Originally published in the print edition of the Yellowstone County News.
BILLINGS — Probably never before has Yellowstone County faced so many building needs going into the budget-setting process. Most of that need is being driven by unprecedented demand on the judicial system, from law enforcement and jail expansion, to accommodating additional judges and jail diversion programs.
Anticipation of looming building costs is putting the squeeze on all other departments. The county’s finance director, Kevan Bryan, said that in preparing for budget hearings this week, departments were asked not only to live within their budgets of last year, but also to look for areas where they might even cut those budgets.
The adjustments resulted in $100,000 in less spending in the General Fund alone, Bryan told County Commissioners, on Monday, as they began their first series of meetings with department heads to review the budgets of each. The county projects a $94.2 million budget in total expenditures.
The overall estimate for county taxes levied is $43.85 million (not including the Big Sky Economic Development levy). The county’s revenue budget, which includes revenues from sources other than taxes, is projected to be $85.2 million in FY2016-17, up $3.5 million over last year. Bryan said that the preliminary budget projects no movement in the countywide levy.
Bryan said that the budget was prepared assuming an overall increase of 1.70 percent, which includes an estimated 1.2 percent increase in net taxable value and a 0.59 percent inflation factor, which is set by the state. The county could get an increase in entitlement funding from the state, but since that is not known at this time, Bryan said he projected no increase in that funding, which was set up years ago to compensate counties when the state assumed vehicle tax revenues.
There were requests for additional staff from some departments. The jail diversion program is asking to hire three full-time positions to move forward a pilot program that had been operating with one staff person, on a 10-month commitment. The sheriff needs two detention offices and a new sergeant for the detention facility. MetraPark needs an additional FTE for concessions and an event coordinator and a .75 FTE in the Metra admissions department.
After hearing a report from Justice of the Peace David Carter about the effectiveness of the risk assessment pilot program (jail diversion) that the county undertook a year ago to help reduce the number of inmates, the commissioners committed to continuing the program with one employee, but will decide about the request for the other two later in the budgeting process.
The increasing demands on the budget are all happening within a budget that is constrained in tax revenues because of tax protests.
In May 2015 and November 2015, CHS Inc. protested about 61 percent ($6.6 million out of the $10.9 million) of their property taxes levied. Along with other protests, including those of another refinery and a pipeline company, the county and other taxing jurisdictions must reduce anticipated revenues while waiting for the tax protest cases to be resolved, which earlier this year was projected to take as much as five years. Bryan said that he increased the level of estimated protest from 4.1 percent last year to 6.05 percent for fiscal year 2016-17. The budget numbers reflect the likelihood that the protested taxes will not be available in 2017.
Finding as much revenue within the budget as possible is necessary as the county prepares to build an addition to the Yellowstone County Detention Facility, for which they received permission from the voters to borrow the money needed.
Voters approved by a 57-43 percent margin an initiative to complete a 148-bed addition, along with other items of need which in aggregate are estimated to cost approximately $17.5 million. The measure allows the county to borrow up to $9.7 million. Plans will probably be available in 10 months and it is expected to be built in about two years.
Other building projects include a decision before the Board to decide on the purchase of recently leased property formerly occupied by PayneWest Insurance, and located two blocks from the courthouse. This property is being considered as the new home of the sheriff’s department, which would allow for the vacating of the current sheriff’s building across the parking lot from the Courthouse. That building is being eyed to providing additional space for a crowded courthouse which will probably soon be called upon to provide additional space for one or more District Court judges.
“The Round Building” needs about $700,000 worth of repairs, including the replacement of the HVAC system.
The State of Montana has recognized that Yellowstone County’s district court system is six judges short to keep up with current demands upon it.
“We are required to provide space for those positions when the Legislature moves to fund them,” explained Bryan. “While it is quite unlikely that six would be funded in the near term, it is somewhat likely that we will receive one or two, with the possibility of a third. It will be to the county’s benefit to come up with a long-term plan in this area that can accommodate five or six of these positions, along with needed office and court space.”
There are other issues stemming from an increasing crime rate.
“Our County Attorney handles extraordinary volume, with significant increases in demand every year,” according to Bryan. “These needs are not discretionary, and must be met. The mill levy passed to fund this office back in 2000 now provides less than half of the resources needed to cover the need. In past years, the county has been compelled to draw subsidies from our General Fund to keep the Public Safety-Attorney Fund from distress. Longer term, this cannot continue.”
In 2016, one of every seven dollars in the county’s General Fund was dedicated to funding the County Attorney offices, about 53 percent of that department’s budget.
“This office’s legitimate needs to handle its caseload on behalf of our citizens is increasing faster than the General Fund’s or the Public Safety-Attorney Fund’s capacity to generate revenues,” said Bryan. “There is no chance that this situation will reverse itself without some change.” Bryan suggested that the county commissioners cap commitments from the General Fund to the county attorney’s office at $2 million.
