Montana
Residents sue Gianforte administration for not equalizing residential property taxes • Daily Montanan
Residents from Silver Bow and Gallatin counties are asking a state district court judge to force the Montana Department of Revenue to recalculate residential property taxes in the Treasure State because they claim that the Gianforte administration has violated the law and the state Constitution by allowing taxes for homeowners to skyrocket while most business classes saw a reduction.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Butte-Silver Bow County District Court, attorneys for Thomas Powers, Cinder Lord-Powers and Ryan and Elizabeth Swenson are also seeking a class-action certification on the lawsuit, as well as asking the district court judge to halt anymore residential property tax collection until they say the rates can be equalized.
The issue of residential property taxes may not have been the defining issue of the 2023 Legislature, but it soon became a contentious issue after the session adjourned as residential property tax bills started becoming due. Part of the rise in residential property taxes followed the COVID-19 pandemic when Montana experienced sizable in-migration to the state, sending property values soaring.
While Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte proposed and the Legislature passed a rebate program where some homeowners could get as much as $675 back per year, many have criticized the system which was technologically cumbersome, and may not have offset the increases.
The Republican-controlled Legislature was also the target of criticism for not adjusting residential property taxes during the 2023 session when the Montana Department of Revenue warned that not doing so could — and in fact, did — cause sticker shock for Montana homeowners.
Meanwhile, Gianforte, a Republican, took aim at local and county governments throughout the state, many controlled by the GOP, for what he described as out-of-control spending, a debatable point that put many in the governor’s own political party at odds with the administration.
The new lawsuit claims that regardless of the politics, the Gianforte administration and its Department of Revenue had an obligation to do what the Legislature did not: It should have equalized the rates to make property taxes more equitable.
“The failure is an utter dereliction of the constitutional and statutory duty to perform ‘equalization’ and to ‘adjust’ and ‘do all things necessary to ensure fair, just and equitable taxable valuation’ between those taxpayers and classes of property,” the lawsuit said.
Attorneys for the residents, led by John M. Morrison of Helena, say that the tax burden has shifted hundreds of millions “unfairly and unjustly” to residential taxpayers.
The lawsuit argues that because of the number of houses and the number of sales every year, the State of Montana has accurate, up-to-date, market-rate data for residences. However, because so many businesses do not change or have comparable properties, the state undervalues them. They argue that the assessment process is different and leads to a system where businesses can negotiate their way out of taxes, using a different system, while homeowners are stuck.
“(For) example, valuation of centrally assessed property by the state has excluded intangible value. This intangible value is not precisely defined or precisely measurable. It can vary widely — even wildly. Corporations and tax authorities negotiate values for the intangible and tangible portions of centrally assessed property which values are not equalized with the valuations of other taxable property,” the lawsuit said. “Furthermore, by administrative choice of the Department of Revenue, the parties negotiate these values in secret. Every dollar of intangible or tangible value that is thereby excluded from taxation results in a direct shift of local property taxes to other taxpayers, primarily residential taxpayers.”
The attorneys also argue that the taxable residential rate, by the Montana Department of Revenue’s own calculations, should have been adjusted downward from 1.35% to 0.94%.
“Correspondingly, this memorandum made clear that the failure to make such adjustments would result in a huge tax shift onto residential taxpayers,” the lawsuit said.
The attorneys said that ultimately it is the Department of Revenue’s job and the Gianforte administration’s responsibility to do what the Legislature would not in order to comply with state law and the state constitution.
They point to the specific portion of state law which said that current law requires the Department of Revenue to make the adjustments.
“Montana’s core property tax equalization,” the lawsuit said, “requires that the department ‘shall adjust and equalize the valuation,’ and ‘do all things necessary to secure a fair, just, and equitable valuation of all taxable property.’”
The lawsuit includes tables and references to the differences of taxation for some of the state’s largest taxpayers.
For example, of the nine business classes that make up property taxes, six saw decreases as a percentage of the state budget, with business equipment seeing a slight increase (from 4.03% to 4.30%); and commercial property seeing a slight increase from 13.1% to 13.4%.
However, the percentage of residential taxes leapt from making up 51% percent of the state’s budget in 2023 to making up 59%. Using the state’s data, that means the revenue from residential property jumped from $1.8 billion to more than $2.7 billion, generating nearly an additional $900 million for the state.
Meanwhile, the attorneys point out that the state’s largest businesses are centrally-assessed, meaning taxes are determined in Helena because these businesses usually spread out across multiple locations and counties. In 2023, centrally-assessed properties contributed more than $864 million to state coffers, which made up 23.8% of the budget. In 2023, that number fell to $809 million, and decreased as a percentage from 23.8% to 17.3%.
For example, NorthWestern Energy, Montana’s single largest taxpayer, is paying about $36 million less in 2023, a 20% decrease. Other large companies like Montana Rail Link and Spectrum are also paying significantly less in taxes.
In addition to asking that the case be certified as a class-action so that any legal action would apply to a larger class, possibly the entire group of Montana residential taxpayers, the legal action also seeks to proceed with the case using the “private attorney general doctrine.” That means if the plaintiffs’ attorneys are victorious in court, the state would pay their attorney’s fees because it says the property owners and the attorneys are just “vindicating the constitutional and statutory right to tax equalization.”
They said that the state has overcharged residents more than $100 million.
The Daily Montanan had not received any comments from the governor’s office or the Montana Department of Revenue prior to publication.
