County approves budgets; future cuts likely
Cascade County Commissioners adopted their budget during a special meeting on Sept. 3.
The full budget is available here.
The total budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2027 is $98,849704.
Total budgeted revenues are $85,403,397, an increase of about one percent over the previous fiscal year, according to Trista Besich, county finance officer, and total budgeted expenses decreased by about 6.5 percent from last year.
According to Besich’s budget presentations, the county’s general fund taxes will be:
- $96 on a property with a $100,000 taxable value
- $288.01 on a property with a $300,000 taxable value
- $615.28 on a property with a $400,000 taxable value
That’s a reduction of:
- $7.58 on a property with a $100,000 taxable value
- $22.75 on a property with a $200,000 taxable value
- $98.93 on a property with a $400,000 taxable value
Besich said that the budget appears to have a $13,446,307 deficit, but that is largely due to deferred expenses on projects that were previously budgeted but not completed; projects being funded by reserves or the intentional spend-down of reserves.
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That includes about $7.8 million in capital projects, including:
- heavy equipment, carryover from FY25: $1,589,565
- Aging Services kitchen construction: $1,131,485
- CCSO Interceptors for both FY26 and FY27: $960,000
- jail grease pit replacement $250,000
- jail door locks: $90,000
- CCSO armored vehicle: $530,000 (federal grant)
- public safety radios, etc $152,000
- courthouse elevator replacement: $500,000
- courthouse heat pumps: $130,000
- Courthouse Annex roof replacement (project is currently underway): $810,000
- FY27 fleet acquisitions: $480,000
- Armington Bridge engineering: $331,587
- Expo Park equipment replacement: $190,000
- Belt solid waste site acquisition $125,255
- repeater replacement: $90,000
- budgeted contingency and other small capital purchases across multiple departments: $479,150
It also includes $1.177 million of intentional spend-down of grants previously received or are pending award, including $632,085 of ARPA funding and $321,778 of immunization projects.
During the Sept. 3 meeting, Commissioner Joe Briggs proposed an amendment to the proposed budget, which was approved by the commission, to move $1.8 million of public safety levy funds from the levy reserve to the sheriff’s office to shore up CCSO’s operational deficit.
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He said the levy reserves were capped at 33.3 percent under state law and the transfer would bring the reserves within that limit while closing the budget gap for the year.
It’s a one-time fix, he said.
The Cascade City-County Health Department has a $440,507 operating deficit and the Juvenile Detention Center has a $331,843 operating deficit in this budget.
Earlier this month, commissioners and Besich met with officials from CCSO, CCHD and JDC to address their budget shortfalls.
The county made significant cuts to CCHD over the last two budget years.
During an Aug. 14 budget discussion with commissioners and Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, Besich said that the county had received its valuations from the state the previous week that showed about $744,000 for the inflationary increase and about $300,000 in newly taxable revenue.
She said the voter-approved public safety levy has remained consistent.
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The budget includes $182,459 in expenses for Extension Services, which is on par with the previous year sans an administrative assistant position commissioners have opted not to fill this year.
Extension generates $166,471 in revenue in the adopted budget, for a deficit of $$15,988, according to county documents.
The budget also maintains library funding with $256,090 in revenue and $290,084 in expenses, for a $33,994 deficit.
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That includes:
- $51,000 to the Belt library through an interlocal agreement
- $19,000 in support to the Cascade library
- $41,149 toward librarian salary, benefits and insurance for the Cascade librarian, a county employee
- $177,000 to the Great Falls Public Library
The budget also maintains funding for Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art and The History Museum, including:
- $186,835 to The Square
- $120,835 to The History Museum
The total funding for museums is $307,670 in expenses, with $332,758 in revenue.
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The budget includes funds that the county has struggled to balance: CCHD, CCSO and JDC.
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On Aug. 14, commissioners and Besich met with CCHD and CCSO officials regarding their budgets.
Besich said they removed vacant corrections officer positions that had been held in the budget for years, which reduced the budget and also the permissive medical levy and retirement costs by about $20,000.
CCSO payroll over the last five years has increased by 56 percent or $2,034,221 on the sworn side, with a 12 percent projected increase this year.
On the jail side, payroll has increased over five years by 29 percent, or $1,906,516, with a projected three percent increase this year.
Capital expenses for the jail have totaled about $3.7 million over five years.
Besich said there’s been a significant reduction in CCSO’s operating cash balance from FY25 to date and FY27 was projected to be in a deficit by late September.
