County Commissioners have begun their budget process for the upcoming fiscal year during a July 11 meeting.

The county budget year runs July 1 through June 30 and the county typically adopts an interim operating budget while awaiting their certified taxable values from the Montana Department of Revenue in August.

Once they receive those values, Commissioner Joe Briggs said that they’ll hold more public budget discussions with county departments and the overall budget to address how much, if any, of the inflation increase the county will propose to levy.

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Once the budget document is completed, Briggs said they’ll hold final public hearings, issue the intend to increase taxes if needed and finalize the budget.

Briggs told The Electric that since they don’t have the certified taxable values yet from the state, no decisions have yet been made on whether they’ll use the inflationary factor or permissive medical levy, which equates to increased property taxes.

He said that there will be an increase in taxes since voters approved the county public safety levy in November 2022.

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The county posted for a new chief financial officer in February and the position has not yet been filled. The position will replace the former budget and grants manager position, which became vacant due to a retirement.

Briggs said that in the meantime, he is preparing the budget.

To prep the budget, Briggs told fellow Commissioners Jim Larson and Rae Grulkowski that he’s using last year’s revenue levels to make projections.

He said some revenues were not as high as previous years but that they’re “safer under budgeting revenues. Some of this stuff is very difficult to predict.”

The county is able to use a permissive medical levy, using a formula set by the state, to address increased health insurance costs for eligible employees. Briggs said he’s working on the health insurance cost estimate to determine if the county needs to use that revenue tool.

Briggs reviewed county expenses, including postage, which commissioners have been discussing restructuring how they account for that since IPS closed earlier this year, which used to handle much of the county’s mailings.

Commissioners approved the lease of a postage machine earlier this year, but Briggs said it’s applying a service fee to postage that wasn’t anticipated, driving up costs, so staff is working to sort out that issue.

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The county contributes $25,000 annually toward the city-county historic preservation officer, which is a city employee and largely funded by the city.

Briggs said that without the county contribution to that position, anything related to historic preservation within the county jurisdiction would have to go to the state for review, slowing the process.

Cascade County also contributes to the Great Falls Development Authority and Grulkowski asked if someone from the agency could come brief commissioners on their operations.

Currently, the county is paying Great Falls Pre-Release Services to manage a work program that judges can sentence people to rather than jail as a “rudimentary way of keeping people out of jail,” while still being punished for crimes committed, Briggs said.

For awhile, the agency wasn’t providing reports on the program, but Briggs said now they’re sending monthly reports with the number of service hours and the sentencing judge.

Briggs said that may change as the county stands up the new pre-trial program under the public safety levy.

“We don’t have enough of a handle on what is in mind there,” Briggs said.

He said he wants to have a more detailed discussion on how the City-County Health Department is funded.

Currently, much of the funding comes from rural mills and Briggs said he’d prefer to shift that to general mills so that those living outside the city limits were contributing so much to the agency that serves many within the city limits.

The county and city are still negotiating a management agreement for the joint agency, a process stalled at the Montana Supreme Court.

The city contributes about $250,000 annually to CCHD operations.

Briggs mentioned the entitlement share the county receives from the state. It’s essentially a compilation of various revenues, including from gambling and alcohol.

Previously, counties collected those taxes and sent a portion to the state, but about 20 years ago, the Legislature changed the process so that the state collected all of those revenues and distributes them to local governments.

It was a good concept, Briggs said, but the state has been taking more of those funds and local governments fight every legislative session to retain those funds.