Red Lodge Utility Bills Go Up Reflecting Shift of Garbage Fee From Property Tax Bill
By Denise Rivette
City Hall is reminding residents that they will see an rise in their utility billing to include garbage service starting with the August bill. This is the result of the garbage billing moving from the tax bill to the utility bill. This is not an additional charge.
Earlier this year, City Council passed an ordinance to change collections for garbage service from an annual collection seen on property taxes, to a monthly collection seen on the city utility bill.
A statement released by Mayor Dave Westwood explained, “This was done, in part, to address a finding made by the city's external auditing firm which identified the city was going $40,000 in arrears each year because of the manner that fees were being collected. Fees were accrued monthly by the city but collected annually (in arrears) from the residents. The issue was further complicated by a regularly occurring rate increase that corresponded with the fiscal year of the city rather than the billing cycle of property taxes. The annual billing seen by residents in the past included two different service rates - one rate for service received from January to June, and another rate for service received from July through December.”
Starting with the August utility bill, residents will see a new item line for garbage collection on their utility bill in the amount of $30.05, which is 1/12th of the 2024-25 garbage service rate of $360.60.
Residents are reminded they will still see a portion of the garbage service fee reflected one last time in November’s tax statement of $174.50 for services received from January through June of 2024. That amount represents 1/2 of the previous year’s annual service rate of $349.
If you have any questions, you can call City Hall at (406) 446-1606.