City considering budget during Aug. 4 meeting, includes tax increases
City Commissioners will hold a public hearing on their proposed budget and intent to increase property taxes during their Aug. 4 meeting.
City Manager Greg Doyon formally transmitted his proposed budget to the commission during their July 7 work session.
The city’s budget schedule is further behind than in most recent years.
[View the budget materials here]
Commissioners are scheduled to vote on their annual tax levy on Aug. 18.
State law limits local governments with a statewide property tax cap.
The city may raise property taxes by the average rate of inflation for the prior three years, not to exceed four percent.
State law recently changed that cap, which was for many years half the average rate of inflation for the prior three years.
For this fiscal year, the Montana Department of Administration set the maximum allowable inflationary factor at 2.87 percent, which equates to $632,963 in new revenue for the city’s general fund.
State law allows the city to increase property taxes to cover premium contributions for employee health insurance.
The city didn’t increase the permissive medical levy last year, but for this budget, is proposing a 3.72 percent increase, which equates to $820,243, according to the city.
The proposed total property tax increase is 6.59 percent.
The proposed budget includes the full inflationary factor and permissive medical levy:
- the inflationary factor impact to residential properties:
- $4.19 on a $100,000 taxable market value
- $12.56 on a $300,000 taxable market value
- $26.66 on a $600,000 taxable market value
- the permissive medical levy impact to residential properties:
- $5.43 on a $100,000 taxable market value
- $16.28 on a $300,000 taxable market value
- $34.55 on a $600,000 taxable market value
- the total annual tax increase impact on residential properties:
- $9.62 on $100,000
- $28.84 on $300,000
- $61.21 on $600,000
State law requires the city to include the tax impact on residential properties with those three specific taxable market values.
The two increases equate to $1,453,206 in revenue for the proposed budget.
The proposed budget also includes the following assessment and utility rate increases:
- boulevard district: 10 percent
- Portage Meadows: 10 percent
- street maintenance: 5 percent
- street lighting districts: 3.3 percent
- water: 5 percent, effective Jan. 1
- sewer: 5 percent, effective Jan. 1
- storm drain: 5 percent, effective Jan. 1
- sanitation, residential: 8 percent, went into effect June 1
- sanitation, commercial: 10 percent, went into effect June 1
All assessment and utility rate increases require separate commission action.
City planning infrastructure fund with utility increase; potential new development position
Under state law, cities and counties must set their tax levy by the later of the first Thursday after the first Tuesday in September or within 30 calendar days after receiving certified taxable values; after adoption of the final budget; and at levels that will balance the budgets.
During a July 7 work session, Doyon presented a recommended budget, with a summary of what it looks like if the city doesn’t use fund balance, as it has for the last several years to balance the budget, or if they use half of the fund balance.
City approves sanitation rate increases [2025]
City officials have said in recent years that it’s not sustainable to use fund balance to make up for a lack of revenue.
During the June 16 work session, Doyon said commissioners had set their priorities in January, which included public safety, economic development, land use/housing development, being business friendly, reducing general fund support to enterprise funds and legislative engagement.
For years, Doyon said, the city has struggled to fund public safety and a local group is continuing its effort to explore voter support for a public safety levy.
Local group raising funds to conduct poll on public safety in Great Falls
Doyon said for this budget year, which began July 1, the public safety departments had large funding requests, including body cams for the Great Falls Police Department for $300,000. Doyon notes that he directed GFPD to fund the initial purchase/lease through a grant.
Locals have been protesting outside the Cascade County Courthouse for the last two weeks with signs asking that GFPD wear body cams in the wake of an incident in which a man in mental health crisis pointed what officers believed was a weapon at them. The man was shot and in the hospital for some time, but is currently in custody at the Cascade County Adult Detention Center.
Judge denies bail reduction for man shot by police in March 16 incident
GFPD also requested three additional sworn entry-level officers, with associated training, at $115,967.58 each, for a total of $347,903.
Doyon is not recommending funding for those requests.
Doyon said he had concerns about the workload for the city attorney’s office and its capacity since a part-time attorney working there won’t be available after November. He’s recommending an additional civil attorney position for $75,000.
