[0:00] All right, I'd like to call this meeting to order. Wednesday, September, 2nd, 2026.

[0:08] Appreciate you guys taking the time to be here for this.

[0:13] There's no minutes. Nobody here for public comment. I guess there are some bills.

[0:19] You guys want to take a look at those?

[0:25] We'll consider about the explosive.

[0:29] Yeah.

[0:30] There are some batteries.

[0:36] I move that we approved the bill's

[0:38] September 2nd, 2026.

[0:42] Motion to approve.

[0:43] Second.

[0:44] Any more discussion on the matter?

[0:46] Any more good to you?

[0:50] All in favor?

[0:52] Aye.

[0:53] Aye.

[0:54] Aye.

[0:54] All right, thank you, new business, unfinished business,

[1:01] approving authorized mayor and clerk to sign resolution 2026-07 to adopt

[1:07] and establish the mills to be levied for fiscal year 2026-2027.

[1:14] All right, Kaleen, go ahead and take it away.

[1:16] The

[1:25] whole valuation is what we use in all the phones and I

[1:38] was a little disappointed

[1:39] today when I saw my friend at 3.4.

[1:42] Perse was 2 grand per mill higher, ours is 3,000, 4 and 62 cents, versus 5,000, so it's

[1:55] But anyway, this new law that came up, I'm sure nobody wants to read out a statute and they sent out a proposed resolution that we could do to set up this reserved fund.

[2:10] And what the new legislature was trying to do was it basically will help bigger cities, of course.

[2:24] But if you have a large taxpayer, based

[2:35] on this, it's based on the newly taxable property under 3P,

[2:40] which we don't have anything there for Ronan, but what happens is there's 10% that can be

[2:46] You said, in this special fund, to save for future years in case of a decline or you lose

[2:53] some revenue or fact tax money or something.

[2:58] So that's what they were trying to do.

[3:03] 10% of what, Kaylee?

[3:07] Of the newly taxable revenue, which would have been on line 3B, but it's not there.

[3:13] Okay.

[3:13] Why is it not there?

[3:14] Because we don't have any.

[3:16] We didn't get it.

[3:16] We won't end just any of it.

[3:20] So, um...

[3:21] So how do I do you do 10% of zero?

[3:24] Yeah.

[3:26] So, I did not realize it was based on just 3D.

[3:29] I thought it was based on also 3A.

[3:33] Okay.

[3:33] So, I prepared the form and it came out as...

[3:40] It is supposed to prepare it using no...

[3:45] And you're supposed to prepare using yes, and that's line eight, and the top two, you have a prepared each way.

[3:54] And it's supposed to give you a different result at the end of what it's supposed to set aside.

[3:58] If you say yes, it's supposed to set aside some money.

[4:00] Well, it came out the same with both.

[4:05] So of course, I doubted myself.

[4:07] So I sent it to Calcreg and asked him, I said,

[4:11] would you double check this?

[4:13] Because he told me what Hamilton's sent aside was,

[4:16] which we know Hamilton has for money.

[4:19] He said he doesn't know why, but he got it to come out.

[4:22] It came out the same old times for him, too.

[4:28] So then I contacted League of Cities of Towns

[4:31] and I said, do we still have to give you a resolution

[4:35] if we vote for no because why vote for yes when it resulted in zero and she said if you're

[4:41] been a vote for no not having any set aside you don't have to do a resolution. But then today

[4:49] I got an email from Tara Perry, finance officer of the county and she asked me to do a resolution

[4:59] authorizing the mills this year because usually we transmit the list of

[5:04] mills in a letter on City Letterhead. She said she asked me for a resolution so

[5:09] the last thing you have is the resolution that I drafted today and I sent it on

[5:16] up to this review. I took the language in it that one two three four that fourth

[5:23] paragraph, the word as the longer paragraph explains what the legislature was trying to create.

[5:31] They called it this fund.

[5:32] They wanted number two, three, eight, eight, and they're supposed to be set aside money.

