HELENA — A major bill to revise the state’s reappraisal process and reduce the reappraisal cycle to two years from the current six years drew mixed reviews Wednesday, but its sponsor was confident most issues can be worked out.

“We have a very complicated system,” Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, told the Senate Taxation Committee hearing on his Senate Bill 157. “The importance of property taxes shouldn’t be lost on this committee.”

Tutvedt, who chairs the committee, said property taxes generate 39 percent of the money collected by the state and are the largest source of revenue for local governments.

Besides reducing the length of the reappraisal cycle, Tutvedt said his Senate Bill 157 would end the need for phasing in new property values, the property tax rates and the exemptions for residential and presidential property, all of which can help complicate the system.

“It’s not good for the state to have a system their taxpayers can’t understand,” he said.

SB157 also would create a new class for commercial land and improvements, adjusts the tax rates to maintain taxable value neutrality between residential, agricultural and commercial property statewide and revises property tax assistance programs to allow for more incremental assistance based on income.

State Revenue Director Mike Kadas supported the bill and seconded the call to simplify Montana’s property tax system.

“One of the huge challenges we have is explaining it to the policymakers so you can make rational decisions on how to simplify it,” Kadas said.

Others supporting the bill for various reasons were NorthWestern Energy, State Tax Appeal Board and Montana League of Cities and Towns. The bill ran into opposition from the Montana Taxpayers Association, Montana Wood Products Association, Plum Creek Timber Co., and Montana Association of Realtors. Their representatives took issue with parts of the bill.

“I’m confident that we can work out the differences and come out with a consensus bill,” Tutvedt said.