State of Montana Newsroom
Governor Gianforte Holds Town Hall in Sidney
SIDNEY, Mont. – Continuing his 56 County Tour, Governor Greg Gianforte last night hosted a town hall in Sidney to hear directly from Montanans on their priorities for more good-paying jobs, support for ag producers, and stronger families.
“The 56 County Tour gives me the opportunity to connect directly with folks from every corner of our state,” Gov. Gianforte said. “These town halls create an open dialogue and allow me to hear firsthand from Montanans to help inform our work in Helena and ensure we’re delivering results to the people we serve.”
Gov. Gianforte speaking during a town hall in Sidney
During the event held at the Richland County Extension Office, Gov. Gianforte took questions from nearly 50 Montanans on a range of topics including: ways to support small business owners, priorities for protecting kids online, increasing opportunities for ag producers, supporting new business investment, increasing manufacturing opportunities, and investing in behavioral health.
Starting the meeting, the governor outlined recent reforms passed by the legislature to reduce property and income taxes and raise starting teacher pay, as well as his priorities for fiscal responsibility and limiting the growth of the state budget.
In 2025, the Legislature passed and the governor signed into law property tax reforms that delivered nearly $1,300 in relief to the typical Montana homeowner over this year and last. Last year, 80% of Montana homeowners saw a tax cut with another 10% seeing property tax bills remain flat. This year, nearly 260,000 eligible Montana homeowners enrolled their primary residence in the Homestead Reduced Rate. In addition, nearly 36,000 long-term rentals were enrolled in the Long-Term Rental Reduced Rate.
The governor shared in Richland County the average Montana homeowner saw an average savings of $990 on their tax bills.
On income taxes, since taking office, Gov. Gianforte has reduced the state’s top individual income tax rate from 6.9% to 5.65% in 2026 and then 5.4% in 2027 and reduced the number of income tax brackets from seven to two. The reforms from 2025 alone returned over $750 million in permanent tax cuts to Montanans. In the upcoming legislative session, the governor has expressed his priority to secure a flat income tax for all Montana taxpayers.
To raise starting teacher pay, working with the legislature, the governor signed into law the STARS Act, investing over $100 million to continue incentivizing school districts to increase to baseline teacher pay. In his first week in office, Gov. Gianforte introduced the TEACH Act, or Tomorrow’s Educators Are Coming Home Act, to provide incentives to school districts to increase starting teacher pay. In its first year, the TEACH Act helped nearly 500 teachers begin their careers in Montana. In 2023, the governor increased funding for the program by 40%.
During the town hall, the governor also addressed Montanans’ questions about the state budget. Since taking office, Gov. Gianforte has held the line on new state spending, kept spending growth below the rate of inflation, and in 2023, paid off all the state’s debt. Last session, the governor kept spending growth to less than 1% per year over the biennium.
“Fiscal responsibility has been a top priority for my administration. We’ve worked hard to keep the growth of government below the rate of inflation to allow us to continue to reduce taxes and not grow the size of government,” the governor added.
Wrapping up the event, Gov. Gianforte discussed his priority to further raise the Business Equipment Tax exemption to take more farms, ranches, and small businesses off of the tax rolls and highlighted the state’s $300 million investment in behavioral health to support needed repairs at the Montana State Hospital and expand intensive and community-based behavioral health care and developmental disabilities services across Montana.
The town hall was also attended by Richland County commissioners, Sidney Mayor Rick Norby, and Richland County Sheriff John Dynneson.
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