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3/24/2025
“Missoula This Week” is reported and written By Katie Fairbanks. Send your Missoula news and tips to [email protected].
Operational levies, high school safety levy needed for tight budget, officials say
Missoula voters will see three school funding levies on the May special election ballot, the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees decided on Monday.
The board approved placing an elementary school operational levy of $384,947, a high school operational levy of $164,315 and a high school safety levy of $1 million on the May 6 ballot. The board also approved permissive levy estimates, including a $1.6 million total increase for elementary schools and a $1.8 million increase for high schools.
District staff and trustees emphasized the need for the levies to make the most out of a tight budget.
Last year, the district had four levies on the ballot: the two general fund operations levies, plus elementary and high school safety and security levies. The $1 million high school safety levy was the only one that failed.
Staff recommended the district hold off on running the safety levy again because of a larger-than-typical increase in the permissive levies and to focus on passing the operational levies while being sensitive to taxpayers.
At current rates, the high school safety levy would cost the owner of a $300,000 home $12.24 annually and the owner of a $600,000 home $24.48.
The levy would take a burden off the general fund and help cover costs for school resource officers and applicable staff time, said Pat McHugh, executive director of business and operations.
“I want to be clear too that the lack of a safety levy doesn’t mean that we’re not safe,” he said. “We’re already doing these things and have been doing these things before safety levies were allowed. … So if they’re a larger cost of the general fund then this becomes an opportunity to move them outside the general fund.”
Several board members spoke in favor of running the levy to help alleviate the burden on the general fund and give the community a chance to support local education.
“We’re paying for building safety and school safety whether or not we have this levy and that does come out of money we can use for other things,” Trustee Lisa Davey said. “I feel like this is a lever we have. I think it’s really clear to people we need money coming into the school, we need a new revenue stream.”
The board voted 9-1 to put the levy on the ballot with Trustee Meg Whicher casting the lone “no” vote. Whicher said she is concerned about the burden on taxpayers, particularly those on a fixed income.
“As a board I want us to be calculated and pragmatic about how we’re approaching asking our community for money because if we all vote for it, that doesn’t mean that the people who didn’t vote for it still don’t have to pay,” she said. “Do I want this for our kids, our budget, everything? Yes. But I’m anxious about the total output.”
The board unanimously voted to put the general fund operating levies on the ballot. The levies are specific amounts needed to reach the district’s general fund maximum budget set by the state’s school funding formula, McHugh said.
“We’re in a very fortunate community that passes those overbase levies,” he said. “Even when they’re $110,000 like last year, they’re very meaningful because you’re capped. It’s a very unique budget situation in school districts where you guys don’t decide what the need is, you guys figure out how you can operate within the constraints of the budget.”
The elementary general fund levy would cost the owner of a $300,000 home an additional $8.67 annually and the owner of a $600,000 home $17.34. For the high school general fund levy, the owner of a $300,000 home would pay another $2 and the owner of a $600,000 home would pay $4.02.
The final amounts for the non-voted levies will be approved when the board adopts the budget in August. The permissive levies are for six district funds, including the transportation, tuition and building reserve funds. McHugh said the total permissive levy increases for elementary and high school were larger than years past primarily because of increases in transportation costs and the tuition fund, which can be used for excess special education costs and to pay for students attending a different district.
For the owner of a $300,000 home, the elementary permissive levy increase will cost an estimated $36.61 annually and the high school increase will cost $22.79. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the district reduced permissive levies and is now having to catch up, McHugh said.
Declining enrollment and increasing costs are straining the district’s budget, and the state’s funding formula doesn’t keep up with inflation, McHugh said. Along with increases in staff salary and benefit costs, the district’s utility and insurance costs also increased, he said. The district has also seen a decrease in federal funding for at least the last seven years, McHugh said.
Even if the Montana Legislature passes the STARS Act, which would direct millions toward raising starting teacher pay, it would not be enough for the Missoula School District to catch up with compounding inflationary increases, Superintendent Micah Hill said.
“Even with this new funding and these things that are going on, it is not even coming close to the need that was demonstrated during that time,” he said. “We’ve got salary and benefit increases, all these things are increasing, and at the same time you’re going in the wrong direction when it comes to the funding.”
Lawmakers cut grant funding for Missoula historical preservation project
A legislative committee earlier this year removed a grant to restore the oldest building in Missoula County from the historical preservation funding bill as it reworked the criteria for projects.
The Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula applied for the grant, included in House Bill 12, on behalf of the county museum. The group requested $114,492 to restore St. Michael’s Church, which was built in 1863 to serve Hell Gate village, the first white settlement in the Missoula Valley.
In late February, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the bill cutting 39 of the 63 projects, including St. Michael’s Church, based on criteria adopted by the Joint Subcommittee on Long-Range Planning in prior hearings. That criteria included if an organization received funding in 2023 and the project’s public access or benefit, bill sponsor Rep. John Fitzpatrick told the appropriations committee. The joint committee prioritized projects that focused on preserving the building itself and cut funding for modern upgrades, he said.
The amendment reduced grant amounts for 22 projects, leaving two with their original award amount. The amendment decreased the maximum funding from $500,000 to $350,000 and the total from $6.2 million to about $5 million.
The grants are funded by a portion of the lodging sales tax, and the amount available depends on projections, Mitch Staley, chief marketing and communication officer for the state Department of Commerce, told Montana Free Press. Last session, lawmakers allocated $11.3 million for 44 projects. The amount of money available for the 2027 biennium was reduced to accommodate the funds appropriated last session, Staley said.
This session, the joint committee adopted the extra criteria to help evaluate projects and spread the money around as only $6 million is available to fund about $23 million in requests, Fitzpatrick said. The amendment decreases the total by about $1 million to account for future amendments adding in projects, he said.