[5:37] But that paragraph, if you have a chance to read it, is what was referred to in that legislation.

[6:00] So yeah, like it says zero money.

[6:03] So, anyway, going on, back to these, first two are the all funds, which is the general.

[6:15] And it's prepared knowing yes, but it comes out the same.

[6:18] So, it's 93.34 mils, which shows up in line 20 that we can levied for the all-purpose

[6:24] levied, for the mills for general funds.

[6:27] And

[6:36] then after those two pages is the permissive levy one, which has a formula, it goes,

[6:45] it's start year as it shows on the form is the base year was 2000, and that was the figure

[6:52] that was the base amount used that year.

[6:56] You can only use the 11 people you can't.

[7:01] It's general fund.

[7:05] The people that have part of their salvia are sewer and water, they're sure the insurance

[7:10] comes out of their ship, sewer and water.

[7:12] So this is based on how the payroll breaks down and based on our

[7:22] insurance grant.

[7:27] Just a little bit more than last year because there is some in a cash balance in the fund.

[7:34] And so that's that one.

[7:40] The next page is Public Safety Fund and that's the police levy.

[7:48] There's also those two pages, ones that know, ones that yes, but again it came out the

[7:53] same.

[7:55] That, you start with the prior years at the top, what was actually assessed.

[8:02] and then you put in this year's taxable value and then the computation takes

[8:10] care of the rest so this one came out was 57.07 miles in life 20 for the

[8:17] public safety. Do

[8:21] you happen to know what it was last year?

[8:24] If you happen to know what it was last year is a similar flow of debt I'm doing?

[8:29] Sure, I got right here, but yes,

[9:06] it was 50.55 ml last year, is what it came out to.

[9:10] But the value per meal was a little less, so that

[9:20] was 127 last year, it's 131 this year.

[9:26] So yeah.

[9:33] Oh, but that was enough for this one.

[9:36] You're talking about the police letter.

[9:38] Okay.

[9:46] That came out to 165,

[9:52] 165, 712 last year.

[9:56] I don't know where it wants everyone.

[10:00] 165.

[10:01] 165 mills.

[10:03] How high you do this?

[10:07] 165.

[10:07] Yep.

[10:08] It was 165 mills last year and it's 57 mills this year.

[10:12] But right.

[10:13] The last year our mill value was 2525.

[10:16] Why did they do that to us?

[10:18] That's crazy.

[10:18] It's part of an insurance department of revenue. Now it's 3,004.

[10:25] It's actually more money because it's here in Melbourne.

[10:31] Actually, overall, me totaling the whole thing this year versus last year is I think we got

[10:37] $2,000 more this year. Overall, even though I'm paying for your heavy care computing, it did

[10:47] value went up to 3,000 but we get less mills is how they make that come out about the same

[10:53] if they give you less mills they give you higher value you think this is wonderful that

[10:57] you don't get as many mills comes out of the same. So who did case? Yeah department of

[11:03] revenue. The state of the legislative. Yeah, legislative. So why some sounds give more

[11:10] more mills because they have a bigger tax base, but bigger tax base more money in the community.

[11:22] But that still doesn't pan out, in my mind, tax bases, you know, we have a better tax base

[11:31] This year that last year, I'm assuming, but then they reduce our levy because they artificially came up with this taxable value.

[11:50] And I guess it's some formula that's in state legislature is what you're going to know about the taxable values.

[11:56] this is where this is the form we get which is here yeah every year this is the

[12:04] one that we're waiting on so the total market value of rolling in I hate to go

[12:12] all the way back to kilting garden here but at least we see it once a year

[12:15] it's just like right and I can hardly believe it anyway but

[12:24] then how do they come

[12:25] up with the taxable value that they think you need any money.

[12:31] I mean different commissioners meetings that I've been in, they have stated how department

[12:36] revenue is understaffed and are not able to go out and actually investigate and look

[12:43] into different buildings that are going on.

