Missoula County Fiscal Year 2024 Budget

The Missoula County commissioners adopted the fiscal year 2024 budget on Sept. 7.

You can find answers to frequently asked questions in the FAQ widget on the right-hand side.

Expected revenue from property taxes to fund the budget is $70.6 million, a 5.4% increase over last year. The CPI inflation rate over the past 12 months is 5.97%.

The $3.6 million increase in tax revenue mainly covers the increase to the County’s base budget needed to sustain current services and operations. Increases to wages and healthcare costs for the County’s 855 FTEs across 30 departments that provide essential government services accounts for most of the base budget increase.

The tax impacts of the adopted budget will differ depending on where a resident lives within the county. For property within Missoula city limits, residents will pay $251 in total County taxes for every $100,000 in assessed property value, or about $21 a month. For properties outside Missoula city limits, residents will pay $314.96 in total County taxes for every $100,000 in assessed property value, or $26.25 a month. (Please note that those numbers reference the total taxes owed per $100,000, not the increase from last year.)

About 85% of Missoula County’s employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements, and the County negotiates those agreements in good faith each year and also budgets for increases to non-union employees. This includes increasing wages for employees in chronically understaffed departments that provide critical public safety services, such as sheriff's deputies, detention officers and 9-1-1 dispatchers.

In addition to the base budget, the commissioners approved new requests to improve services and operations. The bulk of these are one-time requests that must be paid for with savings from previous fiscal years so they do not impact property tax bills. The commissioners also approved a handful of new requests to fund ongoing improvements, including new staff.

The commissioners received dozens of requests from departments across the County this year, and they declined to fund $1.84 million in new spending. This includes denying ongoing funding for $1.1 million in requests for 13.5 new full-time positions and four promotions. A detailed list of the approved requests is available under the Documents section on the right-hand side of this page.

The commissioners accepted public comment on the budget until the final budget hearing on Sept. 7.