There are eight letters in "sales tax," but it might as well be a four-letter word around Montana.

Still, it was a word that Montana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Todd O'Hair used — repeatedly — during the Bureau of Business and Economic Research’s 2025 midyear economic update in Billings this week.

O'Hair kicked off the early-morning conference full of Yellowstone County officials and business owners by bringing up a sales tax and what he called an urgent need for reformation of Montana’s tax structure.

“I am here today to officially end any prospect that I will run for a political office, and I am going to talk about a subject that no elected official dare touch or even whisper,” said O’Hair. “And I think it’s time that we as Montanans have a much more adult and serious conver

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