recently.

“You expect to go up. You don’t expect it to go up that much,” says Gallatin County Resident Maureen Holt.

Holt was left speechless when she saw her property tax estimate. She says seeing that tax hike makes planning for the future a lot harder.

“Well, you think of going into retirement or something—or you plan and budget and going out, you think, okay, I have this much money to pay this,” says Holt.

Holt says she had questions which is why she decided to attend several of the town halls hosted by the Dept of Revenue across our area. Chad Elser, Region 4 Property Assessment Manager for the Department of Revenue says these town halls are a first for the department.

“I’ve been with the Department of Revenue for ten and a half years, and this is the first time in my tenure of the department that we’ve had these,” he says.

Elser says the reason for the assessment increases is because the department’s estimates are based on home values as of January 1, 2022.

“That’s made it taxes on our assessment notice and those are just estimate-based on last year’s mill levies,” says Elser.

According to the Montana Department of Revenue, the median house price went up 46 percent statewide.

Elser says our nine-county region saw some of the highest increases in the state. Park and Beaverhead counties saw an increase of 48 percent. Madison County increased 58 percent, and Gallatin County, 59 percent .

Topping our region and the state is Granite County at a 67 percent increase.

“We’ve seen anywhere from a 40 to a 67 percent increase in values from 2020,” says Elser.

Elser says because of these high numbers his office expects more appeals this time around than what they saw for the last appraisal cycle.

“We roughly saw about 2,500 informal appeals filed in Region Four. But I’m anticipating a higher rate,” says Elser.

Holt says that an appeal for her property tax assessment is likely her next step.

“We’re probably, we’re right now debating whether we’re going to protest, pay our taxes under protest,” says Holt.

The appeal deadline is coming up fast. Appeals must be turned in by the end of July.