[12:45] They've had people that have been here for five years, weren't paying property taxes because

[12:49] department revenue never made it out there.

[12:50] Well, and that goes into the market value.

[12:53] Yes.

[12:55] That's the market value.

[12:56] I mean, we saw that.

[12:56] That's the transfer station.

[12:58] People are paying there.

[12:59] They don't have them on the rolls in Helena.

[13:02] So we don't tax them for garbage.

[13:04] And they get the service.

[13:05] Oh, well.

[13:06] Yeah.

[13:07] We had people on the board go around and count new houses

[13:12] and turn them into a economy.

[13:14] And she.

[13:14] Yeah.

[13:15] We created.

[13:17] Well, we.

[13:17] Yeah.

[13:18] I was there we probably found $10,000 of other taxes per year because of the people

[13:28] that I mean you know you get if you have a piece of property and it split it the

[13:33] guy that he's going to sheep ranch.

[13:37] He lived on a piece of property and he

[13:40] split it. Well somebody screwed up the splits in the department of revenue and

[13:47] He lived on the portion that they didn't bother putting on the tax rolls and the other one was vacant land

[13:53] And then we started doing tags. He needed a tag and I said

[13:57] Tom

[13:59] How come you're not paying taxes

[14:02] What?

[14:03] It goes through my mortgage. You know, I mean, most people have never seen it

[14:08] You know how much you get your house paid for and then they are understaffed. You are correct

[14:12] But they do they don't they don't go out and look

[14:16] No, they have no idea.

[14:17] Well, that's the total market value.

[14:19] The market value is done in taxable value.

[14:22] Taxable value is, I don't know if you can remember it,

[14:26] but exactly, but it's based on a formula.

[14:30] Well, here it says taxable value is calculated

[14:33] after abatements have been applied.

[14:36] Yeah.

[14:36] Okay, what's up?

[14:38] What's going to be?

[14:38] Well, if you get a credit to be in an elder,

[14:43] literally there's a credit for that if you get the homestead credit there's

[14:47] credits for that I mean like the commissioners I think bills don't be you know

[14:51] but that guy they had probably $100,000 worth of market value go off

[15:00] Is it the A&B? Oh, yeah. Williams or whatever they are. Would you appeal what your value of your property is? Well, you kind of pay off, yes, I know that. But that's, and that comes in. I mean, that's already been calculated when we get to market value, but that's where the county was seen that they were going to lose money. And then it's, if my dad was alive, he could explain it to you. He created the formula in 64. And I don't think they've changed it since he was budget director.

[15:29] So other than Dave, it's nowhere that there's no new taxable property because there's all sorts of stuff going. I mean, there's tons of stuff going on.

[15:38] But it's not on the roll by tractor supplies.

[15:42] But like dollar general, I mean, there's some stuff that's...

[15:47] Well, and there's different classifications.

[15:50] He had the recovery sensor over by the brewery. I mean, there's some and there's some stuff that dropped off like the club's

[16:00] I mean

[16:03] Here I can

[16:23] Yeah, in many you have the commercial, and we don't get any.

[16:26] The next year should be better than that.

[16:27] And we don't get any.

[16:28] When I get caught up?

[16:29] No.

[16:30] They won't get caught up.

[16:31] They don't get it.

[16:33] They.

[16:33] I have found out something also though when people make improvements on their homes and when

[16:42] a new building is completed, a paperwork structure is supposed to turn that into the county.

[16:46] And sometimes I remind them so not saying that that hasn't been done, but sometimes we have to catch up.

[16:58] Well, I go along with the building permits, doesn't it?

[17:01] Your issue of the building permit to start with if there's such, such value that is being added.

[17:07] But that's, but only when it's completed.

