BILLINGS — Some in the Montana Legislature want to call for a special session to address property taxes.
The Montana Freedom Caucus, made up of 20 Republican legislators, has asked the Secretary of State's office to poll the legislature.
It will take 76 legislators, one more than half of the Senators and Representatives, to make that happen for a possible start date of Jan. 15.
"There's a lot of people out there that are hurting," said Dale Rambur, who owns property in Yellowstone County and Billings.
After a recent Montana Supreme Court ruling, taxes may increase.
"It's overburdening," Rambur said. "I have my own personal house, a rental property and a storage building. I'm getting whacked three times."
Rambur is among the many, welcoming any potential help from the legislature.
Last week, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state, ordering counties to collect more mills than most had collected, stating the authority to collect statewide mills rests with the state alone.
That means paying an additional $70 for the owner of a $300,000 home.
As a landlord, Rambur says he'll have to pass the extra taxes onto his renters.
"Nobody has a money tree in the backyard, at least I don't," Rambur said while laughing.
And that's something some legislators understand.
"Our constituents are screaming about property taxes rising," said State Sen. Barry Usher, R-Billings.
Usher is part of the caucus, which has asked for a special session and wants to return surplus tax revenue and pass a Taxpayer Bill of Rights
"Now or in the future, when we have a surplus, it automatically goes back to the people taxpayers, without the legislature having to pass another bill," Usher said about the proposal,
Usher said the Freedom Caucus would also like to limit the state's ability to bank mills and reduce levy equalization from 95 to 85 mils.
Forty-nine out of 56 counties did not want to add bank mils and chose to go with 77.9 mils instead of 95, which the state wanted.
Usher says the caucus had been considering asking for a special session, even before the court ruling.
"We were ready to bring it out anyway," Usher said. "It was irrelevant."
Democrats and Rep. Brad Molnar, R-Laurel, had each separately talked about a special session, but Usher says nothing was ever presented to the Secretary of State.
Usher expects the ballots for a special session to go out to legislators on Friday.
