A trio of major property tax relief bills — Gov. Greg Gianforte’s flagship effort to pull down homeowner property taxes by boosting taxes on second homes and two other measures pitched by Democrats — passed the Montana House with bipartisan votes Thursday, advancing to the state Senate.

Gianforte’s bill, House Bill 231, was amended by the House Appropriations Committee last week in an effort to win the Democratic votes necessary to overcome opposition from some Republicans. It ultimately passed the House on a 68-30 margin. The bill’s supporters, including sponsor Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, also fended off floor amendments brought by Rep. Terry Falk, R-Kalispell, that would have rewritten the measure wholesale.

The two Democratic bills forwarded to the Senate include House Bill 155, an alternative to the Gianforte-Jones bill that aims to rebalance the state property tax system without singling out homes that aren’t being used as primary residences. The other is House Bill 154, which would offer homeowners and renters an income tax credit to help offset their property tax bills.

Separately, the Montana Senate gave support with a 50-0 preliminary vote Wednesday to a property tax measure that would divert some lodging tax dollars to a permanent tax relief fund. That measure, Senate Bill 90, has been amended to remove earlier provisions that would have defunded state tourism promotion efforts. It’s been cited as a preferred option by some Republicans who dislike aspects of the Gianforte-Jones measure, including Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell.

Several other property tax proposals have also been proposed by lawmakers so far this year, including a measure that would permit local option sales taxes to offset property taxes, address a loophole that allows luxury homes to qualify for agricultural tax breaks, constrain the growth of local government revenues, make it harder to pass property tax levies, and rework the rates that translate market-rate property values to the taxable values used for tax bills. 

Both the Gianforte-Jones bill and the Democratic alternative, HB 155, dial down the taxable value conversion rates for residential properties, making a smaller share of home values subject to the property tax math that divvies up the cost of schools, law enforcement and other local services. Both employ a tiered rate structure that focuses savings on lower-value properties and includes provisions intended to shield small businesses as taxes are shifted off homes and onto other classes of property.

In an effort to minimize how much its residential tax relief shifts taxes onto farms and business properties, the Gianforte-Jones bill also divides the state’s current residential tax category into homes that are and aren’t primary residences, taxing owner-occupied homes and long-term rental properties at lower rates than second-homes and Airbnb-style short-term rentals. Jones and the governor have justified that distinction by arguing that second homeowners often don’t pay the Montana income taxes that fund most of the cost of state-level public services.

Opponents of the governor-backed bill have argued that taxing second homes could produce a situation where Montana residents are saddled with untenable taxes on a longtime family vacation home. They also note that the state would have to ask homeowners and landlords to file applications in order to claim the lower tax rate.

While the bill specifies that an initial eligibility list would be based on homeowners who received property tax rebates following the 2023 session, opponents are worried that the application requirement would leave eligible property owners who miss the memo saddled with higher taxes.

Debating the Gianforte-Jones bill on the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, drew a comparison to the state’s Medicaid redetermination process, where she said tens of thousands of people lost their state-managed health coverage as a result of procedural issues.

“My concern is that we may have a similar experience with this application process for people who didn’t get the rebate,” Caferro said.

Jones said that the state would be able to offer a simple one-time, one-page application. “Once you’re signed up as a homeowner, then you’ll be able to remain signed up until there’s a change in the property,” he said.

Falk made a similar argument as he pushed to amend the bill so it would avoid the second home distinction, saying a simpler measure would avoid a “crazy application process.”

Jones argued the nature of Montana’s tax system means lowering taxes on one type of property isn’t possible without “squeezing the balloon” onto another type of property — making the effort to collect extra revenue from second homes a vital part of the governor’s proposal.

“This is a difficult problem to make work — you have to have a revenue source,” Jones said. “This wasn’t the executive or the governor’s idea — until I forced them to model this, they didn’t think it would work either.”

The second Democratic bill, HB 154, would create an income tax credit that offsets property taxes for middle- and lower-income homeowners and renters, specifying that renters can attribute 15% of their rent bill to taxes. Its sponsor, Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula, has argued that tying property and income taxes together would make Montana’s tax system more responsive to individual circumstances.

“Unlike income taxes, property taxes don’t adjust based on means, or adjust when hard times hit,” Karlen said during Wednesday’s floor debate.

Karlen and other Democrats also say a tax credit that includes renters would address their concern that under other bills landlords would either be left out of tax relief efforts or pocket any savings. Jones, in contrast, has argued that market competition will force landlords to pass the savings onto their tenants.

The Karlen bill’s journey across the House floor, where it passed 59-39, was boosted by a coordination clause added to the Gianforte-Jones measure as its backers sought to win Democratic votes. That clause, which could be removed by the Senate, specifies an additional rate discount for lower-value homes if the tax credit bill fails to make it to the governor’s desk.

House Minority Leader Katie Sullivan acknowledged in a press conference this week that tying the governor’s key policy proposal to a Democratic priority bill was “confusing,” but said it was consistent with the caucus’s efforts to advance proposals that it believes provide relief for working Montanans.

”We really are just trying to move more than just one bill through this process and continue a conversation,” Sullivan said. “And sometimes we do weird things to make that happen.”

The other Democratic bill, the explicit alternative to Gianforte-Jones bill, passed its final House vote this week 68-30.

Zeke Lloyd contributed reporting.