Montana Republicans tripped up by their own anti-citizens law

[TexasTowelie]

You really can’t make this stuff up.

First, the Republicans win every statewide election in Montana while their party, led by the former president, assails election integrity. But gosh, since Montana’s citizens also voted overwhelmingly for a citizens’ initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, the Republican-dominated legislature decided to hobble the citizen’s initiative process guaranteed in Montana’s constitution – and it’s backfiring spectacularly.

To make a long story much shorter, it’s no news to anyone that Montana and national property values have skyrocketed in the last few years. The median price for a home in the U.S. right now is $375,000. In Montana the median price is $359,678. The incredible increase in the cost of owning a home is great for the speculators, investors, and flippers who just want to make a killing and pocket the profits. But it’s not so great for those who are facing property taxes based on the sky high prices – especially those who have been living in their homes for a long time, are elderly, on fixed incomes, and have no intention of selling them.

Comes now a replay of a successful citizen’s initiative from the 1980s that capped property tax increases — but was almost immediately overturned by the legislature. This time around, a group called Cap Montana Property Taxes wants to gather signatures for CI-121, a constitutional initiative that would amend Montana’s constitution to revert tax valuations back to 2019 levels, cap rates on residences at 1% and limit increases in assessed valuations to either 2% or the inflation rate, whichever is lower. Being a constitutional amendment, it couldn’t be overturned through legislative action.

But thanks to a law passed in the 2021 Republican-dominated legislature, they can’t do that until they jump through the same hoops the legislature put in place to cripple the citizens’ initiative process. Namely, that law, HB 651, requires an interim legislative committee to review the language of any citizens’ initiative, vote on it, determine its potential impacts on business and print it with the initiative language on the ballot. It also expands the role the Attorney General plays in the initiative process – but that would be grist for another column.

Read more: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/01/28/montana-republicans-tripped-up-by-their-own-anti-citizens-law/