Belgrade council adopts FY26 budget and levies, approves supplemental staffing and audit contract

The Belgrade City Council on Monday adopted its fiscal-year 2026 budget, set mill levies and several related revenue measures, approved supplemental appropriations and staffing changes, and authorized a new three-year audit contract.

Finance Director Charity (presenting) explained that state legislative changes altered the taxable value of a mill and required the council to convert voted mills to dollar amounts; the council accepted staff's recommendation to convert to dollars. The conversion, combined with inflation adjustments and debt-service obligations, produced an estimated taxpayer impact of about $8.12 per $100,000 in assessed value in the adopted budget. "What this budget does equate to an $8.12 per $100,000 in value increase to the taxpayers," a staff member explained during the presentation.

Council adopted Resolution 2025-33 to approve and adopt the FY26 final budget and set the mill levy pursuant to MCA 7-6-4030; the roll-call votes were recorded and the motion carried unanimously.

The council also adopted a permissive medical levy (Resolution 2025-31) set at 18.36, which staff projected would raise about $602,000 to offset the cost of employer contributions for governmental employee health insurance. Staff and council discussed that two union contracts fixed employer/employee contributions for those groups for the next three years; staff said the vast majority of government employees are covered at the individual level under current contributions.

Separately, staff described supplemental budget requests: about $27,000,000 in total requests were submitted across departments, of which staff recommended and the council approved approximately $3,800,000 for various funds. The supplemental items include six new positions: a customer-service representative in finance, a police administrative specialist, a systems administrator in information technology, an equipment mechanic in public works, an additional wastewater operator, and a forestry position. City staff noted the net result is an increase of one FTE (from roughly 110 to 111 authorized positions).

On audit services, staff explained audit fees have risen across the state. The council authorized the city manager to enter a three-year contract with Nexus CPA Group to provide audit services for fiscal years 2025–2027; staff presented maximum annual fee estimates (approximately $150,000 for FY25, $154,500 for FY26, and $160,000 for FY27). The motion to authorize the contract carried unanimously.

Council members discussed the budget's effect on public-safety funding and noted legislative changes reduced projected new revenue to police and library funds (staff cited a roughly $475,000 impact to police funding and about a $54,000 impact to library levies tied to state changes reducing mill value). Staff warned those reductions may require future service-level adjustments if the legislature does not change course.

Next steps: staff will publish the final budget documents and continue related studies (street maintenance fee review, five-year capital improvement plan).