HELENA -- Over Republican protests, the Senate Taxation Committee on Monday crammed 115 pages of amendments, including 14 different tax bills, into a single measure that would offer tax relief to Montana individuals and businesses.

On a 6-5 vote, the committee approved the set of amendments and voted by the same margin to send the House Bill 833, by Rep. Wayne Stahl, R-Saco, to the floor of the Senate. It is expected to be debated today.

As amended, HB833 includes Gov. Brian Schweitzer's one-time $400-per-household property tax rebate and House Republican Majority Leader Michael Lange's renters' tax credit. Also tacked on is Senate Taxation Chairman Jim Elliott's plan to exempt from property taxes the first $80,000 of business equipment owned by a company.

With 10 days left in the legislative session, leaders kept referring to the massive bill as "a vehicle" or a means to bring both sides and both chambers to the negotiating table. There, they can finally settle on how much property and income tax relief to provide Montana individuals and businesses -- and how to pay for it.

With the state projecting a $1 billion general fund surplus, property-tax relief was the key issue in many legislative campaigns last year. Democrats favored Schweitzer's one-time, $400-per-household plan, while Republicans endorsed permanent property tax relief.

On Monday, some Senate Taxation Committee members were taken aback by how sweeping the amendments presented were.

"We took a six-pound turkey, and we stuffed 113 pounds of stuff in it," said Sen. Kelly Gebhardt, R-Roundup. "And now we've got it cooked up for Thanksgiving. I can't support it."

Elliott defended the move he engineered.

"Sometimes you have to poke a stick in the hornet's nest to get people talking," Elliott said, "and people are talking now."

The leading Republican tax authority, Sen. Bob Story, R-Park City, was skeptical, saying: "I'm still not certain that there's any type of communication going on between the people that should be talking."

Later, Lange, while not endorsing the bill, said, "Our whole issue right now as a Legislature is to find the vehicles that we will sue to get out of here."

Often key, complex tax bills are completely rewritten by Senate-House conference committees in the waning hours of the legislative session.

Senate President Mike Cooney, D-Helena, under questioning on the floor by Senate Minority Leader Corey Stapleton, R-Billings, insisted, "No deals have been cut, outside of the fact that (HB) 833 would be used as one of the vehicles."

To the surprise of some senators, 13 of the 14 bills slapped on HB833 as amendments included the entire Revenue Department wish-list empowering it to crack down on out-of-state individuals and businesses its director believes owe Montana taxes. Revenue Director Dan Bucks believes the agency can use these measures, plus the surplus, to provide nearly $180 million in tax relief the next two years, including $67 million the second and later years.

Ten of these 13 bills appeared doomed, having been tabled or killed. But these bills were suddenly resurrected Monday in HB833 to pay for the ongoing cost of the tax cuts.

Sen. Kim Gillan, D-Billings, told how House Speaker John Mercer, R-Polson, regularly "shoved things down my throat" when Democrats were in the minority in the House in the 1990s. She said she didn't like it then and doesn't like it now.

"If I was in the minority (now), I would feel a little bit upset myself," Gillan said. "I feel a little bit upset and I'm a Democrat."

Gillan ultimately voted for the bill but vowed to work to remove bills she opposed.

Elliott defended the measure, saying, "This is a bill that basically collects taxes from non-residents of the state of Montana and gives the tax breaks to the residents of the state of Montana."

Sen. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, protested that three House bills stuffed in HB833 hadn't even had Senate hearings.

"All we're doing is setting up dueling press conferences," he said. "We need some serious adult discussion."

Elliott assured senators that negotiations would occur.

In the end, the happiest person in the room may have been Revenue Director Bucks. He saw his comprehensive tax compliance and "loophole-closing package" alive again after it appeared headed to the legislative scrap heap as his similar plan was two years ago.

Bucks compared the full package to "a diversified portfolio" that would come up with "multiple ways of raising revenues" and do year after year.

Bills at a glance

HELENA -- Here is a look at the 14 bills, and their status before they were melded Monday into House Bill 833, which has become a major tax bill for the session:

- Senate Bill 139, by Rep. Dan Harrington, D-Butte, to provide a one-time $400-per-household rebate to the Montana homeowners on their primary resident. Relief: $95.7 million. Status: Passed Senate and pending in House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 220, by Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, to empower the Revenue Department to go after abusive tax shelters and provide for withholding of taxes when out-of-staters sell real estate. It also would provide a permanent $80,000-a-year exemption from property taxes for owners of business equipment. Status: Passed Senate and pending in House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 120, by Elliott, to clarify the taxation of real estate investment trusts. Status: Died in Senate.

- Senate Bill 138, by Sen. Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula, to prohibit corporations from channeling income into insurance companies. Status: Passed the Senate and tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 174, by Elliott, to revise the law on how much penalties and interest the Revenue Department can charge delinquent taxpayers. Status: Passed Senate and tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 416, by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, to provide for certain sharing of information between the Montana Revenue Department and the secretary of state's office. Status: Passed Senate and Tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 99, by Harrington, to increase the statute of limitations for corporate income taxes to five years from the current three years. Status: Passed Senate and tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 210, by Sen. Jesse Laslovich, D-Anaconda, to provide for additional energy tax credits. Status: Passed Senate and tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- Senate Bill 439, by Elliott, to provide for withholding for natural resource royalty payments. Status: Passed Senate and passed preliminary House vote.

- Senate Bill 470, by Elliott, to make grantor trusts pass-through entitles for tax withholding and reporting. Status: Passed Senate and tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- House Bill 108, by Rep. Ron Erickson, D-Missoula, to provide for withholding taxes on lump-sum retirement payments. Status: Tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- House Bill 345, by Rep. Michael Lange, R-Billings, to provide a tax credit for renters. Status: Passed House and pending in Senate Taxation Committee.

- House Bill 147, by Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, to require hotel intermediaries such as Internet travel agencies to collect the bed tax. Status: Tabled by House Taxation Committee.

- House Bill 816, by Rep. Ron Erickson, D-Missoula, to change the apportionment of income for certain corporations that have elected to have income apportioned to Montana based on their U.S. income rather than their worldwide income. Status: Tabled by House Taxation Committee.