Great Falls encourages residents to try the cityâs budget simulator
Great Falls encourages residents to try the cityâs budget simulator
By: Colter Anstaett
and last updated 2021-06-23 20:24:07-04
GREAT FALLS â The City of Great Falls is encouraging residents to use the cityâs budget balance simulator to help the city put together the budget for the
The online program allows you to create a budget for the city. You start with the budget that has been proposed and can then add or subtract money from departments and programs to create your own budget.
When youâre done, you can submit it (anonymously) to the city, and commissioners will use it to help decide what, if any, changes to make to the proposed budget before voting on it.
Great Falls Police Chief Newton gives department update during Council of Councils meeting Nicole Girten, Great Falls Tribune
Newly instated Great Falls Police Chief Jeff Newton gave an update on crime statistics and answered questions during the Council of Councils meeting Tuesday night.
The Council of Councils typically convenes several times a year and invites representatives from all nine neighborhood councils to participate. This was their first meeting of 2021 as the meeting originally scheduled in January was cancelled due to COVID-19 precautions.
Newton gave an overview to the council on trends GFPD is seeing from the data collected in 2020. He gave the caveat that the pandemic complicated how some crimes are reported and therefore reflects some dips and spikes in the data. An example he gave was the apparent dip in reports of child sex offenses in 2020. Newton explained this was due to children not attending school in person, where teachers and coun