Not surprisingly, Yellowstone County has long had the highest total taxable property values in the state, but that all changed in 2019 when for the first time Gallatin County’s total taxable property value exceeded that of Yellowstone County – and that is true again this year.
“And, Flathead County is nipping at our heels,” says Yellowstone County’s Director of Finance Kevan Bryan. In 2019, Gallatin County’s total taxable property value (not the same as market value) was $22.77 billion while Yellowstone County’s was $21.6 billion. This year the total taxable value for both counties increased. Gallatin County’s is $28.5 billion and Yellowstone County’s is $22.87 billion.
Bryan estimates about three-fourths of Gallatin County’s property value increases is due to the higher prices the community has been experiencing because of increased demand, more so than new construction.
Bryan said that from what he has been able to discern with what has been happening in the local housing market, very little of the property price increases that Billings has been experiencing was captured in the taxable property values for this year, data for which his office recently received from the Montana Department of Revenue, upon which fiscal year 2021-22 taxes will based.
Yellowstone County’s increased taxable value of real property over the past fiscal year is due to $10.4 million in new construction (again that’s not the market value). Last year’s increase due to new construction was almost $7 million. Increases in new construction are an economic indicator – it reflects the generation of new wealth in the community.
Total countywide property tax revenues to Yellowstone County – not including permissive levies or voted-on levies – will be about $38.5 million in FY 2021-22. The overall increase over last year will be about 3.3 percent, of which new construction represents about 2.7 percent.
Total property tax revenues including all agencies associated with government, such as MetraPark, Big Sky Economic Development, Riverstone Health, city/county planning department, etc. will come in at about $59 million up from about $57 million last year.
The increased property values are enough to keep this year’s mill levy increase very tiny. The levy that is applied to everyone’s property tax bill will go up only one-tenth of one percent or from 122.83 mills last year to 122.99 mills. Of course, how much each property owner pays in property taxes can vary greatly depending on the area in which they live, and whether they are subject to special levies for other entities of government.
A one mill levy in Yellowstone County generated $385,445 last year, and this year it will generate about $398,351.
