Why did my property taxes go up so much on the Notice from the Department of Revenue?

Property tax values are affected by property value assessments from the Montana Department of Revenue and by levies and assessments on the taxable value of the property.

Using prior year mills can create inaccuracies for current year estimated taxes when taxable values rise rapidly

When the Department of Revenue distributes property assessments for the year, prior year mills are used to determine the tax impact for property owners. There can be in inverse relationship between property values and mills when property values rise rapidly. For the 2017 tax year, the mills actually dropped as a result of this situation. Park County expects this might be the case for the 2019 tax year, but this cannot be confirmed until August 2019 when the new county wide levy taxable valuation sheets are distributed.

Following is an example of the county wide mill levy and revenue limits for the last 3 years. This does not include all of the mills levied for the county, but it is a representation only of the county wide mill levy (excludes Road, Planning, County Ambulance, and Mosquito which have their own levies). There are additional mills levied which are not subject to revenue limitations such as voted levies, permissive levies, and school levies. City levies and local fire agency levies are also not shown here. Please see appropriate budgets for more detailed information.

Fiscal Year	Tax Year	County Wide Taxable Value	% Increase/ Decrease in Tax Value	Value of a County Mill	Mills	% Increase/ Decrease in Mills	$ Raised	% Increase/ Decrease in General Mill Tax Revenues
2016/2017	2016	40,478,250	1.99%	40,478	89.03	1.11%	3,603,779	3.01%
2017/2018	2017	44,079,512	9.94%	44,080	83.69	-6.38%	3,689,014	2.37%
2018/2019	2018	45,162,088	2.46%	45,162	85.17	1.74%	3,846,455	4.27%