State Rep. John Fitzpatrick summarizes 2025 legislative wins, outlines property-tax relief steps

Representative John Fitzpatrick, who represents House District 76, told the Anaconda Deer Lodge County Commission that he carried 26 bills in the 2025 legislative session and that 20 were enacted.

Fitzpatrick said several appropriation measures will affect the county, including a roughly $800 million state long-range building program that he described as focused on maintenance and upkeep of state buildings and university facilities. He identified three Deer Lodge County projects that received funding recommendations through the historic-preservation grant program and said other bills will provide grants for senior centers and opportunities to reactivate closed sawmills.

On property-tax relief, Fitzpatrick described a multi-part package (identified in the meeting as Senate Bill 542 and House Bill 231) that he said will roll out in staged steps. For tax year 2024 the plan includes a $400 cash rebate for qualifying primary-residence owners; for tax year 2025 he described a phased assessment-rate structure that reduces the taxable-assessment percentage on lower-valued tranches of a home's market value and then shifts to a long-term adjustment tied to the state median home value in later years. He said the immediate effect would substantially lower taxable values for many local homeowners in Deer Lodge County, where he said the median home value is lower than the state median.

"There was money for additional sub blocks at the new lodge," Fitzpatrick said of the long-range building bill, and he said the package also includes targeted grants that could help the county’s senior centers and cultural programs.

Fitzpatrick cautioned that because mill levies can rise at the county and school-district level, those levy increases could offset some of the assessment reductions, but he said the control statutes governing state budget growth should limit the net effect. He also warned that reducing residential assessments without corresponding budget adjustments shifts tax burden to commercial property, utilities and railroads.

Commissioners asked how funding for mental-health and correctional facilities would relieve pressure on county jails holding people on mental-health holds; Fitzpatrick said the session provided funding for facility expansion and a reimbursement mechanism for counties that will take effect after July 1.

Next steps: Fitzpatrick said he would assemble explanatory material and distribute it to the commission so local officials and residents could see how the bills would affect specific parcels and households.

Sources: Remarks by Representative John Fitzpatrick to the Anaconda Deer Lodge County Commission (presented to the commission during the meeting).