Skip to main content

Data Centers in Montana

What She Says. How She Voted.

On October 4, my opponent posted a video about the data-center bills she plans to bring to the next legislative session.

"You will see a ban. You will see a moratorium."

She closed by saying, "I will protect your right to know."

You do have a right to know. Her record on data centers is public, and you can check every word on this page.

Did you know Montana gives data centers an 85 percent tax break?

Coal, gas, and hydro plants in Montana are taxed at 6 percent of their value. A data center's power plant is taxed at 0.9 percent for its first ten years. That's 85 percent less.

She voted to extend and expand it.

In March 2025, my opponent voted for HB 424 (roll call on LegiScan, opens in a new tab). That bill:

  • Extended "the timeframe in which the data center property must be built." That's the bill's own title.
  • Expanded the break to cover data centers' own power plants, taxed at 0.9 percent instead of 6.
  • Let parent companies and wholly owned subsidiaries qualify.

Nothing in HB 424 makes it harder to build a data center in Montana. That bill was designed to attract data centers to Montana. There are no controls currently in place on data centers.

"A 2025 study resolution on data centers did not advance, leaving Montana without a completed legislative study or statewide data-center energy/water reporting regime. MEIC identifies HJ 46 as a failed 2025 study resolution and notes that Montana has no state regulations limiting data-center energy or water use."

Her votes

  • House second reading, March 24, 2025: Yes
  • House third reading, March 26, 2025 (passed 84 to 15): Yes

HB 424 became law. The Montana Environmental Information Center testified against it in both the House and the Senate. MEIC was the same organization that put on the presentation in the Gallatin Gateway Community Center about the dangers of data centers earlier this year.

This October she told you she wants to ban data centers. In March 2025 she voted to bring them here.

"It keeps them off the grid"

HB 424 was sold as a way to keep data centers off Montana's power grid. The bill doesn't require that.

To get the 0.9 percent rate on its power plant, a data center has to use at least 80 percent of that plant's output on site. That's a test on where the generator's power goes. It says nothing about how much power the data center draws from the grid. A data center can build a small plant, qualify it for the break, and still run mostly on grid power.

A year after voting for HB 424, she wrote that it "might be better to require that data centers need to provide their own power source off the grid." If HB 424 already did that, she wouldn't have needed to propose it.

"This wasn't a tax bill"

If anyone tells you HB 424 was an energy bill, not a tax bill, here is the record.

  • Its title is "Revise taxes for class 17 data center property."
  • The House sent it to the Taxation Committee, which heard it on February 10, 2025. The Senate sent it to its Taxation Committee, which heard it on March 31, 2025. No energy committee took it up in either chamber.
  • The sections it changes are in Title 15 of the Montana Code, the taxation title: 15-6-162, the Class 17 data-center property class, and 15-6-156, the Class 13 class that covers power plants.
  • It carried a fiscal note, revised twice, because it changes what the state collects.
  • The Legislature indexed it under Taxation, Taxation–Property, and State Revenue, as well as Energy.

A bill that changes tax rates in the tax code, heard by the tax committees, is a tax bill.

Where we agree, and where we don't

I agree data centers need strict standards. I've said so publicly since spring. I've also said they shouldn't get a tax break. She voted for one.

I posted on Facebook on March 20 that "They don't get tax breaks to build." I've been consistent the entire way through.

Her new plan covers water, power, heat, e-waste, and discharge. It doesn't mention the tax break.

Where I want to go

I want to end the property tax on the home you live in. Huge out-of-state corporations should carry that load, starting with data centers. That money belongs to the people who live here.

It won't happen in one session. It will never happen unless we send someone to Helena who's actually trying.

That's Montana common sense.

What the tax base could be

Take one hyperscale data center with $30 billion in buildings and equipment. Tax it at 6 percent, the same rate as a coal, gas, or hydro plant, instead of 0.9 percent.

Statewide property tax from one $30 billion data center at the current 0.9 percent rate and at a 6 percent rate
Today (0.9%) At 6%
Taxable value $270 million $1.8 billion
Statewide tax per year (101 mills) $27 million $182 million
Data centers needed for $1 billion a year 37 6

At 6 percent, 6 data centers that size would bring in $1 billion a year from the statewide mills alone. At today's rate it takes 37. County and local school levies come on top of that.

For reporters: the details

The 85 percent figure. It compares the 0.9 percent Class 17 rate (15-6-162(8)) to the 6 percent Class 13 rate for coal, gas, and hydro generation (15-6-156(4)(a)). It applies to data-center power plants, the property HB 424 added to Class 17.

The full rate schedule after HB 424. The data center itself, including buildings and servers, is taxed at 0.9 percent with no end date. On-site power plants and dedicated communications infrastructure are taxed at 0.9 percent for 10 years, then at half the Class 13 rate (3 percent) for 10 years, then at 6 percent. See 15-6-162(5)(c)-(d) and 15-6-156(1)(e) and (4)(c).

The communications change. HB 424 shortened the communications break from 15 years to 10, and in the same bill added the 10-year half-rate period in 15-6-156(4)(c). The total preferential period went from 15 years to 20.

The 80 percent test. Under 15-6-162(6)(a), on-site generation qualifies if at least 80 percent of its output is used on site, measured at the generator. The statute places no limit on how much grid power the data center itself uses.

The tax base math. This is an illustration, not a forecast. It assumes a data center with a market value of $30 billion and a Class 17 rate raised from 0.9 percent to 6 percent. Taxable value is market value times the class rate. The tax shown uses only the 101 statewide mills: 33, 22, and 40 for school equalization (20-9-331, 20-9-333, 20-9-360) and 6 for the university system (15-10-109). At 6 percent that is $182 million a year per data center; at 0.9 percent it is $27 million. Local mills vary by county and are left out.

Press contact:

Check my work