The Columbia Falls City Council earlier this month adopted its fiscal year 2026 budget, which lowers property taxes while increasing spending.

The city will levy a total of 148.44 mills, raising about $1.607 million. Last year’s total revenue was $1.579 million.

The city resort tax resulted in a $441,480 tax rebate for property owners, however, lowering the mill levy by about 19 mills.

All told, the general fund, which pays for most city services outside of sewer and water, increased by $357,498 to $5.457 million.

About 52%, or about $2 million, of that goes to pay animal control and the Police and Fire departments.

The city’s 3% resort tax pays for a lot of that cost. It raised a total of $1.617 million, or about $92,000 more than last year.

Under the law, 55% of the resort tax revenues go to public safety, 14% to infrastructure and 25% to property tax relief. An additional 5% goes back to businesses to administer the tax and 1% toward city administration.

With changes in the tax laws by the state this year and additional tax rebate from the resort tax, a homeowner with a $600,000 home should see a city tax bill of $777.82, or about $267 less than last year.

There are some budget concerns, however.

The city’s water and sewer funds are barely holding their own, noted City Manager Eric Hanks.

“There are insufficient funds to maintain the sewer and water system we do have,” he warned Council.

Sewer and water rates haven’t been increased since 2018. The city is contracting with engineering firms to examine both systems, as required by the Montana Land Use Planning Act. Those reports should be out in a few months and will give the city a better picture as to future needs and where rates will have to go to keep the systems solvent.

Mayor Don Barnhart commended Hanks for his clear and concise budget presentation, considering he’s been on the job about six months now.

“Eric worked like crazy to get this done,” Barnhart said. “Congratulations. You passed your first test. We seriously appreciate you.”

Hanks, for his part, noted he had a lot of help from staff and former City Manager Susan Nicosia also did a lot of work under contract preparing the budget.