House Bill No. 595

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________



A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act submitting to the qualified electors of Montana amendments to the Montana Constitution to prohibit state government from levying property taxes or requiring that local governments or school districts levy property taxes and to eliminate the state's role in the valuation of property; amending Article VIII, Sections 1 and 4, of the Montana Constitution; and repealing Article VIII, Section 3, of the Montana Constitution."



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



Section 1. Article VIII, section 1, of The Constitution of the State of Montana is amended to read:

"Section 1.  Tax purposes -- property tax prohibited for state government. (1) Taxes Except as provided in subsection (2), taxes shall be levied by general laws for public purposes.

(2) State government may not levy a tax on property, and it may not require any local government or school district to levy property taxes."



Section 2. Article VIII, section 4, of The Constitution of the State of Montana is amended to read:

"Section 4.  Equal valuation Valuation. All taxing jurisdictions shall use the assessed valuation of property value property in the manner established by the state law."



NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Repealer. Article VIII, section 3, of The Constitution of the State of Montana is repealed.



NEW SECTION. Section 4.  Submission to electorate. The amendments and the repealer set forth in sections 1 through 3 shall be submitted to the qualified electors of Montana at the general election to be held in November 1998 by printing on the ballot the full title of this act and the following:

[] FOR prohibiting state government from levying or requiring that local governments or school districts levy property taxes and eliminating the state valuation of property.

[] AGAINST prohibiting state government from levying or requiring that local governments or school districts levy property taxes and eliminating the state valuation of property.

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