A new state law changing property taxes in Montana is leaving the City of Bozeman with a budget deficit.

Commissioners on Tuesday approved mill levies that residents will be assessed on their property tax bills. Though commissioners approved the budget in June, the city just received the total assessed values from the Montana Department of Revenue, which City Manager Chuck Winn said is causing a $1.77 million deficit in the city’s general fund that would primarily impact staffing in the police and fire departments.

Those changes to state law, city officials said, lowered the total taxable value in the city by almost 9% and lowered the value of a mill in the city from $245,000 to $218,000.

To make up for the shortfall, the city, as Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison put it, “broke the glass in

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