Kalispell City Council approved the budget for fiscal year 2027 at Monday night’s council meeting. At $179.8 million, the final budget is about $9.4 million less than the $189.2 million preliminary budget proposed earlier this year. The final budget matches previous years, which have hovered around $180 million since the public safety levy passed in 2024.
The major appropriation changes between this year’s preliminary budget and the final budget are largely attributable to the city’s various capital projects, City Manager Jarod Nygren noted.
“Really that’s just due to capital projects and the status of them, where they came in as far as carryover at the end of the year,” Nygren said.
Other changes in the final budget include a $150,000 notch from the general fund for the ambulance fund due to improved collections through third-party billing, “a big savings to the general fund,” Nygren said. The Emergency Responder Levy Fund also saw a $145,794 increase setting aside funding to outfit nine full-time positions should the city receive money from a FEMA grant with award announcements expected later this year. The parks fund received an additional $20,000 to fund a facility study. The budget for mayor and council salaries also saw a $25,000 increase, after councilors approved their first pay raise in 30 years.
In a last minute move Monday night, councilors also struck $70,000 from the police department’s budget intended to purchase a license plate camera to help with downtown parking enforcement. Around 40 Flathead Valley residents came out to protest the AI-powered cameras, citing privacy concerns.
The general fund comprises about 10% of the city’s budget of just under $180 million, and the majority of the general fund goes to police and fire. Around $9.1 million come from property taxes. Enterprise funds – including water, sewer, storm, solid waste, and associated impact fees – make up the majority of the city’s budget at just under $100 million.
“I will say that overall sometimes the budget maybe looks larger than it is,” Nygren said. “For example, within this budget is a $20 million emerging contaminant grant loan program. That program is 100% forgivable. So a lot of these grants and things come through the city, hit our budget, they build projects, but overall they aren’t necessarily being paid directly out of city taxes.”
I’m Zoë Buhrmaster. Let’s see what other numerical news might be popping up around the Flathead Valley.
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