The MT Lowdown is a weekly digest that showcases a more personal side of Montana Free Press’ high-quality reporting while keeping you up to speed on the biggest news impacting Montanans. Want to see the MT Lowdown in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
The landmark property tax legislation state lawmakers passed in 2025 reduced the tax bills sent out last fall for an estimated 4 in 5 Montana homeowners.
As of this week, it’s also facing a lawsuit that could send lawmakers back to the drawing board.
The court challenge, brought by Senate Taxation Committee Chair Greg Hertz, R-Polson, and two other prominent Republicans, attacks the new tax law over alleged flaws in the convoluted legislative process that brought the policy change to the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte. It asks a judge to invalidate one of two implementation bills, potentially smashing a hole in the framework that sought to provide middle-class homeowners relief from years of rising taxes.
Last year’s legislative session saw a long and vocal fight over the tax legislation, which is also slated to raise taxes for second homes, Airbnb-style short-term rentals and other properties that don’t qualify as principal residences, as it takes full effect this year.
Gianforte, a Republican, had campaigned on the relief concept during his 2024 re-election bid. That, however, didn’t stop Hertz and other lawmakers aligned with the Montana GOP’s hard-right wing from fighting the concept tooth and nail over concerns that it would shift higher taxes onto family cabins and certain businesses.
The measure’s primary advocate, Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, overcame that opposition by working with minority Democrats. In exchange for their votes, Democrats negotiated for a more progressive rate structure, delivering bigger tax cuts for lower-value homes offset by heftier increases on high-value ones.
That tack to the center, combined with similar negotiations around the state budget and a very public feud among Republican senators over a scandal centered on former Senate President Jason Ellsworth, has inflamed the long-running rift between the hard-right and comparatively moderate wings of the Montana GOP. Jones, long a standard-bearer for the party’s centrist “Solutions Caucus” wing, is facing a hard-right challenger as he runs for a state Senate seat this year.
As party leaders and candidates trade barbs in advance of this year’s legislative primaries, the tax legislation — and its effects on different types of taxpayers — is being weaponized as political fodder by both Republican factions.
“I’ve heard from many of my constituents who are suffering from the tax shift these bills created,” Hertz said in a statement Wednesday announcing the new lawsuit. “Lifelong Montanans are struggling to figure out how they’re going to afford to pay their massively increased property taxes, and many will likely have to resort to selling their homes and cabins that have been in their families for generations.”
Jones responded in an interview that the lawsuit could undo the reductions that many taxpayers saw on their 2025 tax bills.
“This puts at risk a whole lot of average Montanans that are a whole lot better off,” he said.
Hertz told MTFP in an interview this week that he doesn’t expect the litigation to force the state to recalculate last year’s tax bills or claw back the year’s $400 homeowner tax rebates. But he is hoping his attorney, former legislator Matt Monforton, can convince a judge to nullify the legislation so lawmakers can take a fresh crack at tax relief when they meet in 2027. Depending on how fast the court system works through the case, Hertz said the litigation could also keep the second-home tax from taking effect this fall.
Here at MTFP, we’ll be keeping an eye on what happens — and doing the best we can to help our readers understand what it means for both their pocketbooks and the state’s political landscape.
—Eric Dietrich
Glad You Asked 🙋🏻
After Montana Free Press wrote about the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to revoke the grazing permits that American Prairie has used to sustain its bison herd, readers wrote us with a handful of questions about Montana law and the economics of grazing on public land. Here’s what we’ve dug up:
• Will the revocation threaten American Prairie’s long-term vision? American Prairie has said its operation will remain “resilient” in the face of the decision and has hinted at a legal challenge. The revoked leases covered about 50,000 acres of bison grazing, while American Prairie has more than 600,000 acres under its control – much of which is leased to cattle ranchers.
