Missoula County Fiscal Year 2023 Budget
The Missoula County commissioners voted to adopt the County’s fiscal year 2023 budget at their public meeting on Thursday, Sept. 8.
Learn about the 2023 fiscal year budget in the Budget in Brief.
Budget overview
The revised final budget for FY 23 includes $211.5 million in overall expenditures and $211.3 million in overall revenue. Revenue includes property tax dollars and other sources, such as grant funding, fees and entitlement share. While not considered a revenue source, the County funds one-time expenses with cash savings from previous years, which makes up for the difference in revenue versus expenditures.
The adopted budget includes a $35 million increase to expenditures over the previous year. This includes increases to the base budget to sustain current service levels, with employee retention and recruitment as the top priority.
An increase to personnel costs for Partnership Health Center, which is funded by grants and other federal dollars and receives no property taxes, contributes to the uptick in expenditures. Other factors include $20 million for capital construction and improvement projects, many of which are funded with cash savings from previous years. The $20 million in capital expenditures includes $16.6 million in bond issuances for construction of the Rocky Mountain Gardens and Exploration Center, a private-public project slated to open at the Fairgrounds next spring, and renovations to improve ADA access at the Elections Center.
Budget priorities
- The commissioners’ top priority for the FY 23 budget was employee retention and recruitment.
- Increases to wages and other personnel costs for the County’s 855 FTEs across 30 departments, which provide essential community services, accounts for most of the base budget increase.
- The FY 23 budget also includes a general personnel increase of 2.5%, with some targeted increases exceeding this to bolster wages for employees to help ensure they can live and stay in Missoula County.
This will help the County retain and recruit the quality workforce responsible for core community services we all rely on, such as:
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Budget requests
To minimize the impact on taxpayers, departments must fund all one-time requests with cash savings from the prior fiscal year. All new, ongoing requests require an on-going source of revenue, such as new property tax dollars, grants or fees.
The commissioners received dozens of requests from County departments this year, and they declined to fund $2.4 million in new spending. The remaining requests commissioners approved include $1.3 million in one-time requests paid for with cash savings; $822,462 in requests that would require new property tax dollars; and $161,115 in requests funded with grants, fees and other sources of revenue. A detailed list of these requests is available under the Documents section of this page.
What else does the budget include?
- The FY 23 budget also contains $400,000 in revenue from the voter-approved 3% local option tax on recreational cannabis sales in the county. Half of this revenue will go toward the road fund to help offset the loss in revenue after the Legislature repealed the County’s voter-approved gas tax in 2021. The other $200,000 will help support increases in employee wages to help with retention and recruitment.
- The budget also includes $775,000 to start paying off general obligation bonds the County issued after settling a wage claim lawsuit with sheriff’s deputies earlier this year. This is listed on tax bills as a judgment levy.
How will this impact my taxes?
It depends on where you live in the county (see the explanation below on countywide vs. county-only taxes).
The tax impact of the adopted budget will differ depending on where in the county a resident lives. For property within Missoula city limits, the approximate increase will be $22.70 a year for every $100,000 in assessed property value, or $1.89 per month. For properties outside Missoula city limits, the approximate tax impact will be $25.07 a year for every $100,000 in assessed property value, or $2.09 per month.
Tell us what you think Missoula County should prioritize in the fiscal year 2023 budget.
The Missoula County commissioners voted to adopt the County’s fiscal year 2023 budget at their public meeting on Thursday, Sept. 8.
Learn about the 2023 fiscal year budget in the Budget in Brief.
CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
Who's Listening
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Phone 406-258-4919 Email aczorny@missoulacounty.us
Documents
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FY23 Budget in Brief (1.96 MB) (pdf)
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FY23 Final Budget Presentation (908 KB) (pdf)
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FY23 Final Budget Revenues and Expenditures (132 KB) (pdf)
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FY23 Final Budget Levies (181 KB) (pdf)
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FY23 Budget Requests (377 KB) (pdf)
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FY23 Proposed Tax Levies (146 KB) (pdf)
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FY23 Preliminary Budget Presentation (4.84 MB) (pdf)
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FY23 Preliminary Budget Expenditures and Revenues.pdf (126 KB) (pdf)
Thank you for providing this forum for feedback on the proposed 2023 budget. There are several items that could easily be taken off this budget, with no harm to anyone at all. Although these are small items, they are not small to the cash strapped taxpayers of Missoula County. The first item is Ballot Return Prepaid Postage-$40K. Since when have out county elections reverted to mail in ballot? I can/will go to the same place I have voted for over 20 years, show my ID and cast my ballot. We do NOT want or need, and certainly did not ask for, mail in ballots and elections. Save the taxpayer $40K and go back to voting in person. The second item is Empower MT contracted services for $10K. Exactly who thinks this benefits any taxpayer to have employees be forced to sit through nonsense about diversity? The far left EmPower MT and their false ideas of children, schools, parents and families should not be asking taxpayers to fund this questionable program that adds little to no value. Among their "childrens" books offered for review are "Mommy, Mama, and Me; Daddy, Papa, and Me" about mixed gay parental "families", kids with two dads and kids who are LGBT. Get this garbage away from City and County employees, they deserve better.
I agree that city and county workers need to have living wages and should have incentives to want to continue working for us. I don't believe a 11 almost 12 percent increase is warranted to do this. Then add that to what the city wants! The residents have had to tighten their budgets and so should the county. A new crisis levy is being asked for and if passed then the increase you are assessing is compounded, this becomes too much for those of us retired and also for low income people who struggling to keep their home that fortunately they bought before house prices DOUBLED! Speaking of which, with all the increased tax revenue from all the new development growth show us where that fits into the budget.
