Frontier Institute Launches Taxpayer Protection Now Campaign

Statement from Frontier Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17th, 2026
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Frontier Institute Launches Taxpayer Protection Campaign

Statewide awareness campaign calls for capping government budget growth at inflation and automatically refunding overcollections to taxpayers

HELENA, Mont. – Today, Montana’s Frontier Institute launched Taxpayer Protection Now, a statewide awareness campaign calling for taxpayer protections — whether voluntary, statutory, or constitutional — which cap state, school, and local government budget growth and automatically return overcollections to taxpayers. The campaign seeks to build a statewide network of citizen budget watchdogs to advocate for taxpayer protections at the state and local level.

“We are launching this campaign because Montana leaders have failed to adequately address unsustainable property tax growth, and now some even want to add a statewide sales tax on top of existing taxes. They aren’t addressing the root of our tax problem: growth in government.” said Kendall Cotton, President and CEO of the Frontier Institute. “We are calling for real taxpayer protections adopted at every level of Montana government. State, school, and local governments should grow no faster than Montana families’ ability to pay for it. It’s time for a citizen-led movement to cap government budgets at inflation and require overcollections to be automatically returned to taxpayers, not kept or spent.”

Visit ProtectMontanaTaxpayers.com to:

• Access research and resources to learn about the growth of Montana government and why we need taxpayer protections.
•  Sign up for curated alerts and updates about government budget growth.
• Join Frontier’s statewide network of budget watchdogs and become an advocate for taxpayer protections in your community.

Key facts about Montana government budget growth:

• State and local governments collected a cumulative $6.85 billion more than inflation-paced growth would have allowed over the last decade. Source: 2026 Real Government Budgets Report.

• Montana state government has taken and kept $3.41 billion in surplus revenues over the last five years rather than returning the money to taxpayers. Source: The Real Growth of State Government
• Montana’s constitution requires governments to balance their budgets but there is no constitutional or statutory cap on overall state or local government budget growth. Source: Montana Constitution Article VIII, Section 9.
• K12 schools are the ONLY unit of government in Montana with a formulaic budget cap enshrined into state law. Source: MCA 20-9-308

For bookings or interviews, contact tavery@calm-ruby-gazelle.45-39-56-7.wpsquared.site or 406-414-7146