Guest opinion: Jones’ property tax scheme hurts Montanans

In his guest opinion appearing in the Daily Inter Lake on Aug. 20, concerning mills for education, Rep. Llew Jones further exposes the wrong of what he did in enacting and implementing his grossly discriminatory tax on cabins and second homes.  

Leave the decision to the people, he now says. He states in closing, “the choice belongs to the people.”  

But in ramming through the horribly prejudicial confiscatory tax on second property owners that will hit this year, Jones did nothing of the kind. In doubling, and sometimes tripling, taxes on second homes and cabins, Jones did just the opposite. 

He orchestrated his political sham through having a public hearing on a bill that did nothing more than freeze assessments. He then turned the bill into a lengthy monolith that will be devastating to so many seniors, retirees, widows, veterans, people who’ve spent their lives serving this country, and legacy owners as well as young Montanans who aspire to someday own a second home or cabin.  

Even though legislative counsel advised this was likely improper, Jones pushed his radically modified bill through without having the necessary public hearing or otherwise allowing the public to have any say on whether the drastically altered and grossly unfair legislation should be enacted.   Rather than leaving it to the people concerning the second property tax issue, Jones denied the people an opportunity to participate in the legislative process in any meaningful way.

While Jones extolls the benefits of education  which I also believe in), and crows about the advanced degrees held by him and members of his family, education must be about more than gaining expertise and knowledge. Absent gaining a foundation based on ethical and proper conduct, knowledge and expertise can be a curse. It cannot overcome an individual’s failure to pursue a life path founded on principles of doing what is right and avoiding wrong.  Character is critical.

Mr. Jones, please show us you are a man of character rather than just another ethically bankrupt politician. Do so by working with the complicit governor to reverse your deceptive and corrupt second property taxation scheme, which hurts so many vulnerable people.  

D.D. Hughmanick lives in Polson.