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Commissioners discuss conversion of mill levies to dollar requests and budget uncertainty
Summary
Commissioners reviewed a recommendation to convert mill-based tax requests to fixed-dollar amounts for clarity and discussed uncertainty in mill-levy values as the budget is prepared; commissioners warned the change could affect budgeting and public understanding.
Commissioner (identified in the transcript as the motion-maker) summarized a recent webinar and the Montana State Library recommendation that local levies switch from mills to explicit dollar requests so voters better understand tax impacts. "The end goal of legislation is that we're no longer reporting dollar amounts or reporting money requests to the public in mills because people don't understand they want it in dollar value," the commissioner said while describing the legislative trend.
The board noted that mill-levy calculations and assessed valuation are still pending, leaving the county in budget uncertainty while staff complete the budget book. Commissioners discussed delaying some spending decisions until mill-value figures are available and confirmed the county must guard against unplanned expenditures as they plan for the coming fiscal year.
