Staff recommends that the City Council hold the public hearing and approve the resolution setting the mill levy rates for GO Bonds for FY22.

This resolution sets the FY22 City property tax mills for the  General Obligation Debt Service Streets at 1.52 mills, General Obligation Debt Service Library at 3.50 mills and General Obligation Debt Service Series A Baseball Stadium at 3.28 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 6/28/2021 the City Council approved 169 mills per the City of Billings Charter.  The total mills levied by the City of Billings for FY22 are 177.30 mills compared to 179.48 mills for FY21. The revenue generated by setting the GO mills is consistent with the revenue projected in the FY22 budget, adopted by City Council on 6/28/2021.  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.  
                         FY21    FY22
GO Streets         1.59     1.52
GO Library         5.44     3.50
GO Ballpark       3.45     3.28
Total                 10.48     8.30

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 FY22.