Homeowner’s property taxes shot up 52%
‘You could literally get taxed out of your house’
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MISSOULA, Mont. — Bozeman’s Sheila Garvin wrote her first check to pay Governor Greg Gianforte’s higher property taxes on the day she retired. Now she’s considering going back to work again just to pay Gianforte’s higher tax bills.
Gianforte raised property taxes by as much as 111% across Montana, handing out tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires like himself, while pricing hardworking Montanans out of their own homes. Gianforte in 2023 refused to lower the residential property tax rate from 1.35% to .94%, as recommended by the Montana Revenue Department in order to keep tax revenue flat.
Public records show Sheila Garvin’s property taxes shot up nearly 52% in 2023 compared to 2022, after the State of Montana doubled the value of her home.
In an emotional social media video posted by former firearms executive and candidate for governor Ryan Busse, Garvin says she “can’t imagine anything getting better in this state” if Gianforte is reelected.
“It will only be worse,” Garvin says in the video. “My taxes every month are higher than my mortgage payment was before I paid it off—on a 30-year mortgage.”
Garvin also notes that under Gianforte’s watch, Montana has surpassed California to become the nation’s most unaffordable state.
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” Garvin says in Busse’s video. “I’m not going back to work. If I have to, I will. I don’t want to.”
Garvin added that “it’s astounding” and “makes no sense” that Gianforte’s own property taxes, on his privately owned mansion in Helena, went down by 7% while virtually all of his neighbors got hit with higher taxes. Gianforte has refused to explain why.
Busse has advocated for lowering the residential property tax rate, the commercial property tax rate and the agricultural property tax rate in a plan that would provide permanent tax relief to Montana homeowners, small businesses and family farms and ranches.
QUICK FACTS:
- Pronunciation: Ryan BUSS’-ee
- Home: Kalispell, Mont.
- Office Sought: Governor of Montana
- Affiliation: Democrat
- Website: busseformontana.com
- X (Twitter): @ryandbusse
- DOB: 2/23/70 (53)
- Occupation: Writer, Consultant, Firearms Expert and Former Executive (Vice President of Sales, Kimber America: 1995-2020)
- Family: Married to Sara for 24 years; two sons: Lander (18) and Badge (15)
- Alma Mater: Bethany College (Kansas)
- Chevy Odometer: 280,000 miles
- Hunting Dogs: Aldo and Teddy
- Bio: Ryan Busse is an author and former firearms executive who helped build the gun company Kimber from Kalispell between 1995 and 2020. Over his 25-year career Busse directed the sales of nearly three million Kimber firearms. His memoir, Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, was published by PublicAffairs (Hachette) in 2021. Busse was born near the Kansas cattle ranch homesteaded by his great-grandfather. He is an avid hunter, angler and champion of public lands, and has held leadership positions with Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Montana Conservation Voters. Busse and his wife Sara live in Kalispell and have two teenage sons.