HELENA — On Thursday, Gov. Greg Gianforte urged lawmakers to advance his proposals for income and property tax cuts in a news conference at the Montana State Capitol.

Gianforte’s 2025 budget plan called for lowering Montana’s top income tax rate from 5.9% to 4.9%, increasing the earned income tax credit and establishing a “homestead” tax rate to reduce the share of property taxes paid on Montanans’ primary residences, long-term rentals and smaller businesses.

Lawmakers already passed bills to restructure and lower Montana’s income tax brackets in the last two legislative sessions, but Gianforte said further lowering the rates would make Montana more economically competitive. He was joined by Grover Norquist, a prominent national activist for reducing taxes. Norquist said there’s a trend of states moving toward a single tax bracket for people regardless of income, or eliminating the income tax entirely.

Gianforte has particularly emphasized that he wants his property tax proposal, included in House Bill 231, to pass the Legislature by mid-February. During his State of the State address, he said that would give the Montana Department of Revenue time to implement the change for this upcoming tax year.

Gianforte’s proposals have been just a few of the wide variety of ideas legislators are considering for tax reform. This week, a bill sponsored by House Speaker Brandon Ler, R-Savage, was introduced, which would cut the top income tax rate from 5.9% to 5.65% and allow more people to qualify for the lower tax bracket with a 4.7% rate. Democrats have introduced a pair of property tax bills that they argue would do more to target working-class Montanans.

Gianforte said Thursday that he was open to looking at other tax ideas from the Legislature, but that there were places he was not willing to compromise.

“I don't think we should be taking income tax revenue and subsidizing local spending – that's a hard line for our office,” he said. “I think that there are other ideas that are floated around the Legislature that could probably enhance our proposal, and I'll look forward to getting a bill to my desk.”

Thursday’s news conference was Gianforte’s first at the Capitol during this legislative session.