Blaine County is mailing property owners a new tax bill, minus the payment stub, along with a letter explaining an error in the original bill that could cause confusion to those closely inspecting the associated mill rate.
Last week, thanks to a call from Sun Valley Councilman-elect Bob Youngman, county commissioners noticed that while the total amounts charged to property owners were correct, the latest tax bills had printed miscalculations in the overall mill rate, the amount being paid to the county and the amount for "school budget stabilization."
The Blaine County line item on the tax bills showed an incorrectly high mill rate, which should have been decreased by the amount of the Land, Water and Wildlife Levy mill rate. That caused the stated amount being paid to the county to increase as well.
At a meeting last week, County Commissioner Tom Bowman said the computer program used to put together the tax bills automatically detected the discrepancy, but mistakenly accounted for it by subtracting the increased dollar amount from the school budget stabilization line item.
As a result, the overall amount due is correct, but with an error in the overall mill rate. When property taxes are computed correctly, the value of a property multiplied by the mill rate should equal the tax due.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Blaine County Treasurer Vicki Dick said new individual bills were being printed, along with an explanatory letter, and that both would be in the mail this week.
Tax payments are due on the regular schedule.
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
