This resolution sets the FY 16 City property tax mills for the Public Safety Levy (PSII) at 46.13 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Parks at .73 mills, General Obligation (GO) Debt Service Streets of 2.01 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Library at 5.48 mills and General Obligation Debt Service Series A Baseball Stadium at 4.83 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 levy.  The PS II mills are higher than the prior year because in FY 15 the City levied only $7 million of the authorized $8.2 million due to receiving a large protested tax settlement.

The GO debt mills generate enough revenue to pay the principle and interest (expense) on the debt service.  Lowering the number of mills would result in not paying the debt service payment or borrowing money to make the debt service payment.
 

	FY 15	FY 16
PS II	44.59	46.13
GO Parks	0.81	0.73
GO Streets	2.26	2.01
GO Library	6.25	5.48
GO Ballpark	5.21	4.83
Total	59.12	59.18

The Council must hold a public hearing and then may:

• Approve the resolution; or
• Not approve the resolution, which would result in not making the debt service payments or using General Fund reserves to make debt service payments for FY 16.

These mills are set in order to generate the necessary revenues to make the debt service payments and fund Public Safety II.  The total FY 16 mills are 59.18 compared to the FY 15 mills of 59.12.

Staff recommends that the City Council hold the public hearing and approve the resolution setting the mill levy rates for GO Bonds and Public Safety Levy 2 for FY 16.