[17:12] I know, but I'm just saying that's your start of your tracking, a building permit

[17:17] issue. Then you'd have that on the list. If you get one, I mean, in town more people get them

[17:24] up in the county. No, I'm worried about the county. No, I'm just there. But the way the county gets

[17:34] it is, they get them from, oh, I get it from solid waste, they get it from the building permits

[17:39] that the town's turned in in the county, they get them from sewer permit when

[17:45] somebody's going to put in a septic tank. But what we found clear back when I was

[17:53] working for the county is even when they would get sent to the Department of

[17:58] Revenue, they weren't getting tracked. Unfortunately, I screwed that up when I

[18:03] hired Teresa because she was the only one in the Department of Revenue that

[18:06] we'll have to do something.

[18:09] Where did our goal mark?

[18:11] Well, the making of the rules on this new proposed

[18:15] set aside netting that is the information we got regarding.

[18:20] Those are our large taxpayers.

[18:23] Well, that's great.

[18:25] But if our difference in this year and last year is only $2,000,

[18:33] we'll be able to help run into a set aside.

[18:35] Ain't money at all.

[18:36] Craig said Hamilton's completed out to $770 to set aside.

[18:41] Why go to all this trouble set up a new fund for $770?

[18:46] Craig told me he was going to tell him back it.

[18:48] Yeah, and I'm in the back in my very far back and I had not enough to remember all of it.

[18:57] But, you know, how California stayed their taxes, property taxes.

[19:05] is, Montana did that too. We tried to hold, you know, the legislature tried to hold

[19:11] property taxes. And I know that that's part of what comes into that way. Suddenly we

[19:18] have thousand, thousand more mills, but we're not taxing anybody any more than we did last

[19:26] last year, practically. I mean, draw intensive purposes. I mean, I remember that was pushed

[19:37] through and then, well, then whatever they did last time with all the various tax bills

[19:47] for secondary homes and rental homes, but also the $400 that we got.

[19:56] that you got back.

[19:58] Well, what the new buildings we do have in town

[20:01] the last year or two, I did expect

[20:03] a better increase this year.

[20:05] Yeah.

[20:07] They have taken all the logic right out of it.

[20:12] There hasn't been a need for something.

[20:16] Also, thanks for waiting through this, Kaylee.

[20:18] So, we went through public safety.

[20:20] The next one is the fire association.

[20:22] That's all our folks doing.

[20:23] Fire meetings.

[20:25] Yeah.

[20:26] And that's their retirement, their disability intention.

[20:29] and that paying off to 10.38 mils and

[20:37] the last one planning they don't even trust us

[20:41] if you get out the county totally wants to be in control so they can get it out and send it to me for 1.6

[20:50] That is it, okay.

[20:51] That is it. I double checked them.

[20:54] If I came out to think they hear David,

[20:57] so that's all.

[21:00] And then, of course, the resolution that I drafted

[21:05] that Charvary said, she was like a resolution itself.

[21:09] Resolution that we don't sense any money,

[21:12] I just don't have any.

[21:14] No, it's all resolution to not result.

[21:34] I don't explain it very well though, it's hard, I would imagine it's hard to explain.

[21:42] Well, it's one of those things that you try to do, of course.

[21:46] And when you do it once a year, what I do is I get out the previous year, just go through

[21:54] exactly step by step how I came up with what I came up with, go forwards and last year's

[22:04] I even thought, gee, I'm going to go back one more year and double check again, so I went

[22:09] back to the previous year and double check again, so I still came out the same.

[22:33] All right, all right, hold on, hold on, hold on, any, any more discussion?

[22:39] Everybody?

[22:40] Everybody's dead?

[22:41] The first week can be.

[22:49] Yeah, even I try to do my own research. I tried to ask AI and AI couldn't break it down for me to make something

[23:02] Okay, all right, we just get them all right all in favor of the motion. All right, all right. Thank you

[23:14] We are we are gonna meet next week as anybody have any council comment tonight. All

[23:24] right

[23:26] When you have anything else

[23:29] No, okay motion to yeah motion to join

[23:33] All in favor all right thank you guys for coming in

Ronan, MT meeting

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