“We’ve hit critical mass,” she said, and the department has been using reserves to balance the budget for a while. “This is the year that we’ve been talking about for two years, that at some point we were going to hit critical mass.”
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She said there have been conversations about jail funding since she started with the county and would suggest that “we all know the current method of being revenue-based isn’t working to balance the budget. We gotta look at it, we likely are not going to have the kind of cushion next year.”
The public safety in this year’s budget is 15.15 mills and is projected to generate $3,264,097.51
During the Aug. 14 meeting, Besich said $2,834,916.15 had been budgeted for deputy and county attorney salaries, pretrial services and school safety, leaving $429,181.36 available.
Of that:
- $1,483,929 was budgeted for deputy sheriff salary increases
- $616,297 for deputy county attorney salary increases
- $411,426 for pre-trial services
- $323,264.15 for school safety
She said they’d hit the allowable maximum in county attorney and deputy salary increases, with about $3 million in reserves of levy funds.
The plan had been to use 10 percent of levy funds annually to build a reserve for the items designated to be funded by the levy approved by voters in 2022.
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Commissioner Joe Briggs said they built the levy reserve early and at this point it would be appropriate to stop building the reserve if they can’t find cuts elsewhere.
Besich said the county’s SRO program was budgeted at $532,581 but didn’t have enough grant or contract revenue to cover costs with about $90,000 in projected revenue.
Briggs said the county has honored what the voters approved for the levy in deputy and attorney salary increases, pre-trial and school safety.
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Legally, he said commissioners could use the funding for anything public safety-related, but that it would be unethical to deviate from the levy items that were pitched to voters.
Slaughter said that he had a grant and contracts for the paid reserve deputy positions and was working on legislation that, if approved, he believed would zero out the cost to the county.
Commissioner Eric Hinebauch asked if that would help the overall school safety program budget, to which Slaughter said it was “not likely.”
Hinebauch said they’d need to find money for that program.
Besich told commissioners they needed to decide if they wanted to use another $232,000 of levy reserves to cover school safety program costs, which would leave about $69,000 going into the reserve this year.
Besich said they could use some of the levy funding to cover base salaries for deputies, but that “blurs the line” of what they said they’d do with the levy, which was to cover increases.
She said they’d discussed it previously but that in this budget, commissioners were using 100 percent of the public safety levy.
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“There’s no additional capacity in the public safety levy,” Besich said.
Every time salaries are increased, that budget line will grow in all county departments, but there’s no capacity to tap into the public safety levy for additional expenses.
This year, the increase in general fund mills equates to $1 million, Besich said, and payroll alone for CCSO increased $1.2 million.
During the Aug. 14 meeting, CCSO had a projected $2.7 million deficit, but by shifting some levy funds, it brought it down to $2.3 million.
Hinebauch said they needed to look for more cuts.
Besich said Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken had already gone through to cut expenses as much as possible.
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“There’s not $2 million to cut in their budget,” Besich said, without cutting positions or shifting to a fleet model.
The fleet model is similar to the Great Falls Police Department, in which officers use a patrol car while on shift and return it to the station for the next shift.
At CCSO, each deputy is assigned a vehicle that they take home after shift.
Slaughter said the fleet model isn’t effective in the county with a larger geographic area.
He said it would shorten the lift of the vehicles since they’d run consecutive shifts.
Van Dyken said they’d have to buy the same number of vehicles annually and with the take-home model, deputies take care of their vehicles, often handling minor maintenance.
On the jail side, Van Dyken and Besich said they’d made cuts and made adjustments to the medical contract to lower costs.
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Van Dyken said they hadn’t been upgrading some jail locks since they’d seen the budget deficit and the locks would be nice to have, but not an immediate need.
He said Les Payne, public works director, had called and said commissioners wanted to continue with the project.
Van Dyken said the locks that were “super dangerous” had been changed out and continuing the lock project would drive the CCSO budget further into the red.
Besich said locks had been budgeted for several years and this year’s budget included $$150,000.
She said it’s another estimated $800,000 to complete the lock project.
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He said locks in the administrative side at CCSO are being replaced since they were malfunctioning and deputies were being locked in rooms, but the remainder of the locks could wait.
Van Dyken said what’s “catastrophic and must do now” is CCSO’s video system, which has been crashing frequently.
He said they’re applying for a grant to cover that cost.
