Commissioners approve reallocation of museum mill funds to cover county public-safety shortfall after heated public hearing

Yellowstone County commissioners voted Tuesday to approve Resolution 25‑100, amending fiscal year 2025 and initial fiscal year 2026 grant budgets to reallocate a portion of museum mill funding into the county general fund to help cover a public‑safety shortfall. The board approved the resolution after a public hearing that drew more than a dozen speakers, including museum staff, trustees and local artists who urged the commissioners to restore prior allocations to the Yellowstone Art Museum.

The vote followed a staff legal briefing that described the museum mill dollars as part of the county’s consolidated general mills and, therefore, discretionary. "These general mills were consolidated under I‑one 105 back in the 1980s and they are discretionary by nature," a staff member identified in the record as Steve said during the meeting. He told commissioners that the state law authorizing a museum mill levy (MCA 716.2205) was repealed in 2009 and that a separate grandfathering provision for special districts (MCA 711.103 / MCA 711.104) applies only if a special district had been formed by resolution or referendum; county records show no such formation.

The legal briefing…