• Is there pent-up demand for public land grazing leases? Yes and no. BLM grazing permits rarely become available. But they are highly coveted because they offer ranchers a much more affordable option for livestock forage than a state or private lease. Former Interior Department solicitor general John Leshy told MTFP that federal grazing permits are “pretty heavily subsidized” as compared to private land grazing leases, which can cost 10 times as much — or more. The permits change hands when a rancher sells all of the nearby private property that’s linked to the permit; they’re otherwise a “relatively permanent” feature of a ranching operation because they often pass down through generations and are rarely revoked, Leshy said. A permit holder can lease the federal grazing authorization to another operation, but they must pay BLM an additional surcharge to do so, according to Vicki Olson with the Public Lands Council, an organization that represents agricultural producers’ interests on public land issues.
• Are bison classified as wildlife or livestock under Montana law? They are treated as both. If the animal in question has never been “reduced to captivity” and never been “owned by a person,” it is considered a “wild buffalo” or a “wild bison.” All other bison, except those owned by tribes, are subject to a per-capita livestock fee, per a law state legislators passed in 2021. A section of Montana law associated with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks describes “wild buffalo or bison” as a “species in need of management.” Under that law, which addresses disease transmission risk (read: brucellosis), FWP cannot release, transplant or relocate wild bison on private or public land in Montana without securing landowner approval.
— Amanda Eggert
Following the Money 💵
On Thursday morning, more than a hundred health policy wonks filled an auditorium on the campus of Montana State University. They were there to try to understand how Montana’s Rural Health Transformation Program — the deluge of federal funding that could amount to more than $1 billion over five years — will actually take shape in just a few short months.
The vibe was somewhat buzzy, as advisory committee stakeholders from Miles City to Pablo talked about their ideas for spending the state’s massive first-year grant of more than $233 million. Many attendees were also plainly bemused about that exact predicament.
Federal health administrators have dictated that states must distribute and start spending the 2026 grant by September. By August, the state must file a report showing how the money is actually making progress toward specific goals. To add even more pressure to that timeline, state health officials Thursday said that they won’t begin accepting applications for trickle-down grant opportunities until March.
In the plainest of terms, that gives Montana’s state health department, rural hospitals, medical associations and other groups about six months to turn $233 million into action. How well the state meets its goals in the first year will also impact how much federal funding Montana receives in 2027 and the years after.
So, some attendees asked, how in the world is this even possible?
“The targets and the metrics, I believe, especially trying to do them by August, seem really, for the most part, unrealistic to me,” said Jim Swan, a grant writer and policy consultant, during public comment.
The state health department has used a dizzying array of numbers, acronyms, metrics and bullet points to explain how it plans to put the federal health funding to best use. But, as the meeting showed, achieving those goals will mostly depend on how effectively health care providers scattered across Montana can turn those ideas into reality.
“Many of you are wondering, when will the dollars start to flow? When will the money start to move?” state health department director Charlie Brereton said.
Brereton explained that most of the funds will leave the state’s coffers through typical procurement methods, including opening up a competitive bidding process for grant awards, contracts or other joint agreements with state agencies.
While many stakeholders wait for those application opportunities to open in March, an even more existential financial question hung over Thursday’s proceedings.
“What happens to all of this in five years? What is the sustainability of all of these things when there is no more money left?” said Atty Moriarty, a Missoula pediatrician and head of Montana’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Because we all know there’s nothing worse than a bolus of money coming into a town and then disappearing.”
Brereton acknowledged the legitimacy of the question. The state is working hard to avoid creating funding “cliffs,” he said, where a program is set up to topple once funding dries up.
“Generally speaking, our plan is centered on one-time only investments that get provider organizations, communities and others to the place that they need to be in order to continue services into the future,” Brereton said.
— Mara Silvers
Verbatim 💬
“Businesses operating on tribal lands have a responsibility to treat Native people with fairness, dignity, and cultural awareness.”
— The Blackfeet Nation’s statement in response to a viral video, taken on Jan. 14, in which a McDonald’s employee in Ronan refuses service to the Browning High School wrestling team.
McDonald’s franchise owners Chris and Melissa Crawshaw issued an apology Jan. 15, saying the incident “was the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding.”
“Everyone is welcome in our restaurant,” they said in a joint statement.
The video sparked widespread outrage, and on Jan. 20, the tribe issued a statement calling the employee’s action “unacceptable and deeply concerning, particularly given the long history of discrimination that Native people continue to face in towns across Montana.”