The citizens are being represented by John M. Morrison of Morrison, Sherwood, Wilson and Deola of Helena, and Allan McGarvey and Dustin Leftridge of McGarvey Law of Kalispell.
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The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 9, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 9 drawing
08-21-24-29, Bonus: 16
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 9 drawing
02-15-22-54-58, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists…
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists out of the party ranks.
Lewis and Clark County District Judge Michael F. McMahon issued the restraining order Wednesday morning. The order had been requested by county precinct committees and officers suing the state party organization over the new bylaws. The plaintiffs are the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee, the Choteau County Republican Central Committee, and individual committee members Jeff Essmann, Ted Kronebusch, James Wilson and state Rep. Brad Barker, R-Red Lodge.
At issue are bylaws passed during MTGOP’s June platform convention that the litigating party members say amount to “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” The new bylaws require members to pay $20 in annual membership dues and pledge a loyalty oath, and subject members to removal from elected party positions for nonpayment of dues or for “conduct deemed inconsistent with party purposes,” as determined by executive party party officers. The new bylaws allow charges for removal to be brought by any 20 official Republican Party members.
Montana Republican Party Chairman Art Wittich, the only official spokesperson for the state party, has not responded to voicemails and texts sent to his cell phone Wednesday. Wittich, elected party chairman in June 2025, has long been emphatic about exposing “Democrats disguised as Republicans” — for Wittich a now decade-old battle that spun into a bitter multimillion-dollar war between party hardliners and relative centrists in this spring’s Republican legislative primaries.
The centrists drew the ire of the hardliners in 2025 by collaborating with Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and legislative Democrats to pass a balanced state budget and key pieces of legislation, including increased taxes on second homes and property tax reductions for primary residences and small businesses.
What constitutes disqualifying conduct isn’t fully spelled out in the bylaws, but they do specify that “collaborating with Democrats” in the Legislature, the governor’s office, the courts, or elections can get members disciplined or removed.
The lawsuit alleges that “The 2026 bylaws empower a small group within the party to revoke Republican affiliation from candidates or office holders, undoing primary nominations by the electorate.”
The plaintiffs argue that Montana voters, not party bylaws, should determine who represents the Republican Party in general elections and who represents voting precincts on the publicly elected county-level Republican committees that coordinate local political activity.
The Montana Legislature in 2019 passed a bill protecting publicly elected party precinct committee officers from being arbitrarily removed from office and defined attempts to do so as “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” That law, sparked by Republican Party infighting 10 years ago, is the foundation of the current lawsuit.
There has been a surge of public interest in Republican precinct-level politics following a perceived lack of support by party hardliners for Republican candidates in conservative strongholds like Flathead County, where more than 60 new precinct committeemen and committeewomen were elected in June. That wave of new officers was preceded by Flathead County Republican Central Committee members considering an endorsement of Libertarian Sid Daoud for Kalispell mayor over Republican Kisa Davison in late 2025. The Kalispell mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Republicans have gone to court to secure the party’s right to endorse candidates in nonpartisan races.
Wittich’s own campaign for precinct committeeman representing Whitefish was a casualty of that new wave of public interest. He lost to Republican Giuseppe “G-man” Caltabiano, who serves on the Whitefish City Council.
Caltabiano’s wife, Roxanne Ross, defeated Candace Wittich, wife of the Republican chair, in the same election.
State law gives precinct officers two-year terms and specifies that they can be removed only for death, written resignation or loss of residency. The new bylaws state that participation in party governance, including service as a precinct official, “is a privilege of association, not a right conferred by public office or candidacy. Members must act in good faith to support the Party’s purpose and must not engage in conduct materially inconsistent with the Party’s interests, including conduct that undermines its platform, policy positions, election operations, or internal governance.”
The recent changes to the party bylaws allow precinct officeholders to be suspended from voting in party matters and replaced by party leadership for noncompliance. Empty precinct seats can be filled by the Republican Party chair.
“Every Republican candidate sells their version of Republicanism to the people in a primary campaign, and the voter chooses which version to buy,” the lawsuit states. “The party cannot dictate what brands of Republicanism are on the market.”
Former MTGOP chair Jeff Essmann, a plaintiff who is also a long-serving precinct officer, said in his affidavit that members of the Republican State Central Committee weren’t given a required notification about attempts to amend the bylaws. He said he would have attended the platform convention and argued against amending the bylaws if he had known.
“The 2026 Bylaws empower any twenty members of the Party to recommend any other member of the Party for expulsion from the party, to be determined by the State Central Committee, even people who do not reside in Yellowstone County and who have never met me,” Essmann said in the affidavit.
Other central committee members produced pre-convention emails about potential changes to the bylaws, but no details about the amendments.
In issuing the order, McMahon indicated that Republicans challenging the bylaws are likely to succeed. He set a July 13 hearing on whether to make the order permanent.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the challenged provisions are inconsistent with Montana election law and constitutional protections governing candidacy, nomination, speech, association, due process, and elected precinct committee representatives,” McMahon ruled.
___
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright
© 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 8, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from July 8 drawing
12-29-37-43-55, Powerball: 18, Power Play: 4
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from July 8 drawing
17-26-31-32-37, Star Ball: 01, ASB: 02
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 8 drawing
03-13-16-17, Bonus: 10
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from July 8 drawing
06-27-33-44-69, Powerball: 23
Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from July 8 drawing
08-16-17-22-27
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 8 drawing
16-18-43-48-50, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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