Proponents of a Montana ballot initiative (http://1.usa.gov/1kMRWKb), pushed...

Proponents of a Montana ballot initiative (http://1.usa.gov/1kMRWKb), pushed by Charter Communications General Manager - Mountain States Christopher Fulton to lower the company’s state property taxes, have the go-ahead to try to gather enough signatures to put the measure on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot, the Secretary of State’s office ruled Tuesday. The initiative needs 24,175 verified signatures by June 20 to qualify, said a Secretary of State spokeswoman. Charter’s predecessor, Bresnan Communications, had divided its property for tax assessment purposes between being a “cable television system” and “telecommunications services company,” according to a Montana Supreme Court synopsis (http://bit.ly/1g8DoDi) of a dispute between Charter and the state spurring the ballot initiative. In 2008, a Montana Department of Revenue audit found that Bresnan’s voice, cable and Internet operations should be taxed as one entity, as a telecom company, hiking the company’s annual taxes by 329 percent from $1.7 million to $7.3 million, according to the Supreme Court decision. Bresnan argued portions of its operations could not be labeled telecom because it provided one-way signal cable. The state Supreme Court ruled Dec. 2 the state could classify the company’s operations as telecom “because it is capable of delivering telephone, cable and Internet service over the same equipment,” the decision said. Initiative 172 would classify the cable portion of companies that provide bundled voice, cable and high-speed Internet services to a taxing category that includes cable and assesses taxes at a lower rate than telecom. “If this 300 percent tax increase becomes permanent, Montana consumers will suffer if companies are forced to curtail services or diminish high speed Internet and high-definition television expansion in the state,” the initiative said. A Charter spokeswoman said the company is a “supporter of both the effort to repeal the 300 percent retro-active tax increase and the committee organized to spearhead it.” Mike Kadas, director of the Montana Department of Revenue, said in a statement, “We stand by our assertion and the Montana Supreme Court decision that Charter Communications must pay property taxes as a single telecommunications services company.” A Charter spokeswoman said the company is a “supporter of both the effort to repeal the 300 percent retro-active tax increase and the committee organized to spearhead it.” Mike Kadas, director of the Montana Department of Revenue, said in a statement, “We stand by our assertion and the Montana Supreme Court decision that Charter Communications must pay property taxes as a single telecommunications services company."