Committee hears bill to set voted levies in dollars and cap annual growth at 75% of inflation

The Senate Tax Committee on a 2025 legislative-session hearing considered House Bill 20, a proposal from Representative Larry Brewster of Billings to require voter-approved levies for special districts to be expressed as specific dollar amounts rather than mills and to cap annual increases at three-quarters of the three-year average rate of inflation.

Representative Larry Brewster, sponsor of the measure, told the committee the bill would extend the same dollar-based voting framework now used by many counties and cities to “special districts and the other revenues that they have that they vote.” He said the measure would require ballot language to include a specific purpose and amount and whether the levy is permanent. “This is a great bill,” Brewster said, and he described the proposal as an “old practice” intended to moderate swings caused by rapid changes in assessed values.

The bill would exclude school levies from the change and would allow special-district levies to…