Besich said CCSO officials were also asking for commission approval to apply for funding through the Montana Opioid Trust for the medically assisted treatment program federal law was now mandating that jails provide to those who are on treatment when they’re booked into the jail.
Van Dyken said CCSO was rolling that program out in September or October.
“It’s a big rollout,” and will be a cost to the county, he said.
The program includes bringing everyone on the program into one area of the jail where medical staff will administer suboxone. They have to eat a cracker and drink water to ensure it’s taken rather than held somehow, as it’s a huge drug that’s passed among inmates and sold illegally on the steets regularly, Van Dyken said.
“That is a huge time suck,” Van Dyken said. “It’s a heavy lift to do this.”
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The program is an eligible cost under the opioid abatement trust, which will cover the county’s cost.
“But for how long,” Briggs asked.
Van Dyken said it’s not something CCSO officials want to do, but are being required by the federal government.
“This is not we went out and said this is a bright idea, let’s try it,” Van Dyken said.
He said they’re putting strict guidelines on the program that he estimates could cost more than $100,000 annually.
“We don’t know what the costs are going to be, but we’re mandated to do this,” he said.
Briggs said the state is administering the opioid trust and doesn’t know if they’ll reimburse for staff time or just the drugs.
“This gets squirrely,” Briggs said, because there are multiple pots of money within the local opioid abatement fund, some allocated solely to the county and some split between the city and county.
“I don’t like it at all,” Commissioner Jim Larson said, but understood if it was a requirement.
Hinebauch also said, “I don’t like it.”
Another coming federal mandate for detention centers includes connecting inmates 21 and under with services such as housing when they are discharged from the jail.
That’s required through age 26 for any inmates who were ever in foster care, he said.
Van Dyken said the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services was mandating that requirement and not providing funding.
He said officials from the big seven county jails and the Montana Association of Counties met recently and have told DPHHS that they won’t handle that since it’s a federal mandate to the state.
“It’s a huge heavy lift that the county doesn’t have the ability to do,” Van Dyken said.
Another significant CCSO budget factor is its federal contracts for the jail.
Slaughter said they’d been notified the day before by the U.S. Marshals Service that their contract was still in progress.
He said CCSO was asking to increase the federal rate to $160 per inmate per day, up from the current $115.
Slaughter said the Cascade County jail is the largest federal detention facility in Montana and the only one to hold U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, which is included in the existing Marshals contract.
Slaughter is requesting that ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection detainees have the same rate as those under the Marshals contract. Currently, ICE and CBP detainees have a lower daily rate.
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On Aug. 14, Van Dyken said the county jail had:
- 32 CBP detainees
- 10 ICE detainees
- 97 U.S. Marshals holds
- 33 state men’s prison waits
- 13 women’s prison waits
During the Aug. 14 meeting, Besich said they needed to quit pointing fingers and work together on jail funding.
Slaughter said none of the people currently in office created the revenue-based model for the jail.
He said they may need to do a levy to fund jail operations, which equates to $7 million a year now.
Besich said if they ran a levy for the jail three years from now, they’d probably need $8.5 million.
Slaughter said that would be in addition to the $4 million already allocated to the jail through the county budget and that it costs about $13 million to operate the jail.
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He said his fear is that voters would approve a levy for jail funding and the county would take that $4 million away.
Slaughter said the county jail would always hold federal inmates since there’s a federal courthouse in Great Falls, but shifting away from a revenue-based model would give the sheriff the ability to deny paid beds when the jail doesn’t have adequate staffing.
He said he believes the county will grow over the next decade and another option is to cite and release those committing criminal offenses rather than hold them in jail.
He said the pre-trial program has been successful, reducing the jail population by 75-100 inmates daily.
Slaughter said he’d looked at options to privatize the jail but the numbers aren’t currently in the county’s favor.
Hinebauch said that in the near future, they’re going ot have to discuss a levy, but “we’re sure as hell not going to be able to run a $9 million levy.”
Slaughter said he didn’t think the county could run multiple public safety levies, or in smaller chunks at a time.
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Hinebauch said the position the Montana Legislature has put local governments in almost requires that they run levies to catch up with costs.
He said he was open to discussing the possibility of a levy for jail operations.
Briggs said the immediate problem is the current budget is using reserves for operations.
“It took 20 years to build those god damned reserves and now they’re just gonna go poof,” he said.
