This resolution sets the FY 19 City property tax mills for the Public Safety Levy (PS II) at 42.88 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Parks at .60 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Streets at 1.96 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Library at 4.72 mills and General Obligation Debt Service Series A Baseball Stadium at 3.96 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.  The mills set for the General Obligation Bond Debt Service and Public Safety II are less than the previous year because of new taxable property as well as value growth of existing properties.  The total mills levied by the City of Billings for FY 19 are 163.12 mills compared to 159.00 mills for FY 18.  The increase in total mills assessed from  FY 18 to FY 19 is due to assessing the maximum mills allowed by the Charter of Billings for the General Fund and Public Safety I.

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.
 

	FY18	FY19
PS II	43.32	42.88
GO Parks	0.61	0.60
GO Streets	1.81	1.96
GO Library	4.80	4.72
GO Ballpark	3.77	3.96
Total	54.31	54.12

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 19.

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 19 mills are 54.12 compared to the FY 18 mills of 54.31.

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 II levy for FY 19.