Montana property taxes keep rising. Here’s where residents shoulder the heaviest loads.

Just how hard do Montana cities, counties, and school districts lean on residential property taxes to fund government services? Figures presented to lawmakers last month indicate the answer varies widely across different parts of the state, ranging from as low as $125 annually per capita in McCone County to as high as $15,794 per capita in Madison County.

The data was presented Jan. 13 by legislative researcher Megan Moore to a group of lawmakers and tax policy experts conducting an ongoing study into whether Montana’s tax system should be modernized to account for economic change.

By Eric Dietrich