Missoula County to place $1.7M levy on ballot for road, bridge needs

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) When voters go to the polls in November, they’ll be asked to levy up to five mills to fund the maintenance and repair of Missoula County’s roads and bridges, along with other infrastructure needs.

The measure would generate roughly $1.7 million a year, helping fill what county officials described as a lack of funding available for infrastructure. For a home with an appraised value of $500,000, the proposal would cost around $33 a year.

“We should probably be spending around $4.3 million a year on roads and bridges, and right now we’re at around $600,000,” said Shane Stack, director of Public Works. “There’s a huge gap there. We need more funding and if we don’t, we’ll see more bridges continue to be closed, more roads with potholes. We just won’t be able to keep up.”

According to the county, it maintains 450 miles of roads and 47 miles of trails. It’s home to 61 bridges over 20 feet long and 62 bridges less than 20 feet. In recent years, several bridges have been closed or have had weight limits reduced due to structural concerns.

“These are very expensive pieces of infrastructure that we don’t have the ability to repair or replace,” Stack said. “If we were going to replace all of our deficient bridges, it would be in the neighborhood of $165 million. We should be spending $2.2 million a year on our bridges, and we’re nowhere near that.”

The requested mill levy will be the second presented by a local government this year to fund basic services which, officials contend, sit beyond the reach of their current budget. Both the city and county said that rising costs and the state’s antiquated tax formula have made it impossible for them to generate the revenue needed to provide such services.

Voters in June approved a measure enabling the city to levy up to 34 mills to generate $7 million annually for the Missoula Fire Department. Coupled with the city’s proposed FY 25 budget, the tax increase climbs to around 11%, or roughly $307 a year for a home within the city with an assessed value of $450,000.

The county’s budget has proposed a tax increase less than 3.4%, but the mill levy for roads and bridges would be in addition to that increase. County officials said they’re painfully aware of the constant increases local property owners are seeing on their tax bill.

“We really have been looking over the last several years, and the legislative session, on ways that we could fund infrastructure without relying on property taxes,” said Chris Lounsbury, the county’s CAO. “We’re all very aware that property taxes are higher than we’d like them to be, and the property tax shift that has occurred to the residential (class) has had a real impact.”

Failed efforts to fund infrastructure needs

In an effort to fund infrastructure, local voters in 2020 passed a $0.02 per gallon gas tax, but the Legislature quickly revoked it. Last session, the Legislature passed with strong support a bill to fund local infrastructure using a portion of marijuana taxes, but Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed the bill.

More recently, several counties lobbied the governor’s Property Tax Task Force to consider some form of a local option tax earmarked strictly for infrastructure and property tax relief. However, the proposal wasn’t included in the task force’s recommendations.

The state’s unwillingness to tap the spending of Montana’s millions of annual tourists to provide property tax relief and fund local needs has left officials frustrated.

“That leaves us with one tool, and that’s to ask voters to support additional funding for Public Works through property taxes,” Lounsbury said. “If voters approve this levy, it would specifically be for the construction, repair and maintenance of the county’s roads, bridges and trails.”

Commissioners agreed that the state’s over-reliance on residential property taxes to fund local government – while at the same time cutting commercial and industrial taxes – has created a fiscal crisis, not only in Missoula but beyond.

“We’re not anywhere near able to do maintenance as needed,” said Commissioner Juanita Vero. “I don’t see any other way forward. It’s just going to get worse.”