Montana is one of only 5-states without a statewide sales tax, and if a poll conducted by the Montana Free Press and Rutgers University is any indication, that’s not likely to change.
The telephone call-out and text-to-web poll surveyed 801 registered voters between December 23rd and January 3rd. The findings are pretty conclusive: 48% are “strongly opposed” to a sales tax–even if the revenue was used to reduce property taxes. And the opposition held across party lines with 34% of Republicans and 38% of Democrats favoring a sales tax. The poll has a margin-of-error at 4.1%.
Last summer, Montana Chamber CEO Todd O’Hair conducted presentations, saying our current tax system isn’t sustainable long term. He notes that the state’s mining and timber industries paid a large share of the property taxes. With those industries declining, that burden falls elsewhere.
Sales taxes are seen as regressive taxes, in that they tax all income levels equally, versus the income tax, which is stratified with higher incomes paying a higher percentage of taxes. In effect, so is the property tax assuming that higher income individuals and businesses own more expensive properties.
