Livingston Enterprise - County joins support effort to reduce 95 mills

Park County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to the state attorney general’s office requesting an opinion on whether the 95 mills should be reduced. This reduction would raise $323,362 from county taxpayers rather than the $2,360,180, the letter states

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Read the article at the Livingston Enterprise by Sean Batura

Excerpt:

“The (average) taxable value went up 37%, and our mills dropped correspondingly,” said Park County Finance Director Erica Strickland during Tuesday’s commission meeting. “The county, for the general mill, only increased 5%, but for the state 95 mills — if they keep it fixed — it’s actually a 37% increase to taxpayers, and it translates to over $2 million in additional charges, because it’s not prorated back down to the proper mills that it should be.”

“This difference in revenue is approximately $114.49 for every man, woman, and child in Park County,” reads the commissioners’ letter. “We are sure that no one in the state legislature intended to have the state portion of the local property tax to increase by 37.2%. Thank you for your consideration.”

Park County Commission Chair Bill Berg hailed the efforts of Beaverhead County Commission Chair Mike McGinley in this process. McGinley “stepped up and put this effort together,” Berg said.

“If we were able to ignore Montana statute like apparently the state itself is, we’d have $120,000 extra right now in our budget, because we can only raise half the rate of inflation,” Berg said Tuesday. “So that’s been in effect for 23 years, I think. … The local government center from MSU estimates that we’ve lost almost 25% of our purchasing power over that time as you make that adjustment every three years. It’s one of the reasons that we kinda have one hand tied behind our back a lot of times when we’re trying to go through the budget around here.”

County joins effort to reduce property taxes

Park County has joined an effort to reduce the tax burden on locals imposed by the State of Montana.