Eric Dietrich

How luxury real estate benefits from Montana’s agricultural tax code - High Country News Key takeaways from our investigation revealing how expensive properties use a system meant to help farmers and ranchers.

Key takeaways from our investigation revealing how expensive properties use a system meant to help farmers and ranchers.

2025 Montana Free Press Capitol Tracker The lawmakers, bills and votes making Montana's laws at the 2025 Legislature.

The guide will update to reflect changes posted to the official legislative website, bills.legmt.gov, every 15 minutes for the rest of the #mtleg session. #mtpol

Full digital guide is here:
projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-trac...

We also have tools to look up bills by title/number, and lawmakers by name. Plus a search function that will let you find your personal legislative districts/lawmakers by entering your address.

projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-trac...

There are also pages for each of the Legislature's 150 reps and senators — including public contact info, committee assignments, the bills they're sponsoring, our analysis of their voting records and a listing of the MTFP news stories they've been named in.

Senate Bill 59 page

There are pages in here for every bill introduced at the 2025 Legislature — with sponsor info, progression data and links to full text plus legal/fiscal analyses for bills that have them.

A running listing of all 2025 bills is here: projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-trac...

It took us a bit to get the backend data handling playing nicely with the new #mtleg website, our @montanafreepress.org digital guide to the Montana Legislature is now up and running.

Montana’s ag tax slashes bills for thousands of million-dollar homes - High Country News Properties classified ‘agricultural’ get a tax break despite no bona fide operations. Can lawmakers’ new proposals tighten qualifications?

Dive into this @nickbowlin.bsky.social @ericdietrich.bsky.social investigation about how Montana's ag tax ends up allowing some million-dollar home owners to pay less on their taxes than their next-door neighbors. (FYI @longreads.com ) www.hcn.org/articles/mon...

Of course, changing the system would mean raising tax bills on some taxpayers, who will almost certainly complain to their representatives. Current and former lawmakers we talked to aren't sure there's political appetite to overcome that resistance.

There are a few ideas in circulation about how Montana legislators could more cleanly distinguish luxury real estate from bona fide farms and ranches. (Among them: raising the $1,500 threshold, which was last updated in 1986.)

How an agricultural designation lowers property tax bills on high-value homes. Structures are taxed at market value for both residential and ag properties, but land is taxed at a lower productive value for ag.

Here’s how the tax math breaks down for fairly typical properties.

That’s pretty wonky, but it’s a big distinction. A typical residential lot pays roughly $1,600 an acre in annual land taxes. We found many, many million-dollar homes on larger ag properties that are paying a fraction of that — often less than $10/acre.

Basically, residential land is taxed based on its market value — how much it would sell for. Ag land is taxed based on its *production* value, how much money you can theoretically make growing crops or grazing livestock on it. (Market value is used for structures on both types of property.)

Montana's ag tax rules offer discounted land taxes to agricultural properties in an effort to encourage farming and ranching, especially in places where development pressure is pushing up land values.

A few months back, @nickbowlin.bsky.social over at @highcountrynews.bsky.social and I decided to dig in. We thought we could use state property data to illustrate the issue and had heard a work group was looking at reform bills. Both of those things panned out.

I’ve been hearing about this anecdotally for years. People in the state Capitol complain occasionally about small-scale cherry orchards on Flathead Lake abusing ag tax rules. The tax bill for Gov. Greg Gianforte’s Bozeman home, which has an ag designation, was also campaign fodder last year.

Montana’s agricultural tax rules slash bills for thousands of million-dollar homes Properties classified as agricultural get a tax break worth hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.

How much agricultural income do you need to qualify a Montana property for a hefty ag-status property tax discount? A mere $1,500. Critics say that makes it too easy for luxury real estate to qualify.

Committee discusses staffing, aerial imagery as solutions for state tax department’s billion-dollar appraisal backlog A legislative audit found the state revenue department is failing to add an estimated $300 million of new construction annually to tax rolls.

A legislative audit found the state revenue department is failing to add an estimated $300 million of new construction annually to tax rolls.

'Eat What You Kill' Hailed as a savior upon his arrival in Helena, Dr. Thomas C. Weiner became a favorite of patients and his hospital’s highest earner. As the myth surrounding the high-profile oncologist grew, so did th...

Hailed as a savior upon his arrival in Helena, Dr. Thomas C. Weiner became a favorite of patients and his hospital’s highest earner. As the myth surrounding the high-profile oncologist grew, so did the trail of patient harm and suspicious deaths. An MTFP co-publication with @propublica.org

We made a starter pack for journalists covering the Northern Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming). 🏔️ 📰

A great list for those who live in the Mountain West and want to keep up with the news + network.

Please let us know who else belongs on this list and we'll add them!

How Montanans voted, precinct by precinct MTFP’s interactive map shows this year’s election results at a neighborhood resolution.

MTFP’s interactive map shows this year’s election results at a neighborhood resolution.

Now on this piece of the interwebs -->

bsky.app/profile/mont...

Tax cuts, teacher pay boosts, prison expansion shape Gianforte’s budget proposal Montana’s newly re-elected governor says the state can reduce income and property taxes while investing in public safety and education.

The newly reelected Republican governor says the state can reduce income and property taxes while investing in public safety and education.

Revenue department says property taxes could rise again Home values continue to rise faster than other property types, pulling tax burden onto homeowners.

Montana Department of Revenue staff told a legislative committee that next year’s reappraisal cycle could produce a partial repeat of last year’s jarring tax spike as the state’s surging real estate market continues to translate into higher residential taxes.

How Montana pays for its public schools, in pictures A visual guide to Montana’s key K-12 education funding formula.

There’s of course plenty more detail to be understood here — but you can read our full story for that:

One other note: One note there: that wonky GTB multiplier buried in the math is super important because it’s one of the key dials the Legislature can turn up or down to balance how much state help districts get filling their budget bowls. Bigger multiplier = more GTB aid for more districts.

Conceptually, the math here assesses district "budget need" and compares it to their tax base size (how hard it is to raise local dollars with property taxes). The resulting ratio is used to determine how much of a helping hand each of the state's school districts gets.

And then it gets even more complicated. Part of the state support comes through the Guaranteed Tax Base program, which gives extra help to districts that are 1) poor (in tax base terms) or 2) large (i.e., have a lot of students relative to the size of their tax base).

Once set, the budget is filled up. In essence, the state lends a helping hand from its coffers so districts don’t have to fill their bowl entirely with local property tax dollars. The specific process is... not simple.

Each district’s elected school board decides how to set their budgets between the BASE and MAX fill lines. Generally speaking, school boards need voter approval to fill above the BASE level.

The math used to calculate these fill lines is... complex, but the biggest factor is student enrollment. (That’s why schools with declining enrollments often end up facing budget crises.)