WEB EXTRA Helena update: Rep. Janna Taylor

The property tax reappraisal sub-committee came up with a new term, “outliers.” And, compared to the other 54 Montana counties, Lake County has the most outliers and Flathead County is second.

An outlier is a residential property that has increased more than 150 percent since the last reappraisal cycle. The average increase in all Lake County residential property is less than 75 percent, but we have 822 outliers that have increased an average of 250 percent.

The Department of Revenue appraised about 300,000 residential properties statewide. Only about 3,100 of those increased more than 150 percent. Lake and Flathead Counties have nearly half of these “outlier” properties.

hat means we will see the greatest increases in property taxes. Non-residents own about 20% of Lake County property. But they account for nearly 50 percent of the value of houses. Flathead County has about the same proportion of valuable houses and non-residents.

The new reappraisal bill, House Bill 658, basically continues the six-year phase in process we have now. The homestead deduction starts at 34 percent and it increases up to about 42 percent. That means you can take that percentage off your value.

The remaining value is multiplied by 3 percent to get your taxable value. Then that’s multiplied by your mills. I know it’s complicated, but you have to realize that the new value doesn’t exactly equal the new amount of taxes.

Property values are still going down, so the bill calls for a two-year look-back. That should help. The bill is being debated in the Senate Taxation Committee now and they could change it around some.

I still hear legislators from eastern Montana say that we don’t pay our fair share. They say that the 34 percent homestead deduction on our $300,000 homes is way more than the homestead deduction on their $85,000 homes.

Northwest Montana is experiencing the worst unemployment in the state. In Lincoln, Sanders and Flathead Counties it is well over 11 percent. I am not a fan of government created jobs. Do you think that the stimulus money will put us back to work?

On another topic, I’m worried about the children’s health care initiative we voted for during the last election. At the time we were looking at nearly a billion dollars in surplus. That’s nearly all gone now.

The tax on every insurance policy that pays for this comes out of our general fund. It will be difficult to pay for in the future. Two and a half times the national poverty level is $53,000 for a family of four. That may not be a lot of money in New York, but the average income in Lake County is still below $30,000 per year.

Worst of all, there is no asset test. By that I mean that if a family has lots of savings, very valuable property, houses and cars, they are still eligible if their income is below 250 times federal poverty level.

Hawaii had a similar program and it went bankrupt in less than two years. Many parents dropped the insurance they had for their children. The state plan was free and better than most people could afford privately.

Finally, we are nearly done, maybe two and half more weeks. Bills are moving rapidly between the house, the senate and the governor’s office, being amended and unamended.

Once again, Polson High School has the best page, John Bishop. I’m proud to be his sponsor.

I never forget that I work for you. I’m behind in returning some calls and messages, but please be patient. Leave me a message at 406-444-4800, write Representative Janna Taylor, Capitol Building, PO Box 200400, Helena, MT 59620-0400, or e-mail me at jannataylor@montana.com.