According to the Montana Free Press, 49 out of 56 (87.5%) Montana counties are going to have to pay a late property tax bill.

This means that some of us in District 90 will be getting a tax bill in the mail to pay more property taxes to cover what the state is requiring.

This issue made its way to the highest court in Montana after the governor’s office sued the 49 counties who resisted the incredibly high property taxes of last year. After the ruling was issued by the Montana Supreme Court, we will now be forced to pay the full amount.

The argument goes something like this… Laws were passed in previous years to require counties to collect a certain amount of tax dollars and send it to Helena (95 mils.) This money is evenly distributed among Montana public schools based on the student enrollment numbers and some other factors and programs.

If counties across the state do not pay their full share of taxes, the state of Montana will not be able to provide our public schools with “adequate” funding.

I am a public school teacher by the way.

I believe that if almost 90% of counties (property owners) in Montana think their property taxes are too high…THEY ARE TOO HIGH.

Remember, the government works for us.

What the government takes from us today is never enough. In the future, they will always want more.

Let’s try and break this cycle.

Running for Montana House District 90,

Jeff Stanek