CCHD
County commissioner and Besich also met Trisha Gardner, county health officer, to discuss CCHD’s budget for the upcoming year on Aug. 14.
For several years, the county has been making cuts at CCHD to address significant budget shortfalls and “rightsize” the organization, in Briggs’ words.
Besich said they were managing grant funds aggressively, but the main revenue funds were where they’d have to focus to make decisions to manage the budget.
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She reviewed financial data for the last five years, which showed the impact of COVID funding.
One COVID-era grant was $400,000.
Revenues were high for fiscal year 2023, which ran from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 at $2.8 million, but had dropped significantly by the budget year that ended June 30, 2026.
Immunization revenue has dropped significantly in recent years from $771,386 in fiscal year 2025 to $401,302 last year.
Projected payroll for the current budget year is level with fiscal year 2022, Besich said.
The CCHD budget includes the intentional spenddown of immunization funds and previous COVID funding that can’t be carried as reserves or used for capital projects, Besich said.
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About $300,000 of CCHD’s deficit in the current budget is tied to the spend-down of immunization funds.
Gardner said she’s looking at areas to cut costs, including within billing and electronic health records.
CCHD is also going back to the large drive-through flu clinics, which were major revenue drivers in the past, she said.
Gardner said they’re making adjustments to Alluvion’s lease for space within CCHD, to include their portion of utility costs.
Previously, it was $3,000 monthly with reimbursement for utilities, but is changing to $5,500 monthly to include utility costs.
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Commissioner Eric Hinebauch asked if Gardner was anticipating having more space available to rent out at CCHD.
Gardner said that with CCHD’s internal reorganization of office space, she had some ideas for other entities that might lease space.
Gardner said they’re hoping to increase CCHD revenues for inspection and licensing fees since the state increased the reimbursement rates.
Gardner said she’s doing an internal time study to determine workloads for existing staff and if more staff is needed in the environmental health division, which handles inspections for food establishments, hotels, pools, daycares, tattoo shops and more.
Over the last two budget years, Besich said expenses are coming down with vacancy savings and operational cuts.
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Besich said they were hopeful about the budget, because this is “probably the last year we’ve got reserves to fund the shortfall,” and next year will be a different conversation.
Gardner said it’s not a good picture and she wanted to know from commissioners what CCHD absolutely needed in place for mandated services.
She said CCHD has already reorganized, adding a deputy health officer, consolidating two previous positions, including the former family services division manager.
Gardner and Besich said that other adjustments are being considered, but more personnel cuts were likely needed to balance the budget.
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Other options include increased revenue, particularly if the City of Great Falls were to increase its contribution to CCHD operations, which has remained at $250,000 for about a decade.
The time studies will be important in the discussion with the city regarding the request for additional funding and Gardner said she plans to include at least a quarter and was hoping to complete it by the end of the year.
Briggs said he didn’t think the city would provide any additional funding toward CCHD operations.
Hinebauch said he thought the county ight get something from the city, but the commission was going to have to make some hard personnel cuts.
Besich said CCHD had grown a lot of services since there was a lot of money, in part COVID-related, for a while, but has been reviewing grants that aren’t sustainable to reduce expenses.
Briggs said, “as we narrow the scope, we need to drop bodies; that’s where the money is.”
He asked if there were any proposed changes this year or if they were using reserves to balance the budget.
Besich said that CCHD has no vacancy savings this year and by next year, there will be no cushion from reserves.
“Reductions have to be made this year,” Hinebauch said.
Besich suggested that CCHD complete the time study this quarter since they’ll need to be talking to the city by January to make any adjustments to the city’s financial contribution in its next budget.
She said that will have to be further discussed with the health board, county commission and the city.
Besich said it’s one area CCHD has the opportunity to increase revenue, but it’s not guaranteed.
She suggested regular finance meetings after the full county budget is approved since so much fo the CCHD budget is impacted in the first half of the fiscal year.
Hinebauch said they need to have a serious conversation in mid-fall about where to make reductions.
“We need to make cuts now. That’s the ugly truth,” Briggs said.
He said commissioners gave similar instructions two years ago, and they weren’t followed, so the department has continued to incur losses.
Hinebauch said he thought they’d have to see where the budget sat in early October but needed to be prepared to make changes.
In between the three budget discussions about CCHD, CCSO and JDC on Aug. 14, Briggs said those were the three budgets that were upside down and needed adjustments before the full budget was finalized, “and so far, nothing’s getting fixed.”
