Ravalli County Commissioners voted to approve a $44,681,874 budget for fiscal year 2026 at their Sept. 4 meeting.

The budget included increased wages for county staff, reduced lighting district mills and higher appropriations in most government funds.

Ravalli County Chief Financial Officer Jana Exner told the Ravalli Republic that there were no “alarming” changes to the county budget this year and said the only significant shift could be credited to an increase in cost of living (COLA) salaries for county employees.

“No one fund leaped alarmingly,” Exner told the Ravalli Republic. “A large part of our budget is salaries and benefits and the commissioners did approve the 3% COLA. That increased everything.”

Ravalli County’s total number of mills for the operating budget also increased f

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