Cascade County Commissioners opened the public hearing on the proposed budget during an Aug. 26 meeting.

The hearing will remain open for public comments through Sept. 5.

The proposed budget is available on the county website and in the commission office at the Courthouse Annex, 325 2nd Ave. N. Room 111, during regular business hours.

The public can give comment on the proposed budget and tax levies through written comment or in person at the commission office through the special meeting at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 5, where public comment will also be taken and commissioners are scheduled to vote.

County updates progress of ARPA funded projects

This year’s proposed budget includes $82,237,167 in revenue, an increase of 3.9 percent over last year’s $79,148,194.

The proposed budget includes $108,457,609 in expenditures, a 6.3 percent increase over last year’s $101,976,145, according to county figures.

According to county officials, the budget appears to show that the county is spending more than it’s available revenue, but that $26,220,442 is one-time federal COVID relief funding that hasn’t yet been expended and grants or carryover funds intended for large capital expenditures.

City sets tax levies, assessments

Those ARPA and prepaid capital expenses are:

The carryover funds are:

The proposed budget also includes a $1.9 million reduction in estimated newly taxable values to account for issues with a 2022 tax abatement that county and city commissioners awarded to Calumet Montana Refining.

The abatement is established under state law and allows the company to be taxed at 50 percent of its taxable value for five years with equal increases in each year thereafter until reaching 100 percent of the taxable value of the expansion is reached in the tenth year.

GFPS board sets budget for new school year

Commissioner Joe Briggs said that they’re expecting the $1.9 million reduction to come out of newly taxable property so that the adjustment doesn’t change the number of mills the county is able to levy. That number is based on the number of mills levied last year.

Briggs said they’re awaiting further information from the Montana Department of Revenue and “my expectation is there will have to be a recertification done, but exactly what that’s going to look like at this point, I do not know.”

He said that the DOR has said they won’t make a decision on the technical issues with the 2022 Calumet tax abatement and had instead kicked it back to the county and city.

County officials developing budget; hire former Alluvion CEO as finance officer

In a statement to The Electric, the DOR said that it has asked the city and county for clarification no the new and expanding industry abatement they’d granted to Montana Renewables for their new biodiesel project.

The abatement was applied for and granted to Calumet, not Montana Renewables, the new entity created that has assumed the biodiesel portion of the facility. That entity is also seeking to have the entire facility classified as tax exempt as a carbon capture operation.

Calumet has a tax protest and separate appeal case before the Montana Tax Appeal Board, the results of both will impact the city, county and Great Falls Public Schools budgets.

Montana Renewables, Calumet have pending tax appeals before state board

In the statement to The Electric, DOR said the department doesn’t play a role in “determining what tax abatements are granted or denied, or how much tax abatement is granted by local governments. The department relies on what is reported to us to record those abatements and apply the correct class code to assets which should be taxed at the abated/reduced tax rate. An abatement can apply to hundreds or thousands of assets that make up a larger facility, and in this case the resolutions granting the abatement were not clear enough for the department to conclude which assets they had approved.”

Brigg said during the Aug. 26 budget meeting that he believes the process DOR uses for tax abatements doesn’t follow state stature and “that puts you in a situation, where if all of the jurisdictions don’t agree, you have a problem figuring out how to calculate the taxes.”

Cascade County launching pre-trial program

The outcome of the Calumet abatement issue could impact the Cascade County Conservation District, Great Falls Transit District and the Great Falls Public Library’s levy, though those entities have no say in the matter, Briggs said.

“It’s part of a bigger problem in how DOR has been handling the tax abatement process across the whole state,” Briggs said and he believes the agency has discovered the problem could be “substantial.”

The county doesn’t break down how tax increases will impact homeowners since there are more factors than the city’s tax levies.

GFPS board approves request to access protested Calumet taxes

The number of mills levied on a property owner depends on their location since they could be subject to city taxes, rural taxes, road taxes and different school districts.

All property in Cascade County is subject to the countywide mill levied by the County Commission, the public safety levy passed by the voters in November 2022, as well as a school levy from whichever district the property resides.

Properties located outside of Great Falls city limits pay a county road mill and a rural mill instead of the city taxes and assessments.

Cascade County voters reject local government reviews

Properties within the towns of Belt, Cascade and Neihart pay their town mill, the county road mill and the county rural mill in addition to the mills listed above that are placed on all properties in the county.

According to the county, the taxable value times the number of mills levied on a property, divided by 1,000 equals the tax liability and the valuation is determined by the DOR.

The county, like other county and city governments, is limited by the state property tax cap.

The county, like the city, is only able to increase property taxes by half the average rate of inflation for the last three years, which is 2.8 percent this year, which equates to an increase of 5.55 mills in the proposed budget to 114.41.