Lawmakers briefed on Montana K‑12 funding framework, property taxes and equalization mechanisms

Legislative staff on the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education spent a work session reviewing Montana’s K‑12 funding system, walking members through constitutional responsibilities, the role of property taxes and the state’s equalization mechanisms, including Guaranteed Tax Base (GTB) aid and the new School Equalization and Property Tax Reduction (SCEPTER) account.

The session opened with Pat McCracken, deputy research director in the Legislative Services research office, and Julia Patton, the committee’s lead fiscal analyst, describing the legislature’s constitutional duty to provide a basic system of public schools and to “fund and distribute in an equitable manner” the state’s share of K‑12 costs. McCracken cited statute 20‑9‑309 as establishing the decennial study requirement that guides periodic review of the funding formula.

Those constitutional and statutory frames matter because Montana’s funding blends state, local and federal revenue; state staff described three primary state funding sources used to support district budgets: the Guarantee Account (state special revenue tied to school trust lands and permanent trust earnings), the SCEPTER account (which receives revenue from the statewide 95‑mill school equalization levy), and the state general fund. Patton said the Guarantee Account totaled about…