Lewis and Clark County approves preliminary $130 million budget

Lewis and Clark County commissioners set a preliminary fiscal 2026 budget at about $130 million, giving Helena-area departments a working spending plan that will shape staffing, elections, courthouse services and other county operations before final adoption. The board approved the plan at a public meeting on June 26, 2025, then held a public hearing on the preliminary budget July 15, 2025.

The budget is the county’s first major pass at dividing up taxpayer dollars for the next fiscal year, and it comes with immediate local consequences even before the final vote. Lewis and Clark County’s Administration and Finance Department handles finance and budget, personnel, payroll, mail services and property management, putting that office at the center of the annual decision-making. The Elections Department also sits inside the county’s financial footprint, with responsibility for federal, state, county and special purpose district elections.

Commission minutes from June 12, 2025 show staff had already been reviewing “new and significant requests” before the preliminary plan moved forward. That language points to the pressure points commissioners were weighing as they balanced departmental needs against projected revenue, with the budget likely to affect public safety, detention operations, road work, planning and courthouse functions that residents see directly.

The county’s budget calendar has followed a similar summer pattern in recent years. Commissioners considered the preliminary FY 2025 budget in July 2024, with a resolution to adopt set for July 18, 2024. In 2021, a scheduled May 27 budget hearing was canceled, a reminder that the process can shift when the board changes course.

The preliminary budget is not the final number, but it is the clearest early signal of where county leaders are putting priorities. Separate from the main budget vote, commissioners also approved updates to the county’s Administrative Fee Schedule on Sept. 30, 2025, showing that cost recovery and user fees remain part of the county’s financial picture as officials work through the year’s spending choices.