Commissioners I hope you are reading the prior posts. Every comment so far is warning you that the current and proposed budgets are unsustainable. Time to have the courage to start reducing budgeted projects and positions. Find ways to cut our taxes, not increase them. Those of us who have lived here and worked here for many years are being forced out and this proposed budged will push many out of our community, myself included. Have the courage to cut, not increase our county taxes.
I understand the need for taxes, and do not complain too much about them, but at some point I think we need to look forward and realize that we are making it impossible for people in the middle class and below to live and retire in this town. We are driving them out, and kicking them to the nearest cheaper town to Missoula. This has happened in so many communities, such as Sun Valley and Jackson Hole. We should learn from it and come up with solutions to enable the average person to live in this town. People with enough money may scoff, but it will be interesting when teachers, nurses, health care assistants, restaurant workers, and the many others with average wages have to commute from long distances to Missoula in order to serve these people. Would they even be willing?
Can we please start to get more creative with helping out the home owner or aspiring home owner in this town? Can we discuss some sort of a tax cap for the retired? I am not retired, but would like to be able to retire. Can we come up with some other form of revenue other than always property taxes? I am not sure what a person with a second, third, or more homes get taxed, but I would hope it would be a lot more, as to discourage this era of investment property before others even get their one home. Please look at the writing on the wall. We are in for big changes. We will stop seeing mill levies being voted in, as people become sick of the high property taxes. Infrastructure, police, fire, schools, etc. will suffer. People will start to vote for more populist/extremists, once they feel like their back is up against the wall. I dare you all to get more creative and innovative with your budgeting.
What a JOKE!!! When did it become the tax payers/homeowners to pay for the LIES of the politicians?!! All they are going to do is line their pockets with the hard earned money of the hardworking. Why should I have to pay for a sheriff's lawsuit that I wasn't involved in? The roads in this town are never fixed so why pay for road repairs? And snow plowing please!! I haven't actually seen a snow plow working in years!!!! All we are paying for is more crap!!! Enough!!! The commissioners can take a pay cut and pay for these "improvements" out of their own pockets!!!!
I would like to express my extreme opposition to this magnitude of tax increase. As you well know the vast majority of your tax base haven’t received salary increases that come close to keeping up with current cost of living, inflation, and fuel prices. An 11% increase in taxes is an assault on the very people you represent in the current climate. If my neighbors and I need to tighten our budgets due to national and world economics then so should Missoula County.
So many more long-time, hard-working residents will be pushed out of Missoula if you don’t stop increasing property taxes NOW! The last couple of years have already brought so many in from out of state that Montanans are struggling just to stay where they have lived all their lives. Further increasing property taxes will not result in a better community, but only in one no true Montanan can afford to live in. Please ask yourselves if you really think it is a better decision to make sacrifices in your desired budget in an effort to allow Missoulians and Montanans to stay in their homes and keep this city from becoming Aspen or San Francisco or increase the burden we all feel right now to an unsustainable level and eliminate the people from our city and state who make it what it is. Your decisions now affect far more than whether Missoula can offer (or even sustain) its current level of services to the community …. Your decisions affect the very survival of the character of the community and state we grew up in.
You have to be kidding. I was born and raised here in Missoula and make a decent wage but with an almost 12% tax hike on my house you will eventually force me out of the town I love. This is not sustainable in this economy to keep taking from the hard working people of Missoula. You need to look at the big picture and prioritize needs and wants. In this economy of uncertainty we need to just take care of our absolute needs and table the wants. Now is not the time to get greedy especially at our expense. Do not drive the people who love Missoula away. People can’t afford houses in this town already and doing this tax increase will make buying a house even more unattainable for most. I understand that things get more expensive and taxes do need to go up but not almost 12%. That is asinine to think an almost 12% increase in one year is ok to do to the citizens who support this community.
Budgeting is not easy, especially at a governmental level. While not everyone really understands that, many do. The commissioners are in a tough spot, wanting to fund more things than we have money for. I think you don't want to raise taxes, mills, etc. at all. The reality, though, is that you will if you feel it's necessary. Please... do what the City did not have the courage to do: budget within our means. It will absolutely equate to a reduction in some services, or vacant staffing positions going unfilled for a year. But that's what has to happen. When your constituents have bills higher than their paychecks, they have to make cuts- some of which might be uncomfortable. Some maintenance might have to be further put off. New programs will have to wait. It's the reality, and it's unfortunate. But nearly 12 percent city tax increase, along with the crushing expenses of the impending bonds and levies are going to absolutely wreak havoc with a large number of taxpayers. Please: budget within your means. Thank you.
You have got to stop raising property taxes at the amounts you keep doing so! All you keep doing is pushing locals out of this community. It is impossible to afford a home here, and these taxes are increasing rentals at an alarming rate as the tax increases just get placed on the renters. You state you need to raise them due to inflation. Well join the club! Inflation is impacting your citizens also. Gas, food costs, utility bills, etc. Yet our wages are not keeping up with inflation. Our homeless problem will continue to get worse if you keep these tax increases. Please stop this viscous cycle that we have been in with our past Mayor and do something for your average wage citizens who are working very hard and need affordable housing!
I don’t know how the young people with families, can afford to buy a house or be able to keep up with the property taxes you keep raising each year. The same for retirees. You are taxing the hardworking Montanans out of their homes. It’s sad to see people born and raised here have to leave because of this. You are making their futures look bleak.🥲