Skip to content

Montana Legislature Starts its 2025 Session

Montana Legislature Starts its 2025 Session

January 6, 2025

NFIB State Director Ronda Wiggers Reports from Helena

Bills on Workers’ Comp, UI, Retail Theft, and Styrofoam Starting to Percolate

The Montana Legislature convened for its 2025 session on January 6 with 208 bills already introduced and over 4,200 legislative proposals in the drafting process. The good news is that most of those will never become actual bills, and even fewer will become new law.

NFIB already has a number of bills that we are watching on behalf of our members.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has a process in place to assist small businesses that must comply with the Clean Air Act. Rep. Julie Darling is bringing a bill to make that process a bit more user friendly and to assign a staff person at DEQ to assist small business directly, rather than the current advisory council.

There are plenty of bills that could affect your workers’ compensation rates. A few want to add benefits and a number of them are looking to help reduce your rates. NFIB will be meeting with other employer groups and the State Fund next week to discuss how each of these bills may affect rates of small businesses. We will work to pass those that will improve your rates and attempt to defeat any proposals that would increase your rates.

Sen. Barry Usher is bringing SB 19 to increase the penalties for theft and bad checks in an attempt to cut down on the amount of retail theft many are experiencing. NFIB supported this effort last session, but it did not make it through the process in 2023.

We are currently watching a proposal that would require all businesses with more than 10 employees to offer paid sick leave. This has not yet been introduced as a bill. NFIB has opposed this proposal as unnecessary government regulation of small business.

Rep. Seekins-Crowe will be introducing a bill to reduce the maximum number of weeks a person can collect unemployment from 22 to 20. There is another draft that will address the formula to ensure that the cost savings are passed on in the rates charged to Montana businesses.

There are a large number of tax proposals. We are keeping a close eye on a few that would:

lower the taxable rate to adjust for the expected increase in the 2025 appraisal

lower the tax on the first $500,000 of commercial property

and one that proposes to increase the amount of business equipment you can own prior to it becoming taxable. Of course, there are also a few tax bills we are not inclined to support, such as the proposal to tax intangible business property.

We are also watching a few bills proposing to ban the use of Styrofoam in Montana food businesses. The Restaurant Association often requests our assistance in stopping this legislation.

The website will be updated weekly with the latest information from Helena affecting Montana’s main street businesses.

Get to know NFIB

NFIB is a member-driven organization advocating on behalf of small and independent businesses nationwide.

Receive our newsletter and email notification
Knowledge is power. Let us help you stay informed with breaking legislative news, regulatory updates, business tips, and more.

Related Articles

African small business owner smiling with paperwork and laptop
October 15, 2025
NFIB Thanks North Dakota Congresswoman Fedorchak in the Forum
North Dakota State Director Don Larson penned an opinion piece about how th…
Read More
money taxes calculator photo illustration via Pixabay so free to use
October 15, 2025
Stop a Graduated Income Tax from Coming to Michigan
Learn more about how you can help!
Read More
October 14, 2025
LISTEN: On WFAA’s Y’all-itics, NFIB Texas Urges Voters to V…
Vote ‘YES’ on Prop 9 to provide immediate, meaningful inventory tax rel…
Read More
October 14, 2025
Montana Comment on Latest NFIB Optimism Index
First decline in three months is still above the survey’s 52-year average
Read More

© 2001 - 2025 National Federation of Independent Business. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Accessibility