Solid Waste Proposes Assessment Increase For 2024-25 Tax Year
Author: Linda Kent, MT43 News Staff Reporter
Solid Waste Proposes Assessment Increase for 2024-25 Tax Year
Linda Kent
MT43 News Staff Reporter
County Public Works Director TJ Graveley asked Broadwater County Commissioners to consider setting solid waste assessments at $260 – up from $185 – for the 2024-25 tax year. The increase would account for lost revenue due to delinquent taxes from 2023-24.
County Commissioners held a public hearing on the increase during their regular Aug. 28 meeting.
Graveley told commissioners that the solid waste advisory board had originally recommended assessments be set at $245 for the upcoming year. The increase reflects a distribution of about $50,000 in delinquent revenue that would normally go toward solid waste. The department budget will also include an annual inflator of up to 3.5 percent to minimize the need for significant increases in the assessments moving forward.
County commissioner Lindsay Richtmyer noted that the increase – $21.66 – is less than the cost of a cup of coffee or beer per month.
Commission chair Darrel Folkvord noted that the county is already moving forward with liens and other actions to ensure that delinquent taxes can be recovered. However, many of those delinquencies are related to mobile homes that are moved without notice to the county.
On a related note, Graveley told the commission that around 25 percent of assessments that were unbilled in previous years due to a data transfer error have already been paid as of mid-August.
