Cascade County Commissioners opened their proposed budget for public review and comment during an Aug. 30 meeting.
The budget will be open for review and commissioner will continue to refine it until holding a public hearing on Sept. 7 to finalize and adopt the budget.
The proposed budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 includes $73,264,322 in revenue, a 4.11 percent increase over last year.
The proposed budget includes $91,429,118 in expenses, or a decrease of 5.34 percent.
[VIEW: County proposed budget for fiscal year 2024]
Commissioner Joe Briggs said that the county still has American Rescue Plan Act funds which make it appear the county is spending beyond it’s means and that those funds will impact the budget until they are spent.
The county was allocated $15.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and allocated most of that to other agencies for water, sewer, housing and other projects.
The county reserved about $3 million for their own projects and have expended $931,867 so far.
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The proposed budget also includes planned capital improvements such as a new roof at the Four Seasons Arena, a new roof at the courthouse annex where many county offices are housed, and the addition of a gymnasium at the juvenile detention center.
Briggs said that the proposed budget appears to have an $18 million deficit, but that is largely the result of large expenditures for which revenue was already received for a specific project or saved for a project in previous years.
- ARPA funds pending dispersal: $12,654,098.37
- public works heavy equipment that was ordered in the last fiscal year, but haven’t yet been received: $434,500
- aging services facility upgrades: $1,146,308
- adult detention center facility upgrades: $445,000
- Armington Bridge replacement: $2,591,958
- fleet vehicle purchases ordered last fiscal year but haven’t yet been received: $833,950
Briggs said that overall, the county to be levied under the proposed budget have gone down slightly. The general countywide mills came down by 12.98 but were offset by the 14 mills for public safety that voters approved in November 2022.
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It’s a reappraisal year for the Montana Department of Revenue and for the most part, property values increased significantly statewide.
The appraisals are based on property data from Jan. 1, 2022, Jason Boggess told The Electric after a July public presentation on the appraisals.
This year, the average residential increase in Cascade County property values was about 31 percent, he said.
That’s due to the market, which went up over the last two years due to demand, low interest rates, buying power and low supply of housing, Boggess told The Electric.
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The demand outpaced the supply, driving up housing prices in most markets, including Cascade County, Boggess said.
Commercial property values went up about 27 percent, Boggess said.
But because property values increase, the value of a mill increased, so taxing jurisdictions are levying fewer mills to make their budgets.
Cascade County, and other local governments, are limited by state law on how much they can raise property taxes annually. That cap is half the average rate of inflation for the prior three years, which this year is 2.46 percent.
For Cascade County, the number of general mills the commission can levy decreased from 121.84 to 108.86, Briggs said.
Property owners outside the city limits pay a county road mill and rural mill.
Property owners within the incorporated towns of Belt, Cascade and Neihart pay their town mill, the county road mill and the county rural mill.
According to Briggs’ budget summary, the taxable value of a residential property times the number of mills levied on the property divided by 1,000 equals the tax liability.
The state sets the taxable values and the legislature defines the equation that translates market value into the taxable value, according to Briggs’ summary.
During Aug. 22 budget meetings, commissioners discussed their budget with the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, Great Falls Public Library Director Susie McIntyre and amongst themselves.
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In discussion with Sheriff Jesse Slaughter and Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken, they said public safety levy funds for the planned pretrial program are in the general fund budget currently.
Slaughter said his intent was that pretrial would stay in the general fund budget because he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the sheriff to manage the program as it could create conflicts of interest.
County officials are planning on releasing a request for proposals for pretrial services and Slaughter said that the program, once determined, should be managed by the commission officer rather than CCSO.
Briggs said they’ve kicked some ideas around but that program has yet to be defined.
Slaughter said county officials had a pretrial program proposal built in 2019 that didn’t materialize but so much has changed so they’re looking at that framework and making adjustments in collaboration with the county attorney’s office.
Slaughter said they’ve budgeted $400,000 for that program.
Van Dyken said their advertising costs rose as they’ve increased their efforts to recruit deputies and detention officers.
Van Dyken told commissioners that seven new detention officers were starting this week, making CCSO short just seven detention officers, compared to a year and a half ago when they were down about 26.
“It’s working,” he said.
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Slaughter and Van Dyken continued their discussion with commissioners about their proposal to create a civilian coroner position, lowering the cost to pay deputies a stipend for coroner duties, addressing retention and reducing conflicts.
The proposed budget doesn’t include the civilian coroner position, that CCSO is proposing to fund with savings, some opioid funds and some other budget adjustments.
Van Dyken said they understand they operate a combined sheriff-coroner officer but coroner duty is a major reason deputies leave.
Slaughter said he didn’t believe the offices should have been combined and has proposed spinning it off for several years. He said coroner is an administrative duty that should be done by civilians and it takes deputies off public safety work.
Van Dyken said there are currently 14 deputies receiving the stiped for coroner duties. There’s a training and certification process for deputy coroners.
Van Dyken said he’s trying to reduce it to 10 since he needs five on each shift, but would work to drop that further with a civilian coroner though some deputies will have to continue coroner duties to cover vacations, regular days off and additional calls.
The civilian coroner discussion is ongoing.
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Commissioners also met with McIntyre, library director, for an annual report and discussion on library funding.
McIntyre said the library will go back to being open seven days a week next year as they implement their library levy funding.
Voters approved the city charter amendment to increase library funding from two mills up to 17 mills.
That levy will be included on the next tax bill and the library won’t receive that funding until December.
McIntyre said it will be an adjustment for their budgeting since previously they received their city general fund subsidy monthly and now will receive the bulk of their funding through property tax payments, which are received in June and December.
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McIntyre said they’ll increase Bookmobile service to two days of county runs and four days of runs within the city.
The county has supported the library with $177,000 annually since 2011.
The library board has an agreement with the county from 1977 and “we’re not following this at all.”
The agreement refers to some activities that are no longer possible due to state law changes in the 1990s.
“It makes me deeply uncomfortable that we have an agreement we’re not following,” McIntyre said. “I don’t like that it’s so outdated.”
McIntyre has raised the issue of updating the agreement for several years and gave commissioners a draft last year, but they’re stuck on funding.
McIntyre said the library board and city manager are concerned about the flat fee.
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Briggs said that’s similar to his concern with the city’s flat fee contribution to the City-County Health Department.
McIntyre brought up the idea of a library levy to county officials several years ago but they wanted a mill levy question during a general election, and the city commission didn’t want to compete with the public safety levies on the November ballot.
The library board pursued the special library levy election in June and would like to try to do a rural mill levy to ensure those living outside the city limits are also contributing to library operations, McIntyre said.
She said a rural library levy would also support the Belt and Cascade public libraries. The boards of all three libraries have voted in support of a rural mill levy for the library, McIntyre said.
Briggs said he has some concerns with the rural library levy and whether the county could do it, but hasn’t spent any time looking into it yet.
County residents can get library cards and have the same full access as a city resident.
McIntyre said they track how many city and county cards are issued, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to people since lots of families get a single library card.
The proposed county budget maintains the $177,000 support for the library and McIntyre said they have time to negotiate a new agreement.
Briggs said he hasn’t had any luck negotiating agreements with the city.
The city and county have been negotiating over the management of CCHD since 2021 and have not yet reached an agreement. The issue is currently before the Montana Supreme Court.
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McIntyre said the agreement would be negotiated with the library board, not the city.
Briggs asked if the city manager could override such an agreement and McIntyre said no.
