FY2021 Budget

Mayor John Engen presented his budget recommendations for fiscal year 2021 (FY21) on July 8. You can view his budget recommendations, follow changes requested by the City Council, and comment on budget proposals here.

Budget Highlights

• General Fund budget will grow by about $1.7 million to honor contracts, handle inflation, and pay our people
• Mayor Engen will not raise City property taxes for FY21

Revenue

Our primary source of funding for most of our work is property taxes. We make revenue projections based on the information we have when we start our budget process. We won’t know for certain what our revenue will be until the first week of August. The Montana Department of Revenue will release our certified taxable values then. After that, we can see which of our goals we can reach in this budget year.

Budget Goals

The City’s strategic plan outlines guiding principles and specific goals. These principles inform our budget decisions. Mayor Engen presented his priorities to the City Council.

• Make infrastructure investments, such as transportation, water, parks, and trails through the Community Investment Program
• Support affordable housing via seed funding for the Missoula Housing Trust Fund
• Support vulnerable residents through a behavioral-health mobile crisis unit
• Invest in the “rainy-day” fund
• Enhance our communication with our residents
• Invest in sustainability
• Support additional training, safety equipment, and body-worn video cameras for police

Staying Informed

We have several ways for you to find information about our annual budget. This site will have regular budget updates in the news feed below. In-depth budget documents will be on our main website.

• Subscribe to this project using the button to the right.
• Visit this page and read the updates in the news feed.
• Find detailed documents on our main website.
• View budget meeting agendas, minutes, and videos on our website.

Getting Involved

You can leave budget comments in several ways. Please note that all comments are public record.

• Ask us a question in the Q&A below. The question will be posted publicly with your user name.
• Submit comments via our feedback form. These will be included in the City Council’s meeting information each week.
• Comment on the agenda. When agendas are posted on the City’s main website, they include a place for the public to submit comments. Sign up to receive the City Council agendas and Committee Schedules.
• Participate in meetings. Each meeting has a public comment period, and participation instructions are included in the agendas.