Staff recommends that the City Council hold the public hearing and approve the resolution setting the mill levy rates for GO Bonds for FY23.

This resolution sets the FY23 City property tax mills for General Obligation Debt Service Streets at 1.61 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Library at 2.94 mills and General Obligation Debt Service Series A Baseball Stadium at 3.45 mills. These levies are based on the certified taxable valuation from the Montana Department of Revenue.  The table below shows a comparison to last year's mills. On 6/27/2022 the City Council approved 203 mills per the City of Billings Charter.  The total mills levied by the City of Billings for FY23 are 211 mills compared to 177.30 mills for FY22. The revenue generated by setting the GO mills is consistent with the revenue projected in the FY23 budget, adopted by City Council on 6/27/2022.  The GO debt mills generate enough revenue to pay the principal and interest expense on the debt. Lowering the number of mills would result in not paying the debt service payment or borrowing money to make the debt service payment.  
                         FY22    FY23
GO Streets         1.52     1.61
GO Library         3.50     2.94
GO Ballpark       3.28     3.45
Total                  8.30     8.00

City Council may:

• Approve; or,
• Not Approve, which would result in not making the debt service payments or using General Fund reserves to make debt service payments for FY23.