With bittersweet amusement, I read Teton County Republican Chairman and former
Representative Ross Fitzgerald’s recent column justifying support for the failed property tax
reform bills, HB 231 and SB 542. He proclaimed that they protected “all” Montana families. He
is wrong. The legislation threw the working families of Flathead County and Western Montana
in front of the train, resulting in painful tax increases for families already struggling to afford
their homes.

The two bills did not fix our broken property tax system. It put “lipstick on the hog” by creating
a massive tax shift from some property tax payers to others. Many taxpayers in Flathead County
and elsewhere in western Montana are set to pay double-digit property tax increases so the
residents of Teton County and others to the east can pay less.

The big-government supporters of the bills knew this would happen, and they voted for it
anyway. It was more important to protect “The Bucket” of tax revenues than to serve everyone
who lives in our state.

The legislation’s backers are now facing justifiable criticism from tax-paying Montana voters,
especially after property tax bills went out. Instead of admitting that his former colleagues own
the consequences on hardworking Montana families, Fitzgerald is trying to deflect from their
mistake by whining that the lawmakers are victims of the Montana Republican Party, its
Chairman, and the new Conservative Governance Committee.

Fitzgerald knows his smear campaign against Republican leadership is false. He was present at
the 2025 State Convention when Chairman Art Wittich was elected by the voting members of the
party. He was present when a supermajority of the members voted to remove the nine State
Senators that betrayed their Republican constituents by joining the Senate Democrat Caucus in
the 2025 session. He knows it was a supermajority that mandated our leadership to verify
whether Republican candidates support the Republican Party platform and can be trusted not to
betray the Republican voters who elect them.

Why, then, is the former Representative crying that his big-government friends are victims of
false criticism? I suspect it is because he and his ex-colleagues know that their property tax shift
will keep punishing everyday Montanans. This year, it punished the working families of western
Montana. In 2026, it will punish Montanans who bought or inherited a second home. It will then
punish farming and ranching families struggling to make ends meet.

The tax shifters hope that if they whine and self-victimize loudly and long enough, just maybe
voters will forget that they caused the financial pain and forced longtime Montana working
families to sell their homes, all because they chose to serve big-government interests over the
common good of all Montanans.

Dr. Al Olszewski
Chairman, Flathead County Republicans
Former MT Senator and Representative

Published in Lee Enterprises newspapers, December 27, 2025
https://helenair.com/opinion/column/article_a2c7deb1-3b5a-50df-848f-53e06c6f9c7c.html