Broadwater County adopts revised FY2026 budget and switches voted levies to dollar-based method under new state law

Broadwater County commissioners on Sept. 3 held a public hearing and adopted two resolutions that revise how voter-approved levies are calculated and that finalize the county's fiscal year 2026 operating budget.

Debbie Kelly, Broadwater County finance officer and payroll manager, explained that state legislation requires voted mills to be recalculated using one of two methods and said the county will transition its two voted levies to the MCA 15-10-420 formula (referred to in the meeting as "15 10 4 20"). "The formula in 15 10 4 20 . . . uses a dollar value to generate revenue and not the number of mills that were voted," Kelly said while reading the resolution into the record. The county's two permanent voted levies affected are the rural fire district levy and the noxious weed district levy.

Under the adopted method the county reported per-mill revenue estimates for homes valued at $103,100: $15,619.33 per mill for the rural voted fire district and $24,008.21 per mill for the noxious…