Legislative fiscal staff and State Librarian outline budget, warn of declining recording-fee revenue and proprietary fund growth

Legislative fiscal staff told the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education that the Montana State Library’s 2027 biennium House Bill 2 budget request is roughly $778,000, or about 5 percent, above the fiscal year 2025 base, and they flagged a decline in revenues to the Montana Land Information state special revenue account that may require legislative action.

Julia, a Legislative Fiscal Division analyst, walked the committee through the agency’s House Bill 2 tables and the separate proprietary fund analysis. She said the statewide present-law personal services adjustment (DP 1) for the state library accounts for much of the HB2 increase; the DP 1 package for fiscal year 2026 was about $196,000, of which roughly $78,000 were legislative changes (benefits and longevity) and about $118,000 were management changes (reclassifications and hiring at different rates). "Of the $196,000 decision package for fiscal year 2026, about $78,000 of that was legislative changes and about 118,000 was management changes," she said.

Julia pointed to the Montana Land Information account as a legislative action item: recording fees rose from $0.75 to $1.50 in fiscal year 2022, producing one-time revenue that funded projects such as the Montana Real Time Network. Those additional collections were used as one-time funding in the 2021 and…