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protest tax

Hereford76

Well-known member
anyone from mt protest their county taxes for 2009? kind of getting interesting with this civil suit over appraisal phase in. looks like it could turn into one big ugly mess over dept of revenue and county records not correlating on ag lands. i was in the courthouse this morning and it was getting pretty heated.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I posted this on ranch talk, but I'll move it over here:

This was in yesterday's Billings Gazette:

HELENA— The Montana Taxpayers Association is advising agricultural landowners to protest their second-half property tax payments due next week.

The group’s president, Mary Whittinghill, said these property owners may be affected by a class-action lawsuit that the association and the Montana Farm Bureau Federation filed against the state Revenue Department.

She recommended that agricultural property owners fill out the correct paperwork and state that they are part of the class action lawsuit. They are automatically part of the class action unless they decide to opt out.

If they didn’t pay their first-half property taxes under protest in November, Whittinghill urged them to pay the difference between the 2008 and 2009 taxes under protest.

For example, if their total agricultural property taxes were $4,000 in 2008 and they went up to $6,000 in 2009, and they paid $3,000 for their first-half property taxes in November 2009, Whittinghill said they should pay the full $3,000 due next week but protest $2,000 of it.

She said the lawsuit has nothing to do with the values set for the property by the 2009 reappraisal, but involves how the department phased in values of agricultural land.

Property taxes are due Monday, but since that is a holiday, they aren’t due until Tuesda
 

Hereford76

Well-known member
it was supposed to be phased in but the state just dumped it on us all right off the bat.

i just think it is nuts. nobodys books are the same from dept of revenue to county. the dor office is right across the hall from the county treasurers office and they were telling people one thing and when they went over to the treasurers office they were contradicting what they just had been told until it got to the point that one of the gals in the treasurers office kind of lost and started cussing saying the state doesn't know wtf they are talking about. glad i don't work in there.

here is another question on ag land taxes. are tax rates on ag lands affected by commodity prices or does someone know what all goes into the appraisal values of ag land? i am curious because if it is affected by commodity prices then would land in crp be lumped in with or subject to the same tax rates.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I was told the new appraisal was based on production.
Grassland is taxed at the lowest rate, I think CRP and farmground
are the highest. Hayground is in the middle.

I went in yesterday and was late getting there, asked the Treasurer's
office if I could pay Tuesday morning and they said yes. I said I
was going to pay under protest and one of the gals working there
said, "just a minute" and she got me the Protest form right off her desk. So apparantly, many are paying under protest.
 

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
I payed the first 1/2 under protest and got the form yesterday to do it again. The forms don't take all that long to fill out. if sucessful I stand to make about $1000.00/hour for my time.
Our property tax went up 55%- wish the price of calves had followed.
I for one am glad that they screwed up and lumped this all on us at once insatead of phased in over 6 years- now people are outraged, a gradual increase would have gone un-noticed by most.

The problem is that our state is broke- the $400/M surplus is gone,
spent by the "Liberal spenders" last session.

June 8th we need to elect the strongest, most conservative representatives that we can. In your area FH I believe that would be Lee Randall. We need 10-12% cuts in all state spending
or they will be raising taxes again. In the last two years state employees has risen 10%- many of them make over $90,000/yr, state spending has increased 43% - we need to elect representatives that know how to say NO!!!!!
 

Hereford76

Well-known member
we were one of two people in this county to protest their first half - just waiting on this civil suit that could turn into one big mess. spoke with an attorney over tax rates on crp ground and they said they want to take it on but it would take a lot more producers to get involved. also, we don't have a whole lot of crp but it is definately ground that should have never been broke up and will stay in grass. i wonder what others would think about this. there are 3 million acres of crp in mt and i think if that ground was taxed at what native ground or even hayground is at the state would loose a lot of revenue. i'm not against paying taxes entirely but it is getting ridiculous here. the property taxes on this place went up 60%. i am tearing down an old barn, three older outbuildings, some grain bins, etc to help. i don't understand how this community keeps passing all these levies either. the local barber is talking about closing his shop cause people know he is a republican and he has the TV on in his shop tuned to fox all day long. a few years ago this county passed a levy to pay 800,000 worth of uncollected hospital debt at a cost of $4/year for the average person living in town while mine went up almost 800 and i always paid my hospital bill. we passed a levy to put in a damn swimming pool, one for the senior center, one for a general upkeep fund for the school district (that included 8% pay raise for superintendent). what is going to happen when income tax or capital gains goes up with all the mess federally - are farmer/ranchers going to be a positive or negative net carbon? doesn't seem fair to me. all the town folk think the guys in the country are rich cause they have to spend money some years on equipment, vehicles, or whatever or give it to uncle sam... i don't know.
 

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
Hereford76 said:
. i'm not against paying taxes entirely but it is getting ridiculous here. the property taxes on this place went up 60%. what is going to happen when income tax or capital gains goes up with all the mess federally -.

Remember all the farms and ranches that were taken for back taxes in the 30"s??

This is setting us up for more redistribution of wealth- read redistribution of our land! We must step up and do something to stop this now. We need to get as informed as possible and preach this message to all of our friends and neighbors till they get it too. We are headed for quite a storm, with these tax rates, bank and economic conditions, etc. better pull your hat down. There are people that want control of Montana, they are doing all sorts of things, read obama's monument plans for Montana.
We are a state with a great wealth in untapped natural resources and few people to move out. It would make someone or some group a great empire. Don't think I am fearmongering,get some facts. Look up maps of federally controlled land in the west. Compare the percentages of private land in Nevada & Oregon to central and eastern MT.
Look whats happening in ID. Don't think they aren't coming for us.
Why are we drilling for oil 3 miles down offshore, and most of the reserves in the western US. are being held back? Are they being held for someone else's benefit?
I lived in Nevada and Oregon and saw firsthand what they did there.
Now the radical enviromental groups are looking hard at the Missouri and Yellowstone.
They have a plan,and misuse allot of federal acts and agencys(ESA, EPA, Antiquity act, etc.) as their tools to get it done. If we do not step up and get a STRONG STRONG STRONG state legislature in place soon we are in big trouble.
 

I Luv Herfrds

Well-known member
Got our tax bill and found that they had listed some of our pasture as crop ground. Had paid it already.
Protested that and got it changed.

Lonecowboy that was how our place got built up. Too bad a couple of uncles were not too bright. Both their places are pretty much owned by someone else.
 
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