Great Falls Police Protective Association And City Reach Agreement
The City of Great Falls has reached a labor agreement with the Great Falls Police Protective Association (GFPPA). The cost to the city in the first year of the agreement is $430,000. For the second year, it’s $455,000. The total cost for the agreement is $885,000.
Gaye McInerney, the city’s Human Resources Director, said that as of July 1, 2026, GFPPA members will have received increased wages of 24% over four years.
Here’s where the money for the contract comes from. State law limits municipalities’ ability to increase taxes to one half of the inflation rate. In Great Falls that amounts to $448,882 in the current budget. This new contract uses that entire amount. For comparison purposes, funding taken from the library’s voter-supported levies was projected to be $471,413 for fiscal year 2026.
The Specifics of the Agreement
The new agreement sets wages for entry level police officers who are no longer in their probationary period at $74,559 (that is effective last July 1). In the second year of the contract, effective July 2026, wages will increase to $79,116. This applies to new/less senior police officers.
In addition to the entry level amounts above, current, more senior and higher ranking officers are also getting pay increases. The average for these officers is referred to as base wage. For a police officer in the first year of the agreement, base wage is $89,842. In the second year, base wage increases to $94,325. According to the city, the ‘base wage’ is the wage floor, to which additional time in service wages are added. Base wage would be higher for a captain versus a sergeant, etc.
In addition, the salaries for all officers will increase by a total of 6% – 2% for market adjustment, 3% for cost of living, and 1% for health insurance adjustment. Shift differentials are also increased. Officers working the afternoon shift will receive an additional 75 cents per hour, and those working late afternoons and nights will receive an additional $1.25 per hour.
Police officers will be paying more for health insurance. Officers will now be paying 20% of the insurance costs instead of the 15% in previous agreements. That increase is consistent with other city employees.
It is also worth mentioning here that most police officers are eligible for overtime pay in addition to regular pay.
How Does Great Falls Compare with Other Cities?
As stated previously, under the new agreement, Great Falls’ average base wage for a police officer in the first year of the agreement is $89,842, and, in the second year, it’s $94,325.
Butte: Average police officer salary is around $60,000 to $78,000 per year.
Kalispell: Police officers’ average salary ranges from approximately $61,654 to $72,328 per year.
Helena: The average police officer salary is around $55,943 to $69,326 per year.
Billings: The average annual salary for a police officer is approximately $68,000 to $70,000.
Bozeman: The average salary is approximately $63,422 per year (as of November 2024).
Missoula: Starting police officers are paid approximately $88,670 annually.
Cascade County Deputies: Salary ranges from $73,777 to $79,768.
Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) trooper: $74,598 after completion of probationary year.
Note: Comparing officer compensation from jurisdiction to jurisdiction is difficult, because there are many differences in health insurance, overtime, leave and other benefits. In addition, there is no information regarding where various jurisdictions are in their process of contract negotiation. Moreover, the Montana Department of Justice apparently does not keep, or make available, comprehensive officer compensation information. The figures above are provided by internet searches.
The Politics Of “Public Safety” in Great Falls
The failure of the public safety levy in November 2023 was a stinging rebuke for one faction of city government, particularly council members Rick Tryon, Joe McKenney and, more recently, Mayor Cory Reeves. In March 2023, the city commission unanimously (before Reeves was mayor) voted to send a public safety levy to the voters which requested approval of $10,717,305 to fund public safety. In addition, they authorized $150,000 to the Wendt Agency to conduct a “public education campaign.”
Repeated warnings from some in the community (significantly Jasmine Taylor who is currently running against Cory Reeves to be mayor) stated that the proposed levy was asking too much of the voters and recommended that the city break the levy into smaller component parts (police, fire and emergency services). At the time, the city asserted that a home valued at $200,000 would see a property tax increase of $280.11. Most people understood that owner-occupied homes valued at $200,000 or less did not represent voters in the election. Instead, the numbers presented were seen as cynical propaganda to promote the levy.
After the safety mill levy failed and another, much smaller, levy to support the library passed, Tryon, McKenney and Reeves, with the support of local opponents of the library, targeted the library and took voter-passed funds and gave them to public safety. For a complete explanation see our previous post. https://wtf406.com/2024/11/city-council-takes-money-from-library-after-the-public-voted-to-increase-funding/
But the sad truth is that,during this campaign season, neither Reeves nor McKenney has said much about alternatives to support public safety in Great Falls. Nor have they talked about ways to reduce the cost of public safety activity, such as using mental health workers to help reduce the cost of uniformed police officers, which mayoral candidate Jasmine Taylor has advocated for years. The city deserves better from its elected officials.
Thanks to the Electric for its coverage of this issue. It’s easy to overlook the service provided by The Great Falls Electric. Case in point is the recent coverage of the new contact for the Great Falls Police Protective Association. The information about the provisions of the new contact would not be easily available to the community with out the work of the Electric.