The tribe also called on McDonald’s corporate leaders to address the incident “and take steps to ensure that discriminatory treatment does not occur again.”
— Nora Mabie
Following the law ⚖️
Our Children’s Trust announced late last week that their clients’ challenge to three climate-oriented bills the Montana Legislature passed in 2025 will move forward despite the Montana Supreme Court’s decision not to immediately take up the case.
On Jan. 16, a group of young Montanans asked the First Judicial District Court in Broadwater County to overturn a trio of bills relating to environmental reviews, greenhouse gas analyses and air quality standards on the grounds that they don’t comply with a 2024 ruling by the Montana Supreme Court that Montanans’ constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” includes the right to a “stable climate system.”
Lawmakers passed the three bills last year in response to the Held v. Montana litigation that the Montana Supreme Court upheld in 2024. In December, Rikki Held and 15 co-plaintiffs asked the Montana Supreme Court to strike down the bills, arguing they don’t comply with the 2024 ruling. The youth plaintiffs argue that the bills limit the scope of state agencies’ climate reviews and prevent the state from denying or limiting fossil fuel developments based on those reviews.
“Since these laws have been in place, 44 new fossil fuel projects have moved forward unchecked, exacerbating the harms we are already living with, including wildfire smoke, precipitation variability, drought, and polluted rivers and lands,” Held said in a press release. “Montana has a constitutional duty to protect our environment and our home, and we are taking action to ensure this is done especially for children and youth now and future generations.”
Held and her co-plaintiffs initially submitted an “original jurisdiction” petition to the Montana Supreme Court, arguing that the relevant facts had already been established and the worsening effects of climate change require urgent legal review. The Supreme Court denied the petition shortly after receiving it, finding that a lower court is well-equipped to take up the matter.
“The Supreme Court directed that these claims move forward in district court, and today we are taking that next step,” Our Children’s Trust attorney Nate Bellinger wrote in the Jan. 16 release. “We are ready to hold the state accountable and ensure that Montana upholds the constitutional rights of its youngest residents.”
— Amanda Eggert
Highlights ☀️
In other news this week —
- University of Montana President Seth Bodner resigned; he’s still mum on a potential Senate run.
- The Canadians aren’t coming! The Canadians aren’t coming! Economy and tourism experts said that political strife is causing a sharp decline in border crossings.
- How much? The Montana secretary of state spent nearly $200,000 in tax money on recent mailers.
On Our Radar
Jacob — I stumbled upon a strange fact this week: The Hoover Dam includes a 26,000-year astronomical clock. Monument Plaza’s floor maps Earth’s axial precession, the slow cycle behind changing North Stars, fixing the dam’s completion date in celestial time. It’s a deep-time monument hiding in one of America’s great engineering triumphs of the 20th century.
Nora — If you’re looking for a fun TV show to binge this winter, I can’t recommend “The Traitors” highly enough! The show brings together a group of celebrities (reality TV stars, athletes, actors, etc.) in a game-show format. Some people are assigned to act as “traitors,” others are “faithful” and no one knows who’s who. It’s full of lying, strategy and humor. Plus, the show is accepting applications from normies (aka not celebrities) for next season. So apply if you’re so inclined!
Zeke — If you’re looking for political drama unrelated to American politics, this story from the Associated Press features budget airlines, Irish humor and Elon Musk.
Mara — To be completely honest, my primary thought at this moment has to do with the many forms of breakfast I could be making myself if I weren’t writing this brief newsletter entry. Top of the list: perfectly constructed breakfast tacos.
Eric — It’s been a while since I’ve read a journalism thinkpiece that has, well, actually made me think. This thread on the AskHistorians subreddit scratched that itch this week without even getting into what’s happened to American media over the past 20 years. Among the takeaways: how early 20th century newspapers were de facto extensions of political parties and how “objectivity” made the New York Times “immensely boring” in the 1950s.
*Some stories may require a subscription. Subscribe!
This week’s edition of the Lowdown was edited by Nick Ehli, with additional copy-editing by Holly Michels.