Doyon did not recommend funding for the legal department’s request for another criminal prosecutor to help with the caseload in Municipal Court.
Of Great Falls Fire Rescue’s $650,200 in requests, Doyon is recommending $65,800, including $42,800 toward four of 10 sets of firefighter turnout gear that are on a 7-year replacement cycle.
Doyon included budget scenarios in his proposal that illustrate the impact of not increasing property taxes. In that instance, the GFFR funding is cut.
Doyon said during the June 16 work session that funding the public safety requests would “be difficult with our projections.”
Doyon’s recommended budget includes $14,300 to increase city commission stipends.
City Commission considering its own pay, largely discussed via email
He said the GFPD personnel costs through their collective bargaining agreement increased $1.2 million last year.
During the July 7 work session, Doyon said he fully expected commissioners to take issue with some of his proposals.
Commissioners raised no questions or concerns after Doyon’s presentation, other than Mayor Cory Reeves asking about the golf fund.
Doyon said he’s worried about the city’s capacity with some of the growth coming and concerned about using fund balance to cover operational needs.
Since COVID, the city has used its undesignated fund balance to balance the general fund, which is where all property taxes go and the fund supports city services such a fire, police, legal and more.
City policy is to keep that fund balance at 22 percent, primarily for cash flow, since the city receives property tax revenues in two large chunks, in June and December, typically.
Doyon’s proposed budget, as presented during the July 7 work session, uses about $630,000 of fund balance to provide services, but “continuing to use fund balance is not sustainable,” he said.
That will bring the undesginated fund balance to about 19.9 percent.
Doyon said the city currently has a healthy fund balance, but if the city continues using it to balance the budget, in about three years, the buffer would be gone and the city “would be in a really hard place.”
Department heads were asked to present their budgets with practical summaries of their needs for operations, honoring labor agreements, increases for supplies and materials and capital outlay.
Those needs, which Doyon previously called “above and beyond” requests over level funding, totalled $2 million in additional funding.
Consultants review Park and Rec mini poll results with advisory board
“That is not doable, we knew that from the beginning,” Doyon said, and with finance staff, cut those requests to $1.2 million.
Much hay has been made about Janicki’s decision to build its new campus in Great Falls, but Doyon reminded commissioners that property tax revenues from that construction won’t be available for at least five years since commissioners approved a 10-year tax abatement for the project, as did county commissioners.
Janicki groundbreaking is July 10, company launches Montana website
“I know that hope isn’t a strategy,” Doyon said, and “we need to wean ourselves off fund balance” to the extent possible.
Doyon said they further cut those above and beyond departmental requests to about $630,000.
He said the hope is that the city will see new growth to backfill that use of fund balance.
Kirsten Wavra, deputy city finance director, said that it would take about $350 million in new commercial development to generate about $1.2 million in newly taxable revenue for the city.
This year, city officials are expecting about $300,000 in newly taxable revenue for the fiscal year that began July 1.
In the budget year that ended June 30, the city received $334,233 in newly taxable revenue due to $1,741,339 in taxable value of new properties.
City Commission approves annexation, zoning for Little Shell housing development
Doyon said the city needs to be disciplined with its finances now and take a hard look at what the general fund supports.
Legislative changes from the 2025 session continue to affect the local budget, Doyon said, particularly SB 117, which changed the inflationary factor calculation, and HB231 and SB 542, which created tiered tax rates and a reset of voted mills.
The legislation “created a level of uncertainty that we actually pushed the budget process back” to see what information the Montana Department of Revenue would provide, he said.
City officials don’t yet fully understand the impact of 2025 legislation and homeowners may have seen a property tax reduction, but other classes of property owners likely saw increases, Doyon said.
“What happens in Helena doesn’t stay in Helena” and comes back to impact the city budget and its ability to provide services, he said.
GFPS budget committee recommends no levy this year
Melissa Kinzler, city finance director, said one reason they were waiting to hold the public hearing on the budget until Aug. 4 was that for the first time, state law allowed municipalities to have a 10 percent reserve account of certain newly taxable property.
