Audit confirms tax error

An independent audit of county taxes confirmed accounting errors cost Lincoln County taxpayers an extra $2.2 million during the last three years.

Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Tammy Lauer said Missoula auditing firm Anderson ZurMuehlen & Co. found only minor errors beside the major miscalculations associated with the taxes Revett Mining Co. paid on the ore produced at Troy Mine. County commissioners, Lauer and Montana Association of Counties Director Harold Blattie presented unverified numbers during a February press conference addressing county taxation issues. Those numbers, organized by Blattie, were almost exactly correct.  

County officials now know, definitively, that $2,193,764.78 of tax revenue actually belongs back in the pockets of the people. Commissioners are working to reimburse taxpayers half of the sum, the $1.1 million that was excessively levied during the current fiscal year, as they draft next year’s budget.

“The audit gives us a definite number,” Commissioner Mike Cole said. “I’m putting together a PowerPoint presentation on the county budget to show people the issues that brought us to where we are.”

Cole plans to complete that presentation by early April and expects to schedule meetings in Eureka, Troy and Libby. The goal of the meetings is to simply inform the public where the county is financially, and how it got there.

“Everyone I talk to about this has a hard time grasping the topic,” Cole said. “I am trying to make it as visual as possible.”

Commissioner Tony Berget is considering a three-year plan to cut the county budget and compensate overburdened taxpayers. Berget suggested the county levy 50 less mills next year compared to the current fiscal year, when the county levied 125 mills. The precipitous drop would account for the 30 mills the county levied in error and cut another 20 in an ongoing effort to tighten county purse strings in anticipation of days without federal Secure Rural Schools money.

“We have done deficit spending for years with less and less in Secure Rural Schools funding,” Berget said. “That’s why we have to cut about one-fifth of the budget. Secure Rural Schools is a big part of our budget. Without it, we burn down our reserves pretty fast.”

Lincoln County officials learned in November, much to their relief, that $2.7 million in Secure Rural Schools money will come this year. They had previously been told that money would not be available.

“That was exciting,” Lauer said. “It’s going to be a huge boost for us, and should be here any day now.”

Commissioner Ron Downey said one area that he does not plan to see any cuts to is county insurance.

“That is a big reason why we have a lot of the people we do here,” Downey said. “Insurance is off the table.”

Both Lauer and Downey suggested the county could use some of the $2.5 million it has in cash reserves to help manage its budgetary situation.

“We have to pay everyone back as quickly as possible and still survive,” Downey said.