Missoula County Commissioners Adopt Final FY 27 Budget
Posted on September 04, 2026
The Missoula County commissioners voted to adopt the County’s fiscal year 2027 budget at their public hearing meeting on Thursday. Residents can review the FY 27 budget book and other budget documents online at missoulacountyvoice.com. A recording of the public hearing is available at www.youtube.com/c/missoulacounty.
Due to changes made during the 2025 state Legislature, the tax impacts of the adopted budget will be different for individual residential properties. The implementation of graduated tax rates changed the taxable value for most properties, so some property owners will pay less in County taxes, while others could pay more.
Residents whose homes qualify as their primary residence can use the following equations to calculate the estimated taxes they will owe to Missoula County. Residents can find the taxable value for their property by searching for it online.
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Residents who live outside City of Missoula limits:
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- Taxable value x 0.26055 = estimated County taxes
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- Example: $6,000 x 0.26056 = $1,563.36 in total County taxes
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Residents who live within City of Missoula limits:
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- Taxable value x 0.21282 = estimated County taxes
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- Example: $6,000 x 0.21314 = $1,278.84 in total County taxes
This is the estimated total in taxes paid only to Missoula County; residents’ tax bills will also include taxes owed to other jurisdictions, such as the City of Missoula and school districts. City and county residents will pay different amounts because property owners are taxed differently depending on where their property is located.
All Missoula County property owners, including those who live within Missoula city limits, pay countywide taxes. In addition to countywide taxes, property owners outside Missoula city limits pay county-only taxes (rather than city taxes). To see a breakdown of all County taxes by fund, visit missoula.co/taxes.
Expected revenue from property taxes to fund the proposed 2027 budget is $86.6 million. (Total revenue, which includes funding from non-property tax sources, is $228.5 million). This is a $6.2 million increase in total county tax revenue over last year and mainly covers the increase to the County’s base budget needed for cost-of-living increases to employee wages and healthcare costs. Under state law, the commissioners could have levied $1.85 million more in property taxes but declined to.
In addition to the base budget, the commissioners approved new requests to improve services and operations. The bulk of these are one-time requests that will be paid for with a projected $1.97 million the County will receive from the City of Missoula’s Tax Increment Finance remittance. Funding these one-time requests will not impact future property tax bills.
The commissioners also approved new requests to fund ongoing improvements. Ongoing requests require an ongoing source of funding, which can include fees, new property tax revenue, grant revenue or other sources. The total in new ongoing requests funded by property taxes is $801,696 – $408,000 of which will go to the Public Works Department for road and bridge projects outside Missoula city limits. A full list of approved requests is available on missoulacountyvoice.com.
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