“We have really no idea what that means,” Kinzler said.
Residents may see new construction in the city, but that doesn’t mean the city is seeing the tax revenue.
A structure had to be occupied by Jan. 1, 2026 to be included in property taxes for the budget year that started July 1, she said, so there’s often a lag when new construction hits the tax rolls.
City, county discussing health department funding
In response to a comment from Commissioner Joe McKenney that the city was seeing new housing and commercial development, Kinzler said many new businesses weren’t complete by Jan. 1 so the city won’t see that tax revenue until next budget year.
Doyon said that residential construction doesn’t pay for itself and it would take construction of quite a few houses to make a dent in the cost of providing fire and police services.
He said legislative actions affect how the city is able to develop policies for fees and budgeting as the city’s costs outpace available revenues so that the city is “not able to meet the community’s expectations.”
Doyon said other communities don’t maintain such a robust fund balance, but “I’m not comfortable with that because of our slow growth. We have things that are just at life’s end.”
Water Tower Pool opening June 18; Jaycee Pool still closed
He said he wasn’t recommending funding in this budget for things like cardiac monitors for GFFR that they know will be needed because he wants to have cash available for when things fail.
Commissioner Rick Tryon said it seemed like ever since he’d been on the commission that expenses had outpaced revenues.
Doyon said he thought the city hadn’t recovered from COVID and depleted some funds that got a lot of general fund to begin with.
He said the lifeguard shortage in recent years reshaped how the city compensates employees.
Doyon said his generation was heavy on health insurance, but this generation is “show me the money.”
City budget 2025: Key things to know
He said locals could work at Panda Express, which is where his daughter works, and make $20 an hour, so the city had to adjust its wages to attract and retain employees.
Doyon said the city had great event space, but events “is not our forte” and the city needed to figure out how to rework its business model.
The city hired a consultant to review operations at the Mansfield Theater and other city event spaces.
The consultant gave their recommendations earlier this year and the city has issued a request for proposals for a third party manager of those facilities.
The city also hired a consultant to review Park and Recreation operations.
Doyon said he’s expecting that review to be completed in August.
“Health insurance costs are a bugger, they always have been,” Doyon said.
The city is self-insured.
An emerging issue in this year’s budget is the legal office and Doyon said one of his priorities was to hire another civil attorney.
The commission had expressed frustration over the city’s code enforcement process, so the city has restructured to add resources to that function.
In July, Doyon said the city hadn’t completed collective bargaining agreements with firefighters or plumbers. He said the city had a way to address retroactive pay in the budget if those negotiations go to arbitration.
City approves new firefighter labor agreement [2023]
With the Janicki announcement and residual impact, Doyon said, “we’re gonna have to change our mindset as an organization.”
City staff anticipates more tax protests, based on state legislation, Doyon said, and the city needs to look at sunsetting some tax increment financing districts, but some have debt service, meaning they can’t sunset until the debt is paid off. Doyon suggested that the city could pay off the debt in the TIF district that includes ADF and sunset the district.
He said he’d asked Melissa Kinzler, city finance director, to work on sunsetting that district and using some of the money to pay for a new civil attorney.
That district had an estimated cash balance of $4,100,000 as of June 30, with an estimated $1,042,000 in outstanding debt. The district is set to expire in 2040.
As long as those funds are held a TIF district, the city has access to all of the funds for use toward eligible expenses within the district.
If that TIF district were to sunset, the funds would be disbursed to all the taxing jurisdictions, which includes the county and GFPS. The city would get about 30 percent of those funds.
Doyon said that if Great Falls has arrived and there’s more development, there might be a future occasion to use TIF, but having five currently is hurting the city’s general fund.
City’s TIF board recommends approval of AgriTech bond for infrastructure installation, reimbursement
TIF is supposed to take care of blight or areas lacking infrastructure to put property onto the tax rolls, Doyon said, and hopefully the city wouldn’t need to leverage it as much going forward.
Doyon said that commissioners should feel free to disagree with his recommendations, and could ask department heads to make their case, but he’d make his.
