When I’m out in the Heights talking about funding our schools or holding down the cost of healthcare, a lot of neighbors ask me a fair question right back: how do you plan to pay for it? I respect that question. Anyone who has ever run a household budget or made payroll knows that good intentions don’t cover the bill.

So here’s my honest answer.

A budget has two sides. There’s what we spend, and there’s what we bring in. In Helena, we hear an awful lot about the spending side and almost nothing about the revenue side. That leaves families thinking the only choices are cutting more or paying more. I think the more useful questions are who pays, and what we’re leaving on the table.

Start with who pays. In its 2025 session, the Legislature wrote data centers their own reduced property tax class. A company that can afford to build a facility the size of a small town got a break written directly into the code. Meanwhile, for years the property tax load has been sliding onto everyday homeowners, because rates kept getting lowered for other kinds of property and the difference had to come from somewhere. Homeowners did get some relief this year, and I’m glad for it, but they had to fight for it and apply for it. That tells you something about who the system is set up to serve.

I want a system that’s fair to the family that actually lives here. A few practical ways to get there:

Close the loopholes that let out-of-state owners and large operations pay a smaller share than the people who live and work in the Heights. Montana is already moving to have second homes and short-term rentals carry more of their own weight, and that’s the right direction.

Ask the largest investment gains to pay a fair share, the way a paycheck already does. A bill to do exactly that, House Bill 868, cleared its first committee in 2025 before it was tabled and died. It deserved a better fate.

Protect Montana’s tradition of no sales tax, so a working family keeps paying nothing extra at the register. A sales tax is the most expensive tax there is for the folks with the least, and it’s one I’ll always guard against.

And bring home the federal dollars we already pay for. Montana leaves real money in Washington every year by passing up federal matching funds, including a full federal match for care delivered to Native patients through tribal and Indian Health Service facilities. That’s our money. We should bring it home.

This is common-sense bookkeeping. It’s the same thing any good business owner does: make sure everyone’s paying what they agreed to, and bring home the money that’s sitting on the table. Balancing a budget is basic responsibility. We can fund what the Heights needs by asking for a fair share and drawing our own dollars home, and we can do it while protecting the family budget at the kitchen table.

Government belongs to us, and we reclaim it when we show up. This is one of the places showing up matters most.

If this matters to you, help us keep showing up at smithformontana.com/donate.