Resort Tax in Polson?
courtesy photo
Heather Knutson
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
I know many people have heard that the City of Polson has started looking into the possibility of a Resort Tax in our community. Understandably this is a very dynamic topic, and before everyone begins to get nervous and apprehensive about it, I want to make sure I point out that right now, we are just starting to research this program and how it may or may not benefit our community.
As your elected officials, we have a responsibility to address the needs of our citizens. One of the most talked about issues I found when campaigning was the poor quality and disrepair of our city streets. The Streets Department has averaged a budget of about $180,000 each year over the last four years. This is used for operations, maintenance and equipment paid from the General Fund, which represents about 8 percent of the General Fund budget. For a taxpayer with a $100,000 residence, this would allocate about $26 in taxes paid each year to the Streets Department. In addition, the City receives a State Gas Tax Apportionment of approximately $99,000 each year. These budget amounts are used for employee costs, and for repairing, maintaining and plowing all of the roughly 50 miles of streets within the City of Polson. To put that budget into perspective, an average pothole costs $200 to “bandage.” One mile of chip-sealing to maintain city streets costs approximately $80,000. And to fully rebuild a street, for one city block we are facing costs in the range of about $200,000 per block. You can see that the budget gets diminished quite rapidly, which puts us in the predicament of having challenging streets to drive on.
Another large expense that the City of Polson is starting to face is the new waste water treatment facility. As you have noticed, the most recent rate increase for City utilities has been activated. We will need to implement additional rate increases in the next several years in order to complete this necessary project.
As we, your elected officials, work to address and fulfill the needs of our citizens, one of the major factors we consider is the financial burden that is placed on our community. The question we need to ask ourselves is, are there any ways we can help to mitigate that financial weight for our citizens?
The Resort Tax is one possible tool that is available to our city to do just that. A city must have less than 5,500 citizens in order to qualify for this option. Polson currently has a population of 4,800 and is expected to be in a growing phase in the next several years. If we are going to even consider this possibility, the time to do so is now.
Utilizing a Resort Tax would offer a way to offset some of the direct financial burdens to the citizens for completing projects such as improved City streets and the building of a new waste water treatment facility.
With that said, there is not a decision on whether or not this concept is going to move forward. There is a lot of work to do before a decision would be made. And even then, if the City Commission elects to recommend adding this to the ballot in November, the final decision is up to the citizens of Polson.
At this point, we are in the process of putting together a representative committee that will do a full review of this tool, evaluate the structure of the program, weigh the pros and cons, gather community input, and ultimately make a recommendation to the City Commission on whether this concept should be pursued and included on the upcoming ballot, to be voted on by the citizens of Polson. If anyone is interested in being part of this committee, please submit your application to the City by April 15. The application can be found online (www.cityofpolson.com) or stop by City Hall to pick up a hard copy.
We will look forward to sharing information with you as this process continues and hope that you will provide input. There are many cities in Montana that have gone through this same process and those that implemented the Resort Tax have seen great value added in their communities. Not all cities are alike, so we may find this is not the right fit for ours. All we ask at this point is that you keep an open mind and that we can have positive, helpful dialogue as we move through the process.
