Missoula City Council Revamps Budget Process

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Things are changing when it comes to the Missoula City Council’s executive budget procedure.

I spoke to Ward 6 City Councilor Sandra Vasecka this week about the process that began this week and will continue through the summer.

The Budget Schedule has been Set by the Missoula City Council

“We just set the schedule for all the public hearings for all the budget presentations,” began Vasecka. “Today (Wednesday), we just had city, fire, and police do their budget presentations. And then every Wednesday through August, we're going to have each different department present their budget requests.”

Vasecka provided the schedule for considering each budget item.

“We have public hearings after all of the presentations in August,” she said. “We'll have public hearings on August 5, August 12, and August 19 to discuss the budget for 2025. It's really interesting this year because we are going to have the department presentations and then the mayor is going to deliver her proposed budget. Then we're going to have Council's deliberations on that. We’ll make amendments and then we'll vote on the final budget on August 19.”

Vasecka asks All Property Owners to Pay Close Attention to the City Budget

Vasecka is asking all Missoula property owners to closely follow and comment on the budget issues because their property taxes will be used to pay for everything.

“I would highly recommend everybody pay attention because the biggest thing on everyone's mind is property taxes, and this is when we discuss how much property taxes are going to increase in the next year," Vasecka said. "I would like to say how much they will increase or decrease, but we all know how this year and all the future years will go. At least we might have a say on how much or how little it will increase this year.”

Vasecka said the City Council are 'Stewards of our Tax Dollars'

Vasecka said all 12 city councilors are ‘stewards of our tax dollars’ and she invites public scrutiny on the budget process.

“We are stewards of everyone's tax dollars and you (the taxpayers) need to have a close eye on us,” she said. “We are the reason why the roads happen, why there are parks, and why everything happens in a city. But we're also the reason why everyone's not going grocery shopping as often as they want to; why people can't even get fast food as much as they want to anymore. It's our fault and it's our responsibility to make sure that we can balance the needs of the city departments with the drastic needs of people being able to stay in their homes.”

Click here to see more of the city’s budget procedure.