Perry optimistic on tax bill vote

House District 3 Rep. Zac Perry is optimistic that a bill he’s sponsoring that could lower taxes for new or expanding businesses will make it out of the Senate Finance Committee in the second half of the session.

House Bill 226 would allow local governments the option of lower a new or expanding businesses property taxes up to 75 percent for the first five years. Taxes go up incrementally after that, until they’re 100 percent at year 10.

The bill was amended from its original version, allowing local governments the option of a 75 percent or 50 percent tax break.

Locally, the bill could help a business like SmartLam expand in Columbia Falls.

Th bill got broad GOP support in the House. But it might face a tougher road in the Senate. Senate District 2 Republican Dee Brown of Coram said she had reservations about the bill.

“Are we doing it narrow minded? Or should we be looking at a global situation?” she said.

Some existing businesses have expressed concerns about a bill that only gives those that are expanding a tax break, while they’ve been paying taxes all along for years.

Both lawmakers agree that infrastructure and the budget are the top priorities in the second half of the session.

“This is my kind of session,” Brown said. Because the state is eyeing a budget shortfall for the first time in years, “Everyone is hunkering down and not proposing as many bills.”

Kalispell lawmaker Frank Garner has proposed an infrastructure bill that could hike the gas tax.

Brown doubted that would fly.

“There won’t be a gas tax increase in this legislative session,” Brown said.

She suggested the state look at using some of its bed tax dollars, which increase every year, to pay for infrastructure projects.

Perry said that’s an idea worth looking at, but he also noted Garner’s bill would specifically use the gas tax for roads and bridges. It wouldn’t just go into the general fund.

But Perry, too, had reservations about the gas tax.

“At the same time, I’ve gotten push back from people on fixed incomes,” he said.

Brown was disappointed some of the bills she sponsored failed. She sponsored a bill that would have curbed the use of de-icer on roads, which she says are bad for cars and for waterways.

She said that bill died by fiscal note — the state claimed it would be too expensive to implement her bill.

She also reintroduced a bill that would create a Montana visitor center in Calgary. That too, died again.

Brown said she thought both were good ideas. On the subject of de-icer, she said she gets more calls and emails than any other idea she’s had.