The Montana Senate Taxation Committee on Thursday heard House Bill 140, introduced by Representative Curtis Schomer, that would extend property tax relief to spouses and households of police officers and firefighters who die or are permanently disabled in the line of duty.

Representative Curtis Schomer, the bill sponsor from Billings, said the measure would "allow police officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty...their spouses a property tax break," and urged lawmakers to pass the bill to help families stay in their homes after a catastrophic injury or death.

Supporters — including the Montana Police Protective Association, the Montana Police Foundation, the Montana State Firefighter Association and an individual witness with personal injury experience — said the benefit would reduce financial stress for affected households. Dan Smith, executive director of the Montana Police Protective Association, said the state-paid death or disability benefit for officers is often 50% of base pay and does not include health insurance, and described HB 140 as an additional, modest form of support.

The committee received technical and implementation information from Robin Rude, deputy administrator of the Property Assessment Division, who said the agency would apply the relief by adjusting the taxable rate during the assessment process and then send reduced taxable values to county treasurers for billing. Rude told senators the fiscal note estimates an average benefit of about $2,600 per household and that approximately 74 people currently receive disability benefits that would make them potentially eligible.

Under the bill as described to the committee, eligibility would follow the same income-tiered scale used for Montana veterans' disability property tax relief. Rude said that owner-occupied properties with household incomes below $54,009.63 would receive a 100% reduction in property tax under the bill; higher incomes would receive smaller percentage reductions according to the statutory scale. The bill, as presented, applies only to owner-occupied residences; renters would not receive a direct benefit.

Committee members asked about the permanence of injuries, the interaction with partial versus full disability payments, and the bill's impact on recruitment and morale for first responders. Senator Heyman asked whether the injuries currently paid as disability are permanent; Rude said the bill ties eligibility to those receiving disability payments, which follow a percent-disability structure similar to Montana's veterans disability program. Representative Schomer and witnesses told the committee they expect the relief to reduce household stress, which proponents said could positively affect morale and recruitment for fire and police services.

The committee heard no opponents in the room or online. Senators and witnesses discussed legal questions about equal-protection analysis and whether expanding benefits to volunteer emergency care providers might raise comparability issues with other groups; legal review cited in the hearing found no immediate legal barriers to the proposal but noted an equal-protection framework would examine whether similar groups are being treated differently.

No committee vote was recorded during the hearing. The chair closed the hearing on House Bill 140 and noted the committee will reconvene for executive action on other bills on subsequent days.

Sources and attribution: direct quotes and details in this article are drawn from testimony by Representative Curtis Schomer (bill sponsor), Dan Smith (Montana Police Protective Association), Ollie Headstrom (Montana State Firefighter Association), Ladd Paulson (proponent), and Robin Rude (Deputy Administrator, Property Assessment Division), and from questions and comments by committee members including Senator Heyman, Senator Dunwall, Senator Yakowet/Yakovich (transcript spelling varied), Senator McCain, Senator Fern and Chair Hertz as recorded in the committee transcript.