Bob Campbell

It’s budget season for the City of Missoula. On July 29 the Mayor presented a budget she characterized as “boring.”

Among the highlights - a 3.8% increase in property taxes and the use of a Missoula Redevelopment Agency TIF remittance in the amount of $2,500,000. Your property tax increase will infuse $2,858,089 into the City’s coffers. It’s important to note that most of that money (almost 80%) is used to support wages and benefits of City employees. A large chunk of that are MPD wages – keep that in mind as you read further…

Mayor Davis stated, “We have the headwinds of the persistent issue of ongoing expenses exceeding our ongoing revenues.” This is commonly referred to as a structural deficit. During FY26 budget deliberations in later July / August of 2025, the Mayor opted to utilize a MRA TIF remittance totaling $2,000,000 to address this deficit, which stood at around $2,500,000. The result? The deficit ballooned to nearly $3,400,000 for this budget cycle. How can this happen?

Inflation while maintaining a level of service is a problem. While this indeed is a factor, it’s not the main one: an administrative error that miscalculated and underfunded police wages for FY26 by over $1,300,000.

The background: Last summer, the MPD Officers’ Association negotiated a new contract, setting wages for FY25, FY26, and FY27. When figures were presented by staff to Council showing what that contract would cost the City annually in terms of wage adjustments, the figures were off – altogether shorted by over $2,500,000.

For FY26 the amount short was $1,293,531. I brought this to the attention of staff by official email on July 11, 2025. On July 14th, the error was identified, and I was advised by staff a correction would be made to the figures. Copied in this email were MPD Chief Michael Colyer, Police Association President Ryan Ludemann, City Clerk Claire Trimble, and Councilwoman Stacie Anderson (chair of the public safety, health and operations committee).

Most importantly, this matter was addressed PRIOR to the FY26 budget adoption, which occurred August 18, 2025. It wouldn’t be until January 2026 when staff realized something was amiss, that MPD was “eating through” their wage budget quicker than anticipated. It was soon ascertained that the corrective action mentioned above never happened. To make matters worse, there was no accounting for anything beyond base wages (overtime, shift differential, special duty pay, etc.)

This brings us back full circle, where Mayor Davis is now asking for an additional $2,826,923 in revenue, as well as the $2,500,000 MRA TIF remittance for FY27.

I believe taxpayers shouldn’t be liable for the City’s mistakes in FY26. Instead of purely increasing revenue, let’s decrease spending! As previously mentioned, 80% of the budget goes towards wages. As such, we must look at wage allocations. That’s why I’m proposing the FREEZING of wage allocations to FY26 levels, excepting core services: public safety, public works (your roads and utilities), legal, and City administration. This alone saves over $1,700,000.

Additionally, a one-time cut to select department’s annual training budget, totaling $57,000.

Finally, we need to increase fees for certain City services and licensing that can add almost $1,000,000 in revenue from those who use these specific services, rather than taxpayers as a whole. Altogether, if adopted, these changes could almost eliminate a tax increase for FY27.

I hope to bring these amendments forward to Committee on August 12th. It’s time for a budget reckoning and making hard decisions / choices on behalf of Missoulians.

Bob Campbell represents Ward 5 on the Missoula City Council