One of those recommendations is a reorganization of city staff, particularly the deputy city manager’s office.
Doyon said that before he selected Jeremy Jones, former Great Falls Fire Rescue chief as his deputy, he thought he might want to give the deputy position a block of departments to oversee.
City names new deputy manager; hiring for GFFR chief, Park and Rec director [2025]
Historically, the deputy city manager has supervised the animal shelter, city clerk, communications specialists and more recently, facilities and special projects.
But when Jones came on board last fall, some things started to emerge such as code enforcement and parking, leading to a discussion of an internal restructure, he said.
At that time, city officials knew Janicki was looking at Great Falls and staff determined they needed a stronger focus on development review and the city’s economic posture.
In Doyon’s budget proposal, the city has created a new strategic development officer, moving Brock Cherry from his position as planning director to SDO.
City considering code, policy changes for workforce housing development [2025]
The new structure does not replace the planning director, but instead separates the building department from planning. The city building official will now report directly to Jones.
Rob Mocassin has been the part-time neighborhood council coordinator.
Now, he’ll be taking on code enforcement and parking.
“No plan is perfect,” Doyon said, and future adjustments may be necessary.
Kinzler said the finance staff made the reorganization a budget-neutral change.
Commissioner Joe McKenney said the city is often last to the table in the development process because developers don’t want public attention early on, so how would the new SDO position handle non-disclosure agreements that are common in the development industry.
City staff cannot agree to NDAs.
City’s new corrosion control for drinking water starts in August under recent federal rule change
Doyon said that in the new role, Cherry has an obligation to the public and “we can’t negate that.”
One of Cherry’s initial duties will be to develop a guideline of how he will operate in the new position and bring that back to the commission.
After Doyon presented his proposal, Mayor Cory Reeves asked about the golf fund.
Kinzler said staff are projecting that the golf fund’s debt to the general fund will be paid off this year and golf will have a positive fund balance.
Staff also told commissioners that in March when they increased golf fees.
City increases golf fees for 2026 season
Commissioner Rick Tryon said that was awesome news and it seemed like a model for other city services.
The city has contracted with CourseCo since 2019 for management of its two municipal golf courses.
Kinzler said it’s a management agreement so the city retains all the risk of liabilities and losses, but that the contractor was doing a great job.
Reeves asked his fellow commissioners if they wanted another work session on the budget.
Staff said that library and Municipal Court staff would present their budgets also.
McKenney said the budget was a lot of documents, but would say staff had been listening to commissioners and “what they have presented to us are our priorities.”
He said public safety is a top priority and “that’s where a majority of our budget is by far.”
Reeves said he felt good moving forward with the budget and didn’t need an additional work session.
Schreiner asked if staff’s budget decisions reflected what they knew was coming in the Park and Rec operations study.
Doyon said no, because they can amend the budget.
He said there would have to be conversations about how much general fund support the commission wants to continue allocating to Park and Rec.
During a June work session, Doyon said that they’d need to have a conversation about whether the city needs to have so many parks and can it maintain Park and Rec facilities.
As an example, he said the Flow Rider has been broken for years and band-aided as long as he’s been with the city.
City pools open June 6, Flow Rider remains down this summer
The taxpayer would ask why the city didn’t fix it, Doyon said, but if the city charged fees to cover actual costs, taxpayers would never go to parks and pools.
He said the city isn’t generating enough in revenue to set funds aside for maintenance and replacement.
The Natatorium was another example. It was closed and the commission’s high priority was to have an indoor pool, which led to the federal grant and the new indoor aquatic and recreation facility, Doyon said.
Natatorium demolition project complete [2024]
But, the city has struggled with marketing that facility and finding the right funding structure.
He said that with Janicki and the Air Force’s Sentinel project coming, the city needs to think about how to position itself for that growth.
Doyon said the city needs to take care of what it has, but be more agile and responsive and have a better idea of capacity going forward.
He said that Janicki is building in a TIF district and because commissioners approved a tax abatement for the project, the city won’t see those revenues for at least five years, but expected to see more housing in the next few years.
