Commission Increases Solid Waste Assessment To $265 For 2024-25 Tax Year
 | Author:
Linda Kent, MT43 News Staff Reporter
MT43 News Correspondent |
Commission Increases Solid Waste Assessment for 2024-25 Tax Year
Linda Kent
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Following a public hearing that ranged across numerous factors impacting Broadwater County’s Solid Waste Department budget in the coming year, commissioners voted to raise the county’s annual solid waste assessment from $185 to $265. The number is significantly lower than the Solid Waste Advisory Board’s initial proposal of $350 per assessment earlier this year.
Revenue from the assessments is the primary source of funding for the department, which operates as an enterprise fund separate from the larger county budget.
Commissioner Lindsay Richtmyer said the increase allows for the creation of a capital improvement fund to be used for the replacement of equipment at or near the end of their useful lives. It also accounts for $50,000 in delinquent assessed revenue from the fiscal year that closed on July 31 that the department may or may not receive, as well as late fees and approximately $160,000 in recoverable assessments from previous years. However, the department would still be at a $52,000 deficit against its planned 2024-25 expenditures.
“I was really hoping that we could get away with the $245 number” proposed to the commission by Public Works Director TJ Graveley at the board’s Aug. 21 meeting, Commission Chair Darrel Folkvord said. “But I’m seeing that’s probably not possible.”
Commissioner Debi Randolph, who made the motion to raise the assessment to $265, said, “With the rest of the ERP (equitable recovery program money) coming in, as well as the taxes, I think we can make up that $52,000.”
Folkvord and Richtmyer agreed.
“We don’t want to show our residents a big surplus at the end of the year,” Folkvord said. “We want to show that we assessed them correctly. We’ll have an opportunity to adjust next year.”
Among the considerations raised during the public hearing on the assessment rate changes, the commission responded to letters and comments wondering why residents whose waste collection services, such as Tri-County Disposal, should not be exempt from solid waste assessments.
Deputy Public Works Director Misty Masolo explained that such services charge only to pick up and transport waste for disposal. Broadwater County still pays the cost of disposing of the waste, regardless of whether the county or other entity delivers it to the landfill.
Michael Ryan offered a pair of comments. Regarding the property owners who choose to have a private service pick up waste, he compared the issue to that of parents who choose to send children to private schools or homeschool their families. “If someone wants to go outside what the county provides, they should be paying that tipping fee.”
Ryan also asked the commission to make the distribution of assessments as equitable as possible. He said he found more than 90 properties, primarily outside city limits that were being under-assessed compared to the actual number of residences or households on those properties.
“I know, cradle-to-grave, on equipment stuff that we have to raise assessments,” Ryan said, “But also we need to be looking to make sure everybody is paying their fair share.”
“Just so you know, we are working on that,” Folkvord said. The commission met with the Montana Department of Revenue (DOR) during the afternoon of Aug. 28 to discuss the workflow that identifies the number of assessments per property before tax notices are sent later this year.
“Mr. Ryan was right on the money,” County Administrative Officer Bill Jarocki said. “We have two things that we have to do this year: One is to assess all the assessments we can possibly assess. The second is that, because there are some businesses with multiple assessments, we have to make sure that the number of assessments per business type is accurate.”
With the Solid Waste Assessment for the 2024-25 tax year set, the Solid Waste Advisory Board and commission will continue to explore the merits of and alternatives to assessments for funding the county’s solid waste system.
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