The GreatFallsPublicLibrary is funded by a mill levy whose maximum is fixed in the City Charter. In 2025 a change in state law forced the CityCommission to recalculate that cap.
On May 13, 2025 the Governor signed House Bill 231 and Senate Bill 542. A side effect was a decrease in mill value for 2026 and beyond. In communities like Great Falls with voted or charter-authorised fixed mill limits, a reduced mill value would have meant a significant revenue shortfall beginning in fiscal year 2026.
To offset that, the tax bills required taxing jurisdictions to rebalance by resetting their fixed mill limits. For voted levies there was an option to convert to a dollar-based levy. For charter-authorised levies with fixed limits, the mechanism is Section 7(3) of HB 231, and that is the provision that applies to the library mills: the City must levy in fiscal year 2026 the number of mills necessary to raise the same property tax revenue for the library that was assessed in fiscal year 2025, and that recalculated number becomes the new maximum under the Charter going forward.
Effectively the statute authorised a one-time recalibration of the mill cap to hold revenue steady, without a charter amendment and without a vote.
From the certified mill value for fiscal year 2026, the recalibrated cap is 19.55 mills, generating $2,246,354.
Resolution 10599 updated the Charter's stated mill limit accordingly. It was adopted at CityCommission2025-08-19, carried 4-1 with Commissioner Tryon dissenting, immediately before Resolution10582, the annual tax levy.
Under an earlier City-library management agreement, 3.5 mills had been released; those were later proposed as the debt service source for the FireTrainingCenter renovation.
Minutes, August 19, 2025: https://greatfallsmt.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_08192025-244