Finance director presents tax-year 2025 mill-levy proposal; staff urges review of Department of Revenue taxable values

Director Danielson presented the administration’s proposed mill-levy package for fiscal 2026 and urged the commission to press the Montana Department of Revenue for clarification after the city received a lower-than-expected certified change in newly taxable value.

Danielson said the state’s inflation factor for taxable-value adjustments was 2.11% this year, while the city’s certified adjusted taxable value change showed a 7.71% decrease; that combination, he said, increases the number of mills the city must set to generate equivalent revenue. He told commissioners the city’s proposed general levy is 123.64 mills compared with 110.43 mills levied last year. He also said the permissive health levy is proposed at 28.19 mills and that the supplemental voted fire levy would be restated as a dollar amount, equivalent to 11.54 mills and projected to generate $1,054,992.

Danielson said he had requested and received a revised certified new-taxable-value figure from the Department of Revenue after questioning an initial certified value; he said he has also filed a public-records request for the department’s property data to validate the certified numbers.

The director recommended the commission adopt the state’s new option to state voted levies in dollars rather than mills, saying it enhances transparency and subjects the voted levy to the statutory inflation factor. He told commissioners the administration will present two resolutions at the Sept. 8 meeting: one to restate the voted levy in dollars and a second to adopt the annual tax levy.