Your monthly budget in Helena.

Helena had 33,639 residents, a median household income of $71,036 and a median gross rent of $1,092 a month, according to the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates. In Billings, Montana’s largest city, the same survey found a median rent of $1,138 and an income of $73,712. The median home in Helena was valued at $387,300, against $343,400 in Billings and $473,100 in Missoula.

So Helena’s rent is ordinary for Montana, and its homes cost more than the state’s biggest city. What sets it apart is the paycheck. About 60% of the local workforce is tied to state government, the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research reported in its 2022 outlook, which called Helena historically the most stable economy among Montana’s larger cities. St. Peter’s Health, Carroll College, Fort Harrison’s VA medical center and Helena College add health care and campus jobs, but the Capitol sets the tone.

This page is for the state employee whose raise is written into law every two years, the nurse at St. Peter’s, and the framer or roofer whose income stops when the snow starts. By the end you will know what the 2026 raise and tax brackets mean in a monthly plan, what a homeowner needs to apply for, and how to carry a seasonal income through winter.

A paycheck written in the Capitol

Montana’s Legislature meets in odd-numbered years and sets the state pay plan for two years at a time. HB 13, passed in 2025, gave most state and Montana University System employees the greater of $1 an hour or 2.5% on July 1, 2025, and the same again on July 1, 2026, Montana Free Press reported. A $24-an-hour worker reached $26. The next pay plan depends on the 2027 session, so there is no raise to count on until it passes. For households with two state jobs, both incomes change on the same day, and both stay flat if a session ends without a new plan.

What Montana takes in 2026

HB 337, signed in 2025, lowered the top income tax rate from 5.9% to 5.65% for 2026 and to 5.4% for 2027, and widened the lower bracket. In 2026, single filers pay 4.7% on the first $47,500 of taxable income, and joint filers on the first $95,000, Montana Free Press reported. Montana has no general sales tax.

The homestead rate

Property taxes rose sharply after the 2023 reappraisal, and the 2025 Legislature responded with HB 231 and SB 542. Starting in 2026, primary residences and long-term rentals get a lower homestead rate, while second homes and short-term rentals pay more. Owners have to apply with the Department of Revenue to receive it. Long-term rentals qualify for the lower rate too, which lawmakers intended to ease rents over time; whether a given landlord passes it on is another matter, so watch your next renewal.

Winter is a fixed cost

From November to March, Helena budgets carry heating bills several times larger than summer’s, winter tires and the occasional furnace repair. NorthWestern Energy offers level billing, or you can do it yourself by averaging the last 12 months.

Example one: a state analyst after the July raise

The figures in both examples are illustrative. Ben is an analyst at a state agency and earns $26 an hour after the July 2026 raise. After taxes, retirement and health contributions, he takes home $3,300 a month.

Fixed costs: rent for a two-bedroom on the west side $1,150, renters insurance $15, NorthWestern Energy averaged $190, phone and internet $120, truck payment and insurance $520, gas $90, groceries $380, student loan $200, winter tires set-aside $25. Total: $2,690. Weekend reserve: $200.

$3,300 minus $2,690 minus $200 leaves $410 of real free money.

The $1-an-hour raise added about $173 a month before taxes and roughly $120 to his take-home. He logged it in Monthly on the first July paycheck and pointed the whole amount at a Down payment goal, so his spending did not drift up with it.

Log your raise in Monthly the day it lands and send it to a goal before it disappears →

Example two: a nurse and a seasonal framer who own a home

Kelsey is a nurse at St. Peter’s and takes home $4,600 a month. Her husband, Matt, frames houses. From April to November he takes home about $3,800 a month; from December to March, about $1,500 from occasional indoor work.

Planned income, using Matt’s winter floor: $4,600 plus $1,500, or $6,100.

Fixed costs: mortgage with escrow and mortgage insurance on a house in the valley $2,800, utilities averaged $280, two vehicles with insurance $750, gas $180, phone and internet $150, childcare $900, groceries $650. Total: $5,710. Weekend reserve: $150.

$6,100 minus $5,710 minus $150 leaves $240.

That is the winter month, and it works. In building season, Matt’s extra $2,300 a month is logged as variable income: the first $3,000 goes to a Winter goal for repairs and slow weeks, then to a Home repair goal and the car loan. They also applied for the homestead rate in the first enrollment window, which lowered their escrow estimate for 2026.

Monthly for a Helena year

Monthly is a free, manual budgeting app for the web and Android. It does not connect to your bank, move money or give financial or tax advice. You enter wages, raises, seasonal pay, fixed costs and debts, and it shows your real free money. Goals under Patrimonio, such as a Winter fund or a down payment, keep a target, a date and logged contributions. The guide to setting a savings goal you actually hit and our roundup of apps for irregular or seasonal income go further, and our page on budgeting in Billings shows the state’s largest city.

Real free money and your next step

Helena’s state paychecks are steady, but raises come every two years, homes are pricier than in Billings, and winter has a cost of its own. Real free money is what your current take-home, or your winter floor, leaves after fixed costs and a weekend reserve. Raises and summer income go to goals the day they arrive.

Set up your Helena month in Monthly, plan on your winter floor and see your real free money →