Columbia Falls City Council Adopts $26.4 Million FY 27 Budget
The city’s total taxable valuation has doubled since FY 21, jumping from $8.3 million to $16.6 million in Tax Year 2026.
By Lauren Frick
The Columbia Falls city council this week unanimously adopted the city’s $26.4 million Fiscal Year 2027 budget — a roughly 12.5% increase from last year’s $23.5 million budget.
City Manager Eric Hanks credited part of the increase to projected federal grants and monies for various projects — namely the Gateway to Glacier Safety and Mobility Improvement Project, which is expected to be substantially completely next September — in addition to “significant growth” in the city’s market value and continued “marginal growth” in its tax revenue.
The city’s total taxable valuation has doubled since FY 21, jumping from $8.3 million to $16.6 million in Tax Year 2026. The $16.6 million is a roughly $2.4 million increase in taxable value over the last year. At the same time, the city council reduced the overall mill levy from 148.44 mills to 140.64 mills due to this growth in taxable value and the continued use of resort tax revenues to offset property taxes.
As Columbia Falls has not yet realized the full impact of the rapid growth in the Flathead Valley, the city is positioned for significant near-term opportunity with major projects expected to be completed over the next three to five years, Hanks said.
“We expect to see significant new growth next year as Stockton Bank gets finished,” Hanks told councilors at an Aug. 17 budget public hearing. “The hotel will probably be finished the next certified tax value, but there will be some more businesses that are complete by then. So we’ll see over the next couple years significant growth in newly taxable properties.”
While strong developer interest and planned investment create opportunities for economic development, increased housing inventory, and improved public amenities, the growth also places greater demands on public safety, transportation systems, utilities, parks, and municipal services, Hanks acknowledged.
The city plans to address some of the strain through various projects in the FY 27 budget, appropriated through funds such as the water enterprise fund, sewer enterprise fund and special street lighting district fund. Additionally, the city will continue taking advantage of the city’s growing tax resort revenues, which the city began collecting in FY 22.
“In the last five years, the city was collecting less taxes each year because of the resort tax, and so we finally caught up to Fiscal Year 21 data collection numbers for a total savings of $2.2 million dollars over the last five years in property tax relief for our citizens.”
In FY 27 alone, more than $407,00 will be returned to taxpayers through direct property tax reductions. This year’s resort tax revenues will be utilized to fund: four police officers and a police vehicle; two-and-a-half firefighter positions and fire engine debt payment; and $310,111 in restricted funding reserves.
The FY 27 budget also includes funding for 44 full-time equivalent staff positions, in addition to a proposed wage increase of 3% in cost of living, maintaining a 2% experience step increase for personnel. Among the new positions created in this year’s budget is a full-time city attorney and part-time legal assistant, establishing a full-time legal service department for the city.