“The projects that we’ve recommended to you today in the amendment are the ones we think are the best and should be funded,” Fitzpatrick said. “I would prefer to see maybe some projects added here or there but do so without knocking those that we have recommended out of the list.”
Matt Lautzenheiser, executive director of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, acknowledged lawmakers’ ability to change the recommended grant awards, but he said some applicants felt the rules were changed “mid-stream.” The applications are due at the end of February in even-numbered years, nearly a year ahead of the legislative session.
The Missoula grant was cut because the Friends of the Museum was awarded a grant last session. However, the organization didn’t accept the money because the grant was less than it applied for and not enough to complete the project, Lautzenheiser said. The museum structured this session’s project so parts of it could be done with less funding, he said.
The grant request of $114,492 made up the bulk of the $143,000 cost to restore St. Michael’s Church as proposed. The project included repairing rotten logs, sealing the building, replacing the windows, roof and porch and adding an ADA-compliant ramp. Lautzenheiser said the building is in decent shape but hasn’t had much work done since it was moved to Fort Missoula in the 1980s.
“Being the oldest and only building from Hell Gate village, we thought it would be a good project for the program,” he said.
The Department of Commerce ranked the project 13 out of 63, and Lautzenheiser said he was hopeful the museum would receive the grant. Lautzenheiser said it was “disappointing and frustrating” to see lawmakers cut the project, and it would have made more sense for the new criteria to apply to the next session.
Lautzenheiser said he has reached out to some lawmakers but is not sure if the project will be amended back into the bill, which is being considered by the Senate. If the museum does not get the grant, it will use the money raised last fall and during the upcoming Missoula Gives fundraiser to get some work done restoring rotten logs, he said.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Finance and Claims Committee at 8 a.m. Friday, March 28.
Verbatim
“I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on the last year and a half of serving as mayor and thinking about the significant progress we have made together. Despite having a vibrant and diverse economy here in Missoula, … there are still so many people in our community who are struggling, struggling with the cost of living, and continue to face many challenges. Ensuring that everyone in Missoula has the opportunity to live and thrive is fundamental and it continues to be my top priority.”
—Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis outlining her priorities heading into the budget season to the City Council on Wednesday. The presentation was a prelude to the city’s budget process, which will begin in mid-May, Davis said.
Davis said her first priority is making local government more responsive to improve public service. The priority responds to the results of a recent survey in which Missoulians rated several aspects of government performance below the national average, including transparency and communication with the public. To improve customer service, the city is working on a new website, formalizing customer service policies across departments, using data to make decisions, centralizing communications and implementing a social media strategy, Davis said.
For her second priority of addressing the cost of living and strengthening the economy, Davis said the city is looking to reduce financial burdens and expand economic opportunities. The city is advocating for property tax reform at the state level, working with the Missoula Economic Partnership and shifting to a priority-based budget and applying a cost-of-living lens to those decisions, she said.
Davis said her third priority, improving housing choice and affordability, will require bold action, policies and collaboration. The city will continue to advance development projects on the 45 acres of land it owns, work on the new unified development code and create developer incentives to encourage affordable housing, she said.
5 Things to Know in Missoula
The city’s Public Works department is closing part of Toole Avenue for a water main replacement beginning Friday. Toole Avenue between Owen and Alder streets will be closed for about a month. The work is part of the North Dickens Street to North McCormick Street water main replacement project, expected to be completed around June 20. Traffic will be detoured with local access to homes allowed. Several other water main replacement projects are set for this year, including South 13th Street West, Ronald Avenue and Keith Avenue, Kensington Avenue, and Washburn, Idaho, Montana and Catlin streets.
On Thursday, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency approved spending about $605,000 in tax increment financing to replace a 100-year-old waterline and make other site improvements for a new $13 million condominium building downtown. The developer is proposing constructing the 23-unit building at 318 and 322 Levasseur Street near Kiwanis Park. The existing waterline is likely leaking and cannot support the project, neighboring buildings and future construction, according to the MRA staff report. As a condition of the TIF funding, the developers committed to either allocating 10% of the units as workforce housing — income-qualified housing attainable for those earning 60% to 140% of the area median income — or donating about $60,500 to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. When completed, the property’s new annual tax revenue will be about $89,400 and pay back the TIF funding in less than seven years.
Missoula’s city-county committee tasked with doling out opioid settlement funding is accepting grant applications for new and existing programs focused on opioid use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery. The committee, made up of city and county elected officials and staff members, can commit up to $750,000 annually to qualifying organizations over the next three years. It also has $500,000 available that may be awarded for one-time costs or distributed over the three-year period. Existing programs will be prioritized over new ones. Applications received by May 18 will be considered for the first round of funding. Organizations can review requirements and application instructions online. The committee will begin reviewing applications in late May or early June and expects to announce recipients in late June or early July.
Mount Jumbo’s south zone reopened to the public on Wednesday after its annual winter closure. The north zone, including everything north of Saddle Road, remains closed until May 1 or later. The closure accommodates the elk that rely on the lower elevations for food and cover during the winter and early spring, according to the Missoula Parks and Recreation Department. The herd naturally moves north as the weather warms and food becomes more plentiful.
Missoula Animal Services, formerly Missoula Animal Control, is launching a fundraising campaign to raise $1 million for its shelter expansion and remodeling project. The shelter broke ground on the $3.5 million project last fall. The project, funded by public money, grants and donations, includes an expanded lobby, two visitor rooms, three cat rooms, an animal intake room and new, larger dog kennels with outdoor access. Some parts of the project, including renovations to existing dog kennels and installing a covered port to unload animals, were cut from the project to stay within budget. The additional money raised will add those features back in. Those interested can donate online or contact Graham Roy at [email protected] for naming opportunities.
