There seems to be some confusion whether or not Glacier County officials will allow taxpayers to pay their taxes under protest citing the ongoing Class Action Lawsuit that has been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. At least one taxpayer had her protested tax payment and form “denied” by the Glacier County Treasurer’s Office on Monday, Dec. 12, reported Elaine Mitchell. “We are awaiting legal advice on how to proceed,” said Mitchell.

“We will file another class action lawsuit if needed. Glacier County taxpayers have been seeking a report on the financial condition of the county for over two years now and we will continue to take whatever legal action is needed to obtain that information,” she stated.

As of Tuesday, Dec. 13, Glacier County’s September and October cash reports are still delinquent and year-end adjustments have not been made to finalize the June, July and August 2016 cash reports.

Glacier County Treasurer Galen Galbreath said Jonathan Mahrt of Denning, Downey and Associates, CPAs, (DDA) was working on the adjusting entries for June 2016.

Galbreath confirmed the recently mailed tax bills were created prior to Glacier County’s FY 2015-16 closeout and adjusting entries being made by DDA or county officials.

Galbreath earlier stated he would not send out tax bills until the year-end close-out was completed. When asked why he changed his mind he stated, “From my conversations with the other elected officials in and outside of the county, I was advised that we don’t have to have the year-end closed before you bill but in order to do your budget you would have to know those numbers in order to set mills.  We can’t bill until the budget is set because you don’t have budgetary authority until the budget is finalized by the commissioners. The budget was set before we commenced the billing process.”

The Glacier County Commissioners held a public hearing on Nov. 17 and approved an amended FY 2016-17 budget, which listed anticipated revenues of $16,624,355 and approved expenditures of $17,935,787. The amended budget did not balance with the commissioners approving over $1.3 million more in expenditures than anticipated revenue.

Galbreath said any taxpayer who received a tax bill dated Nov. 29, 2016, should disregard it. Those tax bills are incorrect he stated. Corrected tax bills were generated on Dec. 6 and mailed out on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, he continued.

The Treasurer’s Office originally set the date for the first installment of taxes to be paid as Jan. 4. When asked why taxpayers were receiving less than the usual 30 days to make the payment, Galbreath did further research and set a new date of Jan. 8, 2017.

He is also looking into why the date of the copies of in-house tax bills generated by his office are dated Dec. 9, instead of Dec. 6, he said. He did not notice the date discrepancy until researching the taxes due date on Tuesday.

With first installment tax payments not due for at least three weeks, Mitchell is urging taxpayers not to be in a rush to pay their taxes until a legal determination is made, which she hopes will be very soon.

Galbreath stated on Monday, Dec. 12, Glacier County’s special legal counsel in the Class Action Lawsuit, Kirk Evenson, of the Marra, Evenson and Bell law firm in Great Falls, is drafting a memo, which will be presented to the Glacier County Commissioners for their approval. The memo will cite the reason and state law that allows Glacier County to “deny” tax protests citing the Class Action Lawsuit filed in August 2015, said Galbreath.

Until otherwise notified, the Glacier County Treasurer’s Office will “deny” protested tax payments, Galbreath stated.