The Montgomery County Commission approved the proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year during a public hearing Jan. 29 at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

The Montgomery County Clerk’s office announced that the budget includes anticipated revenues of $10,551,943.19 and anticipated disbursements of $10,880,549.36. The estimated General Revenue Fund balance at the conclusion of the 2026 fiscal year is $31,159.58.

The budget was approved by a 3-0 vote by the commission. 

“Even though the balance said that we’ve got $31,159.58 to the good, that is with crossed fingers and hope that revenues come in as what we hope to see,” First District Commissioner Dave Teeter said. “We did not have sales tax come in as good in the 2025 year as we anticipated, so we had to dip into the reserve fund in order to make that difference up. Again this year, we were having to dip into it because of a variety of factors. But we do anticipate with crossed fingers that maybe with some of the construction that will go on here in the county and some things going on that sales tax revenue will increase. That is the hope.”

Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston said when he worked on the budget, he tried to make everything as straightforward as possible.

“It was quite different doing the budget,” he said. “I don’t know if it was simpler. I would say it was a struggle.”
Teeter said Poston’s work on the budget made things easy for the county clerk staff.

“It saved a little bit of time for Carole (Weeks), Kim (Boone) and the office staff with Ryan putting it in,” Teeter said. “In the past, we would do it on paper and then they would have to key everything in even though (Weeks) had to make some corrections.”

The county’s General Revenue Fund closed out the 2025 fiscal year with a fund balance of $359,765.75. The total revenues for 2025 were $5,816,572.64, while total disbursements amounted to $6,127,958.36.

“The county budget is so dependent on sales tax,” Teeter said. “It’s a majority of our revenue.”

Teeter said he is concerned about some products and services getting more expensive.

“Fixed costs continue to rise,” he said. “Our insurance went up noticeably again this year. The cost of equipment continues to rise as well as utilities and a variety of things. People say, ‘Dave you have to tighten your budget.’ Some things are beyond what you can tighten your budget with. When you have a majority of the budget with people and benefits, you don’t want to diminish services and that’s what we try to avoid.”

Teeter said during the hearing that he recently went to a state commission meeting and learned that some counties in Missouri are struggling. The commissioner added a contraction of the number of counties in the state of Missouri could happen if nothing improves.

“There was talk about the contraction of counties here a few years ago and it didn’t go very far,” Teeter said. “But I think it’s getting more serious about certain counties that can’t get a use tax passed and more and more people are buying more off the internet and not as much locally.”

Teeter said it is important for Montgomery County residents to spend more locally in 2026.

“If not, the use tax will recover some of it,” Teeter said. “I think when we encourage people if they are going to maybe utilize other things, there are ways that the use tax can still kick in. If you want to make an order for Wal-Mart, you can order it online and have them bring it out to your vehicle. The county does collect sales tax off of it.”

The county sales tax for 2025 was $3,251,130.49, which was down $145,567.79 from the previous year. The sales tax increased five years in a row before 2025. The projected sales tax for 2026 is $3,6367,310.

Also, the county’s use tax from 2025 was $754,209.29, an increase of $29,504.60 from last year. The projected use tax is $800,000.

The total assessed valuation of real estate, personal property and railroad and utilities for the proposed 2026 budget is $316,500,000. The assessed valuation for real estate is $188,000,000, personal property is $72,500,000 and railroad and utilities is $56,000,000.

Also, the Montgomery County Health Department Fund has projected revenues of $1,579,886.41 compared to $1,544,509.05 for 2026. Its estimated ending balance at the end of the year is $2,205,619.84.

In 2025, the Road and Bridge Fund had revenues of $2,319,038.80 and expenses of $2,902,942.49. Its ending balance was $1,751711.07. For 2026, the fund anticipates revenues of $2,027,790.50 and expenses of $2,621,685. 

Teeter said the new budget includes a 3 percent salary increase for employees for this year. Judges have mandated a larger increase in the sheriff and jail budgets for payroll. The sheriff department has a $93,600 annual salary budgeted and a budgeted amount of $1,180,300 for staff. The jail department has a staff salary budget of $1,200,300.

The county budget includes a budgeted salary amount of $47,250 for the treasurer, collector and recorder, $166,155 for the prosecuting attorney and $53,225 for the planning and zoning administrator.