City Commissioners will be asked to set taxes during their Sept. 5 meeting.
City officials typically set their mill levies in August, but delayed the decision while awaiting details on a potential tax appeal from Calumet and Montana Renewables.
The city received its taxable valuation from the Montana Department of Revenue on Aug. 7.
This year, the city’s total mill levy is 200.72 mills, totaling $26,457,995.
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That includes the general levy, which is previously and newly taxable property, the permissive medical levy, Great Falls Public Library mill levy and the soccer park general obligation bond levy.
The city’s total taxable value this year is $137,382,080 and the DoR provides no specific project or development for that increase, according to city staff. It was a reappraisal year and, according to the DoR, property values increased about 31 percent in Cascade County.
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The city’s newly taxable property values from DoR total $1,510,213, which is significantly higher than the finance department’s projection of $400,000. That projection was based on a 22-year average of newly taxable property and city staff said there’s no particular development project that can be identified for the spike.
The revenue over what was estimated and included in the adopted budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, will be used to offset any uncollected taxes, appeals or protests and/or contribute to the general fund’s unreserved fund balance.
The city’s fund balance policy is 22 percent and the adopted budget projected an ending fund balance of 17.6 percent.
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City officials are anticipating a property assessment appeals/abatement requests which means the city won’t definitively know how much of this new projected tax revenue will be available until those appeals/abatement requests are processed.
The DoR completed it’s informal internal review of Calumet and Montana Renewables and told city, county and school officials last week the valuation decreased slightly but by less than one percent, so a recertification wasn’t necessary. It’s still possible that Calumet and Montana Renewables could file a formal tax appeal.
County proposed budget available for public review
The city didn’t increase taxes for two years during the pandemic, but city officials said last year that wasn’t sustainable and used all available tax increases in the last budget, according to staff.
This year, commissioners adopted the budget using all tax increases available.
Those tax increases include:
- 1.25 mills for soccer park debt service payments, which equates to $164,770 to cover debt payments and expenses in the soccer park fund. This will be the last year for this mill levy. The soccer park bonds were issued in 2004 for $2,500,000 for 20 years and refinanced in April 2014. The outstanding balance of the soccer bonds as of June 30, 2023, was $160,000. The bond maturity date is July 1, 2024.
- 30.06 mills for the permissive medical levy, which will generate $3,962,345, an increase from last year of $353,043. It’s the maximum number of mills under state law that the city can take for the permissive medical levy.
- 17 mills for the Great Falls Public Library, which will generate $2,240,872. Voters approved increasing the library mills in the city charter from two to 17 mills for the operation, maintenance and capital needs of the library.
The city is also using the full inflationary factor, which is half of the average rate of inflation for the previous three years, which the Montana Department of Administration set at 2.46 percent for this budget year.
That increase in property taxes will generate $446,080 for the city general fund.
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For comparison, a new firefighter costs the city about $100,000 and a new police officer costs about $110,000, according to the figures in the proposed public safety levy.
Since property values have increased, the value of a mill increased, meaning the city has to levy fewer to generate its needed revenue. With the new certified values, the taxpayer impact has come down from the estimates using last year’s taxable values for the inflationary factor and the permissive medical levy.
The impact of the inflationary factor and permissive medical levy on residential property owners is:
The impact of the 17 mills for the library is:
