Director Brendan Beatty gives honest remarks on new legislation, how it impacts Montana’s ‘golden goose’ in resort communities like Big Sky
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
Big Sky residents got a taste of the “no bulls**t” philosophy held by Brendan Beatty, director of the Montana Department of Revenue, as he colorfully explained his difficult role of enforcing Montana’s property tax policy as it undergoes rapid reform enacted by state legislators.
The event was hosted Tuesday evening, Aug. 19, by the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce as part of its Business in Big Sky series, and the second local event this month aimed at clarifying the new property tax legislation.
In his role, Beatty lamented the “misinformation and disinformation” among taxpayers—many of them frustrated, especially in communities like Big Sky with high taxable property values and second homes being targeted under new tax policy—and emphasized his mission to make his department “the nation’s most citizen-oriented tax agency.” He repeatedly reminded attendees that while they may have frustrations with DOR, they really should direct that energy towards Montana’s elected legislators who put the policies in place.
“With the tax shift in the new legislation, I’m gonna pay more taxes,” Beatty said. “So, one of the things people forget is, we are you. Just because I have this job doesn’t mean I’m not feeling the same pinch that everybody else is.”
John Zirkle, board member for the Big Sky Resort Area District, moderated the event including a mathematical walkthrough to illustrate the property tax system and relative statistics about Big Sky. Afterwards, he praised the community for bringing a lot of questions in a confusing time.
“I’m so psyched to see citizen engagement,” Zirkle told EBS. “The big takeaway from me, learning more about the Department of Revenue, is that mission statement: that they’re citizen-oriented first. And we heard that a lot from Director Beatty tonight.
“And what we saw were citizens engaging, and people that work for them listening, and taking intense questions with a clearly passionate room.”
‘This is not easy for any of us’
Beatty was joined by Paula Gilbert, division administrator of DOR’s property assessment division.
“It’s so important that you understand how property taxes work, and where we come up with our values,” Gilbert said. “Nobody likes paying property taxes, but if you understand it, hopefully that will make it a little bit easier to swallow.”
WATCH: The full meeting was recorded and can be viewed on the chamber’s YouTube channel.
Gilbert explained the assessment process. With more than 800,000 properties to assess every two years, DOR’s computer-assisted mass-appraisal model accounts for nearby properties with similar characteristics, but can often fail to accurately capture an individual home’s taxable and market value.
“We are not the appraisers, we do not look at every property individually for obvious reasons—we don’t have time to do that,” she said. Beatty emphasized that mistakes happen, and it’s imperative for property owners to fill out the “citizen-friendly” form AB-26 to inform DOR of suspected errors.
Attendees pointed out that property ownership under LLCs and trusts may create complications with the new homestead exemption policy, and Beatty admitted it’s still unclear how DOR should best enforce the spirit of the legislation and address loopholes.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, frankly… This thing is imperfect. But almost all legislation is imperfect,” he said. “And we’re gonna have to work through it, and you guys, the best thing you can do is make phone calls to your elected people and talk to them about these things… I encourage you to exercise your say in how this works.”

Gilbert said DOR staff are frequently struggling to make sense of the numbers in a complicated formula.
“This is not easy for any of us… It doesn’t make sense to most of us at this point,” she said.
While Gilbert and Beatty encouraged dialogue from property owners, they—and Zirkle—also demonstrated the math that goes into property tax appraisals. Zirkle showed data illustrating that the median property value on Big Sky’s Gallatin County side has tripled since 2021, from roughly $500,000 to $1.5 million in 2025. On the Madison County side, the median value has more than tripled over that span, from $1.2 million to $4 million.
However, nearly half of properties on the Gallatin County side of Big Sky saw their taxable value decline since 2023—in total, nearly one-third of Big Sky’s 7,500 properties across both counties. And among those, some properties occupied by primary residents who qualify for the homestead exemption may see their taxes drop in both 2025 and 2026 based on the new legislation.
“And in this change, I think we can understand at least what some people were going for with legislative changes, was property tax relief,” Zirkle said. “And there’s an example of how it’s happening in Big Sky.”

But on the other hand, many non-primary-residents or those using their properties for short-term rental will likely see their taxes increase significantly, Zirkle explained.
Shooting at the golden goose
Beatty offered historical perspective on why Montana residents are seeing property taxes rise, emphasizing that heavy industries such as mining, oil and gas, and lumber once carried the brunt of Montana’s tax burden.
“The gold mines are gone. The places like Big Sky are the gold mine,” Beatty said. “I don’t want to kill it—this is a huge revenue generator for the state. It’s like 5% of the state’s gross domestic product.”
Beatty said he loves Big Sky and acknowledged it’s not all luxury homes, but also many people working for a living. Still, recent policy has shifted the tax burden toward destination communities.
“We need to not kill the golden goose here, because this is one of the last gold mines left to help fund things,” Beatty said. Later, responding to an audience comment regarding new policy’s impact on Montana’s resort industry, Beatty responded, “Montana has a history of shootin’ at the goose.”
He said just about every legislator campaigned on fixing Montana’s broken property tax system—with support from Gov. Greg Gianforte, who appointed Beatty—but jabbed that very few lawmakers know as much about the system as the Big Sky residents in the ballroom Tuesday night.
“And that ain’t no joke,” Beatty said. “So what we had was promises made on the campaign trail, and then, of course, momentum caught on. Something was going to happen.”
Simply put, he said the only way to fix tax burden is to decrease services or find new money. These days, it seems that new money is coming from Montana’s part-time residents.
“It was designed to encourage residency… and it was designed to encourage long-term rentals,” Beatty said. “… And then there’s that other piece, of ‘well, let’s tax without representation,’ and that would probably be a few [taxpayers] in this room.”

Zirkle’s presentation material came from reports and information on the DOR website, and he encourages citizens to explore there to learn more.
“It’s really good stuff,” he told EBS. “It’s not that difficult to understand once you sit down with it quietly… The contacts you need, the information you need, the research you need.”
Correction: Part of this story was corrected on 8/23 to include a more accurate percentage of properties in Big Sky that saw their taxable value drop since 2023.