MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council on Monday night voted 8-4 to adopt the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, which includes a tax increase of 5.8%, or roughly 11% when the fire levy is included.
The council also approved levying 2 emergency mills to fund the Johnson Street shelter. But city officials said it doesn't add to the city's 5.8% base tax increase and will be levied for “just one year.”
As adopted, the city's total budget is set to increase by roughly $13.1 million, growing from $203.6 million to $216.7 million. City officials said that includes increases to all taxing districts managed by the city, enterprise funds and other things the city has little control over.
Most council members explained their views of the budget and their votes. Their comments are below, as well as how they voted.
Gwen Jones (voted for the budget)
“Structurally, our property taxes have changed greatly over the last 10 to 20 years and that's why we're in the situation we're in, and other cities in Montana are feeling it too. Our economy has changed, industry has changed, the Legislature has passed laws changing the fact that certain entities put a lot less into city revenue. The burden has shifted onto residential and commercial property taxpayers.
“Every year it gets harder and harder to make all of the systems function in our local governments and schools. It's frustrating because we need to have tax reform so that there's some thoughtful analysis of what our current industries are in Montana and how there can be an equitable assessment of taxes. But we're working with an old system that's based on a prior natural resources economy and doesn't look at tourism for income, so here we are. We're hitting up residential and commercial property taxes. That's our source of revenue and we have to make it work.
“It's also important to recognize that more and more responsibilities have been placed on local government. Federal and state money coming into our coffers are less. Yet, we're having to deal with housing and affordable housing, unsheltered folks, mental health. Twenty or 30 years ago, this wasn't on local government's plate, but now it's considered one of our responsibilities, yet our tools to address it haven't changed.”
Sandra Vasecka (voted against the budget)
“The average annual grocery bill in Montana has increased by approximately 6.4% from last year to this year. Any increase in property taxes is an additional burden to our neighbors. Had my colleagues passed even one of the proposed budget amendments to reduce spending, I most likely would have been in support of this overall budget. However, since they did not, I cannot in good conscience lend my support.
“I anticipate some criticism for my vote against this budget given that it's only a 5.8% increase compared to other more drastic years, and an argument can be made that I'll never be satisfied for any budget over keeping up with the rate of inflation. However, it's my prerogative to vote according to my convictions and I am in the position to do so, so I will not be in support of this budget.”
Bob Campbell (voted against the budget)
“Not much attention was given to the phraseology about central services. What is essential in local government? It goes back to planning our needs and necessities over our wants, and I think there's some of that discussion to still be had. Just doing quick math on a sheet of paper, there were $2.5 million in proposed cuts proposed in this year's budget, and not a one of them passed.
“There's folks in town who have a pension from the 70s or 80s, they have Social Security, or in some cases, they own their home outright and the only thing they're paying is their property taxes. But their taxes divvied out over 12 months are now higher than their original mortgage.
“This will kick people out of their homes. Some people in town have already seen eviction notices because of property tax increases that can't be sustained by the landowners. People are going to be kicked out of their apartments, they'll be kicked out of whatever means they have. It's just going to add to the problem we have with houselessness here in Missoula.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for this particular budget given the opportunities we had with painful cuts and given what it's going to mean to working families, retirees, older folks in town who are on Social Security or only have pensions to live on, and what it's going to do to those folks.”
Daniel Carlino (voted against the budget)
“We need to have multiple branches of government working on the budget, and as a legislative branch, we didn't quite get the job done. Only five members of the City Council voted yes on any budget amendment, which made it impossible to pass any budget amendment. The rest of the council not only didn't vote for any budget amendments, not even one, they also didn't introduce any budget amendments.
“There were zero budget amendments passed, and that means the legislative branch frankly didn't fulfill our duties. People in Missoula get to elect us to figure out how their tax money is spent, and we didn't do our job when it came to this session by having the majority not vote for a single budget amendment and not introduce any budget amendments.
“And what were the reasons for voting against the affordable housing trust fund, sidewalks, the sustainable building incentive program and traffic circles? Tax increases was a lot of the justification. But as it turns out, we still increased taxes $321 on the median home, but when tax increases came up for a few quarters to help us build more traffic circles or sidewalks, suddenly the majority of council was concerned about taxes.”
Amber Sherrill (voted for the budget)
“I disagree with Mr. Carlino saying that if you don't make amendments to a budget, then you're not doing your job as a legislative branch. We had department heads come in and give us very robust presentations on their department's budget. We were sent a form that we were allowed to see what the mayor's and department's priorities would be. We were allowed to give feedback to the mayor.
“If you didn't agree with the priorities as they were sent out, and you didn't send that feedback of wanting to change the priorities, I would agree with Mr. Carlino in that you didn't do your job as a legislator. But if you did agree with those priorities and you didn't need to send that back and you thought about it and reviewed, then you did your job as a legislator.
“We've had many, many budget meetings and presentations and I would ask that when you watch those meetings, you pay special attention to the questions that are being asked and who is asking those questions of the department. I think that will be illuminating as to who is doing their job and how jobs are being done on this council.”
Stacie Anderson (voted for the budget)
“The FY 26 budget starts pretty much immediately. For those of us who've been on council who have worked hard to make relationships with departments and staff and the mayor's office, we're in those conversations well before it gets to the council floor.
“I think there is a misnomer that because you didn't support or vote for a budget amendment that it means you're not doing your work. Of all the amendments submitted, only one council member reached out to me to ask if I had questions on their amendment. Building the relationships and doing the hard work is far outside what you see on council, in committee meetings or on Monday nights.
“At the end of the day, if we were not to pass this budget, absolute chaos would ensue. I don't think that's a situation anyone wants. The last thing anyone needs is more chaos, especially from local government that has such impact on their daily lives.
“Am I frustrated about things in this budget? Of course. Could there be more things I'd like to see in here, or things I didn't really want to fund but saw the necessity? Absolutely. Every single one of us has multiple examples of that. But saying you're not voting for the budget because you don't understand it, or an amendment you like didn't get passed because you didn't do the work to reach out to your fellow council members to talk about it, doesn't mean you can sit back and vote 'no,' knowing the rest of us will do the hard work.”
Kristen Jordan (voted against the budget)
“I campaigned on trying to get program metrics implemented. My experience working for the federal government in another country really showed me the value of how you can use that information to make budgetary decisions. I cannot in good faith vote yes on a budget where I don't feel I have enough information.
“I also find it disturbing that we are starting to add value systems or ranking comments in platforms of our colleagues. I know that in the past, Bob (Campbell) and Sandra (Vasecka) have driven the rest of council absolutely nuts, but suddenly their platform is welcome and everyone understands where they're coming from. It's a big elephant in the room that there are two of us (Jordan and Carlino) who have pretty strong platforms that somehow don't account for anything. I know for a fact that I represent my voters.”
Mike Nugent (voted for the budget)
“I appreciate council members Bob Campbell and Sandra Vasecka and their explanation of their vote. They offered amendments to cut taxes, it just didn't happen on the floor. But I think they were standing up for what they told their constituents they would do. Those 'no' votes are principled.
“I think the mayor's shift toward priority-based budgeting is the right direction. But structural changes are larger than what we can do on the floor and I think it's also a process that takes more than one cycle. (The mayor) has laid the groundwork to make some changes. But we all know that unless something changes in our tax structure at the state level, we're going to probably have to do some things that nobody wants to.
“The budgetary process starts well before the budget. Part of being a good council member is communicating. Part of the role on council is to keep things out of the budget, and there are a lot of asks – some big ones out there the departments would like to see. But we've communicated this isn't the time for (them). That's a huge part of the process as well.”
