“Taxpayers should demand answers from local governments who fail to provide the full financial transparency which state law demands.”
The following has been adapted from an excerpt of the Frontier Weekly Newsletter written by Kendall Cotton for the June 4th edition.
Why are Gallatin County and Missoula County missing budget data for multiple fiscal years on the Legislative Fiscal Division’s excellent local government finance dashboard? That’s a question I investigated last week. I uncovered some troubling findings for taxpayers.
First, some background. LFD’s great data dashboard breaks down in detail local government budget revenues and expenditures as far back as 2018.
The data comes from annual financial reports submitted to the Department of Administration. These reports are mandated by the Montana Single Audit Act, originally enacted in 1991 with the goal of ensuring local governments provide transparency and accountability to their taxpayers.
It turns out that at least some of the data for Missoula County and Gallatin County are missing from the dashboard because both counties are multiple years delinquent in reporting their annual financial reports to the state.
In fact, in response to my inquiry the DOA disclosed that Gallatin County has paid a whopping $14,565 in fines for delinquent reporting. Missoula has paid at least $7,650 in fines.
These delinquencies were publicly noticed in local newspapers back in December, a tiny little update in the legals section that probably went unnoticed by most taxpayers:
Make no mistake, county property taxpayers are the ones who are on the hook for paying the fines for this local government dysfunction.
Beyond fines, further penalties for being delinquent on state financial reports can be quite severe, like “stopping payment of any state financial assistance” to the county:
DOA disclosed that Gallatin County was actually issued a warning of intent to withhold state financial assistance on 12/3/2025, but the state has not yet pursued this severe enforcement option.
Personally, I find it odd that Missoula and Gallatin Counties, some of Montana’s largest, are delinquent in state financial reporting while other tiny counties manage just fine.
The Montana Single Audit Act’s local government financial reports are not just redundant paperwork, they provide taxpayers with a transparent picture of how their money is being used (or misused) and information they can use to keep the growth of government in check.
Taxpayers should demand answers from local governments who fail to provide the full financial transparency which state law demands.
Similarly, state policymakers should consider strengthening the enforcement of local government financial reporting to deter noncompliance like this.
Ultimately, this underscores why Montana needs strong, transparent caps on the growth of state, school, and local government budgets to protect taxpayers.
