Back from Great Falls
The Ravalli County commission is back in session this week after taking last week off — to go to Great Falls. (Actually, just four commissioners are in the office this week — Chairman Greg Chilcott is out on holiday.)
Commissioners attended the annual Montana Association of Counties “midwinter conference.”
The conference covers topics like health insurance premiums for prison inmates, what happens if you get an ADA audit, and “success stories in intergovernmental relationships.”
In other words — it’s a conference only a county commissioner could love.
Commissioners did return, however, with some bad news — the state budget is looking grim.
State agencies, acting on the governor’s request, have already cut budgets by up to 10 percent, but that 10 percent, said Commissioner J.R. Iman, is just a fraction of the total shortfall — of the state’s current $1.8 billion budget a shortfall of $500 million is currently forecast. That 10 percent cut covers just 10 percent of the gap, Iman said.
Such news is particularly bad for counties like Ravalli, which see so much of their budget come from non-taxpayer sources. In fact, depending on what is included, locally-collected property taxes account for just one-third of the total county budget.
Tags: county commission, Greg Chilcott, J.R. Iman, Montana Association of Counties
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