Here is something that should bother every homeowner in the Heights. In the 2025 session, the Legislature managed to cut property taxes for large data centers while the rates on Montana homeowners went up. Your taxes went up, theirs went down. That is backwards.

Property taxes are the number one concern I hear at doors, in every kind of neighborhood, from young families to retirees on fixed incomes. People are proud of their homes and worried about keeping them. They should be able to.

Fairness gives us a place to start. We can protect seniors and fixed-income families with a circuit breaker that keeps a tax bill from outrunning what a household can pay. We can close the loopholes that let out-of-state owners and large operations pay less than the families who actually live and work here. And we can keep a close watch on how assessments are done so the system stays honest and predictable.

A budget has two sides, and we hear plenty about cutting costs and almost nothing about raising revenue fairly. I will guard against a sales tax and against shifting the load onto homeowners, because those fall hardest on the families who can least afford it.

People here work hard for what they have. The least their government can do is build a tax system that treats them fairly.

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