My name is Max R. Lenington and I am the elected County Treasurer of Yellowstone County, Montana. Yellowstone County is in South Central Montana and Billings is the County seat. We are Montana's largest county with a total population of about 125,000. I supervise a staff of (24) and a portion of my duties are the licensing of motor vehicles. A typical day for me begins with making sure all taxpayer assistance positions are "manned" and working smoothly.
Montana has no sales tax, so we rely heavily on property taxes. Therefore, we have two full time cashiers receipting property tax payments for either real estate or personal property. Since the
County Treasurer is also the County money "broker" we also receive many deposits from other county agencies, as well as all rural school districts. County government and all schools are funded primarily by the property tax. Approximately 65 cents of every property tax dollar goes to education. In a typical day, I would receive (30) phone calls relative to property tax questions or a request for explanation of sorts.
I also receive a good deal of mail requesting property tax assistance, a description of property owned by an individual and explanations of how property tax liens affix and the date of our next tax title sale.
Montana has 56 counties and each county treasurer licenses and titles vehicles for their citizens. I supervise (17) motor vehicle employees who register and title motor vehicles, issue temporary use stickers, and gross vehicle weight receipts. We issued 234,000 motor vehicle registrations in 2002. A good many registrations for only 125,000 residents!
In Montana, County Treasurers are elected at-large every (4) years.
