Information for Montana Voters

Reporters:

KALISPELL, Mont. – Former firearms executive Ryan Busse released an explosive new report detailing exactly how much more Greg Gianforte’s Helena neighbors paid in property taxes in 2023 while the unpopular governor gave himself a seven percent tax cut.

While Gianforte benefited from a tax cut for his privately owned mansion, at 618 Madison Avenue, he imposed record tax increases on all surrounding homes.

Busse’s analysis of 75 properties surrounding Gianforte’s mansion found that all of them paid hundreds if not thousands more in property taxes, while Gianforte paid nearly $600 less in 2023 than he did in 2022.

Montana Free Press reports the average Montana homeowner got slapped with a 21 percent property tax increase in 2023, a trend continuing into 2024 after Gianforte successfully sued to keep property tax rates on homeowners higher.

Busse’s analysis of public property tax records, complete with hyperlinks and “geocodes” to independently verify the data in Gianforte’s neighborhood, is available online HERE. The publicly available data was compiled using the Montana Cadastral database and the Lewis and Clark County Property Tax website.

Busse for Montana campaign manager Aaron Murphy also released a video showing Montanans how they can look up and compare tax records for themselves. 

“600 Harrison Avenue got an increase of more than $3,600–more than $13,000 dollars total,” Murphy points out in the video. “Just a few doors down from Gianforte, 520 Madison Avenue, got hit with a 60 percent tax increase. Even this house (425 Gilbert Street), owned by a church, got a tax hike. But not 618 Madison. Again, Greg Gianforte gave himself a property tax cut last year.”

Busse for Montana also released a damning animation visualizing the discrepancy.

The Montana Television Network in April broke news of Gianforte’s lower tax rate in Helena’s Mansion District, noting the billionaire Governor “declined” to explain his personal tax cut.

The statewide news network also interviewed the Montanans who live next door to Gianforte’s Bozeman mansion, who faced a staggering 70 percent property tax increase on their modest home in 2023. Gianforte’s Bozeman mansion, however, only got a tax increase of only 19 percent.

In Culbertson in 2016, then-candidate Gianforte famously said “the fairest tax is the one you pay and I don’t.”